True Fire Paint

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Okay. Here are a few samples of True Fire effects that I have done. To me the key to getting true fire is to build up layers from loose to tight and from dark colors to light colors. This give your fire flame the same type of depth that a real fire blase or fire lick would have. You can create any pattern that you would like. You can create a slow burning flame which is usually less flames, airy, shorter and curvier or you can build a fast burning flaming which has more flames, layered more heavily, longer and straighter. The key to getting a realistic flame is not to rely on the template to much. Simly use it to help create definition to your flame but do not over do it.

You also have control over what color you want your flame. You can make it more orange if you would like... More red... or more yellow. It's all up to you and your preference.

When laying down a "True Fire" paint effect the best results are built on top of a black base. You can build flames on top of any color your'd like but the best results come from a black base. I have done several black but as you can see this thread is building the flame on top of purple.

I first start with the Molly Orange. Using a loose "FREEHAND" kind of flame pattern. I might use this layer to freehand draw the shape and direction I kind of want my fire pattern to have.

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Just a break to tell another story about what we as Hardcore Hobbyist think is cool and what the wider general audience of R/Cers like. I was talking to the editors of AirAge and we started talking about Cover Stories. We talked about a few potential stories and one of his questions was... Was the boat painted. In this case I said yes... and he was cool with that. He went on to say that they often get guys who want to show off their precision wood lay-up or cool carbon fiber tub. He said from a technical aspect it is cool. But it's the colorful paint jobs that sell the magazines. Just a thought I would share.

Back to the paint job.

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Candy Red

After the Molly orange I spray Candy Apply Red over it.

Molly Orange

And then I begin to lay down what we will call "fire licks" on top of what we just sprayed down. I use the edge the template to define my fire licks filling them in between as I desire to link one fire lick to the next

Candy Red

Once I lay down a few more licks of Molly orange I Spread Candy over the top again. This is the layering of the fire that I talked about.

Molly Orange

Now we are ready to lay down some more Molly Orange. Using a variety of edges (no particular pattern be as random as possible) You may want to criss-cross you flame patter that you started to give your fire that you layed down earlier some space to show threw. What you don't want to do is lay the yellow right back on top of the previous flames trying to match the same shapes you already layed down. No! Here you want to create depth by letting the work that you layed down previously show through the work of yellow you are laying down now.

Here is an example of how I used the template to create these True Fire flames on an older Eagle SGX that I had as a back up boat. I would use my airbrush to spray a against the edge of the template to create a hard edge on one side and and soft edge on the other side. The coreect compilation of these spray techniques and color builds your "True Fire" flame.

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Candy Tangerine

Once you lay down a few licks of more Molly Orange you spray over all of the artwork with Candy Tangerine. You will see here that they candy tangerine really starts to bring the flame to life.

Footnote: Be sure to wipe down your artwork between coats to remove all the loose over spray on your spray surface. This will help you maintain a nice flat flawless surface throughout the project. Also since I didn't mention it before make sure you have a smooth clean surfact to begin painting on.

Yellow

Continue to alternate your templates to create your fire flames using Chrome Yellow

Pagan Gold

Once you have layed down Chrome Yellow spray over your entire artwork with Pagan Gold.

White

Now... My education is in graphic design and in the study of design there is the study of illustration or drawing or painting. In any of these disciplines you learn the dynamics of what makes and piece of art pop. Among things like composition, balance, positive/negative space, and eye flow, you also have shadows, mid-tones and highlights. It's the combination of these three that contribute to make just about anything artwork pop. So in this case we have already covered the shadow. That would serve as the purple (the darkest color of the paint scheme. We also have the midtones (Orange and Red) in the flame. So now it's time to add the highlight. that's what really gives the fire it's shimmer.

So in this case we are going to take some white and a tad bit of yellow and mix the two in a mixing cup. The yellow will tone the white down a little so it's not to over bearing. We will spray the white/yellow mixture (in this case) on key areas on top of the yellow flame. This is to resemble where the flame is hotter in a certain area on the flame.

We want to do this sparingly. Less is more. Remember we still want the work we did to show up from underneath.

You can see me in this photo using the template once more as I would to add the white highlights.

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Here is another photo showing how I use even a differnent shape on the template to build my fire.

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Here it is.

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

In this particular project we already have the color purple as our base but in the case where you would use Black as the base you would have an opportunity to sneak yet another little effect to make your True Fire flame stand out just a little more. What I like to do is spray a halo of Passion Purple around the fire in the black areas. This helps create the glow of the True Fire Effect.

So this was just a quick snapshot of painting true fire. In the future I will provide a more indepth step by step post or video. I hope you were able to get enough idea to start messing around with it yourself.

Below is a few photos of the boat before clear

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Here is the boat after it has been cleared.

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

And one more true fire scheme of mine.

 

[LarryConrad]

And one more true fire scheme of mine.

I like the Blonde in the Red bikini scheme.

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

And one more true fire scheme of mine.

I like the Blonde in the Red bikini scheme.

It's good to have friends in barely clothed places.

 

[Wesleys Custom RC]

And one more true fire scheme of mine.

I like the Blonde in the Red bikini scheme.

It's good to have friends in barely clothed places.

Thanks for the "how to". I've been at this for 18 years and even I learned a few things, thanks

Wes

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Thanks Wes.

 

[brad nichols]

I can only imagine how much time and patience you put into these paint schemes. They look FANTASTIC!!!!! Thanks for showing us some of the equipment needed. Most of us can only dream of having a piece of art like that.

Brad

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Thanks Brad. Appreciate the compliment.