scales what i learned and what i did... kind of a tutorial...

so i had this bl blank laying around and decided to finally put paint to it... i wanted to mess around with scales and found something in my room that would do the job... so i grabbed the plug, the material for the scales, my airbrush and paint... i also decided to do a step by step of my process so i can learn from what i do wrong... let's see what i can come up with... (excuse the bad pics i can't take a pic worth a crap)... oh it's my kinda take on a perch....

first off... the base colors for the lines of the scales later on... i used mainly pearlized paints here faded from black to white... i did a better job than i expected to do and besides most of it will be hidden by the scales and other details later on...



so next came the scales for the main body color... it's was supposed to be a goldeny green color.... not exactly the color i wanted but i like it... i found that being able to keep the material tight to the body helped with keeping the scales from running into each other.... i made sure the base color was dry before applying the scale material...



well there's no pic for the next step since i kinda erased it.... i clearcoated the first scales than added the stripes like you would see on a perch... took about an hour or so for the clear to dry so i went about doing other things like mixing paints for the scales that will go over the stripes... in this pic you can kinda see the scales on the stripes..... i wanted the scales to be a darker green and when i painted them they did look darker but didn't come out that way... so i sprayed the scales and the top of the plug with the "darker green"...



i messed up a bit on the scales for the stripes and ended up using a fine detail brush to fix the mistakes... here's where i was getting ready to finish the plug with some minor details... i touched up the plug with some pearl white and the darker green color to bring out some details like the gills and underbelly...



another layer of clearcoat and i was ready for the final step the orange fins..... i had the color in mind of what i wanted and kinda messed it up.. i left it alone insted of trying it again... although in the future i'll know to darken my colors a bit more than i did... when you mix them on a pallete they look slightly different than when you spray them.... so here's the final result... all in all i'm happy with the finished plug and i'm looking forward to doing something similar soon...

wow tom looks sweeeet...great job man....
looks like ed created a monster now.....watch out ...THERES A NEW BUILDER IN TOWN.....
now you need to start turnin your own....MACK PLUGS....can see it now...IN A STORE NEAR YOU.....

Looks good, nice job !!!

Thats a really nice looking paint job Mac.. Great Job

So let me get this right... you hand painted the black?? Either way you did it.... nice paint

holy mackeral!!!!! nice paint job.
Where's the eyes? Did you put it on last after clear coat?

jett...... i do'nt have eyes small enough..... so for now it's eyeless..... it needs to be epoxied eventually hopefully by than i'll find eyes small enough...

Minivin5 wrote:So let me get this right... you hand painted the black?? Either way you did it.... nice paint

no i did the black with an airbrush... i just had to touch it up a little with a detail brush...

yeah the pics dont give the paint what it deserves. and i think the fins came out fine no matter what he says.

Did your homework, and applied it very very well, xcelant paint scheme!




Bluesfish

Came out great. From A to Z.
Another addict!!!!!

thanks guys...... everyone on this site has been really nice to me.... i've learned a lot from this site, with just the first few plugs i've painted... i appreciate everything you all have done for me... thank you...

Looks great!

Life is all about learning from your mistakes.


Thanks for taking the time to explain the whole process. Can't wait to see your next project!