Engine help needed

[Sixx]

I am working on a 392 Hemi engine and I want to heat stain the headers in a realistic way, I've seen it done before, both very well and very poorly.

Does anyone have advice or tutorial on doing this? I did use the search function and could not find anything.

[freakray]

Best I could find on AF (as you noted, search isn't much good today)

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...ght=heat+stain

From Tamiya:
http://www.tamiya.com/english/howto/bike1/tip1.htm

[Sixx]

Thanks alot Freakray, I appreciate your help! I know i've said it a million times, but I'm becoming a better builder because of all the experts here in AF!
thanks a million

[MPWR]

Here's an explanation of how I like to heat stain my exhausts, and some pics of how they look when they're done.











I expect this technique would work on something other than a Ferrari engine (maybe even a Hemi? ), but I can't say for sure. Hope it helps....

[Sixx]

PHENOMANAL engine work MPWR~

And a great tutorial on how to really make an engine come to life and look very realisitic~ I am going to try to replicate it for my builds. This is by far one of the best looking heat stains i've seen. Thanks for the continued support and expert advice!

[Sixx]

MPWR
Great tutorials!

When you use the Tamiya colored clears (Blue, Red, Orange & smoke) Do you thin them with Tamiya acyrlic thinner? if so, to what ratio?

If I wanted to leave the kit chrome, can this same technique be used directly over the chromed areas?

I recently purchased some Tamiya blue, orange and red transparent spray from their cans. Before I got your advice, I was planning to use them to try to replicate this effect.

Now that they are on the way, my question is can these be used in a similar technique? Or what capacity are they generally sold for?

Thanks for all the great advice

[freakray]

You can thin the Tamiya colored clears just like you would their typical acrylic paints. As always said, there is no specific thinning ratio for paint, you have to adjust how much you thin the paint based on the consistency of the paint prior to starting the thinning procedure - aim for a consistency in line with milk.

As for the sprays, you could use them instead, just decant the spray paint for use in your airbrush.

You can leave the kit chrome in place and heat stain over it, I have done so myself in the past. The real issue is that unless you're actually trying to replicate a chrome plated exhaust, kit chrome doesn't look very realistic.

[MPWR]

Pretty much what Ray sed.

I use Tamiya acrylic thinner when spraying their acrylics. And I don't mix to a ratio- I mix to a useful consistency, test spray, and go. I mix very small amounts of paint when I'm doing this- literally a drop of this, a couple drops of that, and a few drops of thinner as necessary. I test spray on an index card until I'm happy with the color and consistency. Often the amount of one color I mix is on the order of 1/4 of a teaspoon or less, including thinner. (An eyedropper is terrific for adding in the thinner precisely.)

You can do it over kit chrome, but as Ray pointed out it will look like a chromed exhaust. (Often show engines with chromed exhausts aren't run very hard to avoid heat staining.) But the real reason I don't spray heat staining over kit chrome is mold lines. It's practically impossible to remove the mold lines and leave the chrome in usable condition. So if I want a chromed look, I strip the kit chrome, clean up the mold lines, spray on Alclad chrome and then do the heat stain acrylics.

Rattlecan clear colors could be used, but a spraycan won't give you anything near the control that an airbrush will. You could do one even color, but you can't pick out individual bends and show differential coloration. If you're doing it out of cans, I strongly recommend the hot water trick for warming the paint first. Try a light coat of clear orange, and then a light coat of smoke. I use red and blue as detail colors, and it really takes and airbrush to apply them in specific places. A dual action airbrush with a paint cup (not bottle siphon!), preferably gravity feed, is the best tool for this kind of work.

And the other concern about Tamiya TS clear colors is that they are every bit as hot as TS13. I don't know if they'd eat kit chrome, so handle with care!

[Sixx]

I agree with that. Kit chrome is way to bright, I'll strip it down first! Thanks Ray

[Sixx]

The Alclad is a great suggestion for realism. I'm working this weekend on getting my work area more organized and effcient.
I think I'm going to do a test run on both, the acrylic clears and the sprayed version (decanted and sprayed through the airbrush). I'll test them on spare parts that I don't need.
when I get them done, I will post some pictures to see how they both faired!

[wadny]

Since nobody mentioned it, I will - Alclad makes transparent colors in their line of paint. They should be compatible with the Alclad metallic paints.

Larry

[MPWR]

Incidentally, sprue is terrific for practicing on. Hold it over a match/lighter to soften it and bend it into a suitably convoluted shape, and practice color differentiation on the bends. Sharper bends are (usually) hotter, and more discolored- so give them a bit more blue/purple color, and do the rest in red/brown/orangeish.