BLOG OF AN ESCAMOTEUR

Last week I faced the challenge to create a scissor that looks like designed by Ferrari. So I got a real nice designer scissor and decided to paint parts of it in Ferrari red.

I never used an airbrush set before and so I was surprised to hear that I don’t need an expensive compressor and airbrush if I only want to create a plane colored surface.  There are starter kits, mine is from Revell, where you get a simple airbrush, a can of compressed gas and some colors to start right of.

Even if you can control much better which areas are hit by the paint spray compared with an aerosol can it is recommend to cover your working area well. (I thought I did but I still find places covered with a fine paint mist)

Here is how it looked during the painting:

I covered all the parts that shouldn’t become red with scotch tape. After several approaches and some learning the result is this here:

If you want to give it a try here some hints:

• Take your time, don’t try to apply too much paint in one coating. Prefer to make more really thin coatings. Impatience led to several new trials with removing the paint again.
• Experiment with the thinning of the paint. In the beginning I used too thin paint which tended to run down a the sides leaving ugly marks
• If you tape parts that should not be painted be very careful when removing the tape. Otherwise it’s likely that parts of your desired coating will be torn away. Best to remove it while the paint is still wet. Or even better not to tape but just to shield parts with a piece of paper while painting.

Overall even if it takes more than one try airbrushing is really fun. Give it a try when you work on your next prop. The quality of the surface is worth the effort.

At last a short look at the whole prop set that I use now during my cut and restored rope presentation:

Related posts:

1. Casting a ritual dagger
2. Preparing Ropes