Painting question (flames)

[Ed G.]

All right. I'm trying to paint flames on a pedal, I found a nice flames paint mask and I printed it out on mylar transparency film, trimmed it out with x-acto, and sprayed on a nice transparent candy apple red over the polished and clear-laquered aluminum box (should look good!)
But every time, paint bleeds out from under the mask, ruining the effect.
Is there some adhesive 8 1/2 X 11" sheets out there I can use for this? What do you guys use???

[petemoore]

Experiment on garbage likewise first.
 This stuff for masking where you DONT need to paint later is just great...other oils werk but grease or Vaseline can stay where its applied..you might want to make a neg of whatever shape, apply the vaseline, take the neg off , then paint [spray] over the prepared surface and the vaseline...let it dry, then just wipe the vaseline off with the paint..you shouldn't have to worry about bleed under, but the transition [of depth] between the painted and unpainted surfaces can be tricky to get just right.
 Try it on some garbage first...you might really like the idea...this is REAL easy for getting the 90* trim cutoffs [like the edge of a corner] by just wiping it on with your finger or whatever, using the angle of application to cut the clean line.
  Paint may stick to this but it WONT stick to any surface, and if you're careful can probably get clean cuts wherever you want them.
 I ve tried it a few times and it seems to werk for me..but is somewhat dependant on paint types and technique

[marc]

i'm not exactly sure, it seems to me you are cutting out a stencil to get your flames onto the box. if so- a good way to prevent bleeding with stencils is to spray or brush a thin coat of the undercoat first over your stencil, let it dry in place, then spray your final colour. the first coat seals in the outline from the edges- there will be no bleed through.
marc.

[Gary]

Ed,

Try some photo mount.  I think it's made by 3M.  Spray a light coat on the back of your stencil, stick it to the box and spray your paint.  Gently peel off the stencil when you are done painting.

Be careful to only apply very light coats of your red.  If you go to heavy, the paint will wick underneath the stencil.  Do light "dusting" coats.  You'll have to make several passes.

Hope this helps.

[Ed G.]

i'm not exactly sure, it seems to me you are cutting out a stencil to get your flames onto the box. if so- a good way to prevent bleeding with stencils is to spray or brush a thin coat of the undercoat first over your stencil, let it dry in place, then spray your final colour. the first coat seals in the outline from the edges- there will be no bleed through.
marc.

I think this is my solution. Thanks for all your replies, I'm going to try this, along with a few light passes of the paint.
BTW, if you are looking for cool paints for pedals, go to the model car section of your Wal-Mart or what have you, and pick up one of those little Testors spray cans of paint. They come in really pretty colors. I tried out the transparent candy apple red, and it is gorgeous on polished aluminum.

[afranks]

For stenciling walls and stuff like that, folks use a repositionable
adhesive on the backside of the stencil.  It's a low tack adhesive
that is slightly more sticky than the back of a post-it note.  3M
makes it.  Then spray light coats, as was mentioned before.

Either that, or give up on the stencil and freehand it with auto
pinstripe tape and mask off the rest.