Looking for tips on pearlescent paint

Hi everybody,

This is my first post on this forum so a small intro is in order: my name is Patrick, i've been modelling for more than 25 years and touched almost every subject available, building, painting, converting and sculpting anything from military warbirds to gunpla to wargaming figurines, all in various scales. Right now my main interests are 1/32 warbirds, Maschinen Krieger models and large scale repaints (Sideshow collectibles, Jakks Pacific toys and such).

But today, i have to do a repair job for a client on this Zelda Skyward Sword statue of Link on his Loftwing bird:



The statue took a tumble and one of the wings got smashed in pieces. Now, the glueing/puttying/resculpting part is easy. The thing that worries me most is the repaint job.

As you might see on this closeup shot of the Loftwing's neck and breast, the white areas actually have a pearlescent sheen:



Now, I've tried Tamiya TS45 Pearl White spray paint once in the past, and although quite pleasing on its own, the effect isn't really like the statue.

Do you have any advice or tips for a particular brand of high quality pearlescent paint (can be in a jar or in a spraycan that i'd decant in another container before airbrushing).

Thanks advance!!

Patrick

You can go with alclad holomatic spectral chrome

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Good call on the Alclad, Patbaysa, but i think the effect will be too "rainbowy" there. The look of the statue is more of a... natural pearl i guess?

Im doing a tie fighter this week and i figure that a white/bone background will pearl up a misty alclad specially when it is sealed with future or any other acrylic top coat.

If you find a better solution please do hook me up

Daler rowney FW pearlescent ink is really subtle and durable,you can get both transparent and opake,..you might want to give that a try.

I recommend PearlEx powder pigments. They're very versatile and can be used in a myriad of ways. You can apply them externally or mix them with paint or clays.

http://www.dickblick.com/products/jacquard-pearl-ex-pigment-sets/

Thanks a lot for these other options!

I was at my LHS yesterday so i picked up a Tamiya TS65 Clear Pearl, might as well give it a shot since i may have another use for it already.

Cheers!

I second the PearlEx pigments. They also make the interference paints that were used on the Enterprise A.

you can decant the pearl paint into a bottle then thin it way back so that its almost colorless... use it kind of as a wash??? just thinking about how I'd try to do it.

Jedi Dade

Liquitex makes both a series of pearlescent acrylic paints in small bottles, and just the pearlescent additive that you can mix with a compatible paint of your choice. Alas, the metallic flakes are fairly large, so it does not work well in the small scales, e.g. 1/1000, but otherwise can provide the effect of interest. I have done experiments where I mixed the pearlescent additive to what is now called SC Johnson Floor Care Multi-Surface Finish and applied it to the model where the base coat/s have been applied & cured. Liquitex paints are sold in the large craft stores, A.C. Moore & Michaels, and potentially more accessible than hobby shops, which alas, appear to be going the way of the dodo.