Best Golden Finishing.. Advice?

NSStudios

Well-Known Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Hey guys! I have never attempted any gold finishing (unless you could my hot glue/hobby lobby ark of the covenant from when I was 10) and I had a few questions. I’m working on a huge project involving a nice gold finish and I’m a bit lost in a sea of available info. The base pieces will be impact resistant resin.

My initial plan was to gold leaf, but since the props have multiple parts touching/rubbing I decided that may not be the best idea.

Then I thought about emptying an 18k gold leafing pen and airbrushing it onto the piece, similar to how some do Molotow chrome pens.

I’m not exactly looking for a mirror chrome gold look, as that would look too pristine, if that makes sense. Too “fake” I guess? The gold look I’ll be shooting for is precisely like what’s shown in the photo attached to this post. According to the user who made it “This is 2K clear tinted with So Strong pigments.“, but I can’t seem to find any other info on that method.

If anyone has tips or additional info I’d be glad to know! Thanks a ton guys :)
 

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I went to a Comic Con last year and saw a booth that was selling some 3D printed objects, but what really grabbed my attention, was that they had an absolutely realistic gold paint on some of their objects. Bright, shiny, great reflectivity, and the correct colour. I asked the vendor what paint they used, but she was vague about it and just said that her husband painted them with paint you can get at the hardware store.

I would search YouTube on gold spray paint and see if you can find craft videos where people paint different things with different kinds of gold paint and perhaps you will find a shade, brightness that meets your needs. Rustoleum makes several new metallic spray paints, and there are others, such as Montana Gold that make some excellent paints.

TazMan2000
 
Your base coat is probably the most important part of the process to bring out the shine. Curing time as well as you’ll need to buff it before you lay your top coat of gold. Plenty of YouTube videos out there. Airbrush if you can.
 
That pic looks familiar. ;)

I spent a lot of time last year playing with various techniques for gold finishes. I’ll detail a few here, hope they help.

I will say to start, that exact finish I got on the Pred is likely not on the table for most home makers. It is a very long and expensive process. 2K refers to a catalyzed clear coat sprayed out of a HVLP Detail gun. I use Matrix clear coats.. specifically the Speed Clear.. I believe MS-42, don’t quote me on that. Very nasty stuff. The helmet was primed, painted black, and glossed with the 2K clear. This is the “base coat.” Over top of that, a silver nitrate finish was applied for a mirror chrome finish. A new batch of 2K clear was tinted to make a “candy” coat, and sprayed over the chrome for the final gold look.

If you want a look very similar to the bio helmet without the health hazards and huge material cost, you could use Alclad chrome and top coat with Alclad Candy Yellow, or tinted Alclad Klear Kote. The surface of your piece needs to be perfect. If it isn’t a glass smooth gloss black you will get a cloudy chrome, and that will make a very dull gold.

As far as the easiest way to get a nice gold finish, especially for a home maker? Molotow top coated with Alclad Candy Yellow or tinted KK.. Molotow is a lot more forgiving in its application, and the surface doesn’t have to be “perfect” like it does with Alclad. The folks over in the Molotow thread have done a great job documenting their work and tests on the subject.

The benefit of doing a chrome base and top coating with a Candy as opposed to just using a gold paint is you can control the exact finish you get. Here are two Pred helmets I painted.. one with a lighter gold, the other with a much more rich gold. Finally, an Iron Man helmet where I did a little of both.

Hope that helps,
J
 

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I went to a Comic Con last year and saw a booth that was selling some 3D printed objects, but what really grabbed my attention, was that they had an absolutely realistic gold paint on some of their objects. Bright, shiny, great reflectivity, and the correct colour. I asked the vendor what paint they used, but she was vague about it and just said that her husband painted them with paint you can get at the hardware store.

I would search YouTube on gold spray paint and see if you can find craft videos where people paint different things with different kinds of gold paint and perhaps you will find a shade, brightness that meets your needs. Rustoleum makes several new metallic spray paints, and there are others, such as Montana Gold that make some excellent paints.

TazMan2000

Thank you!! I'll definitely look into that. I saw some nice gold enamel paints that I considered as well.

Check out the Molotow Chrome thread here on the RPF for ideas and suggestions on this. Best single source of info.

Thats actually where I received the photo above of that gold predator helmet! It really is a great source of info, I agree. Hopefully Jackson will chime in with some info there for his gold! I find some of the other ones from that show up not "rich enough" that's kind of what I mean in the original post when I say too "fake" or "mirror chrome-y"

Your base coat is probably the most important part of the process to bring out the shine. Curing time as well as you’ll need to buff it before you lay your top coat of gold. Plenty of YouTube videos out there. Airbrush if you can.

I'll do some searching on youtube, thanks!
 
That pic looks familiar. ;)

I spent a lot of time last year playing with various techniques for gold finishes. I’ll detail a few here, hope they help.

I will say to start, that exact finish I got on the Pred is likely not on the table for most home makers. It is a very long and expensive process. 2K refers to a catalyzed clear coat sprayed out of a HVLP Detail gun. I use Matrix clear coats.. specifically the Speed Clear.. I believe MS-42, don’t quote me on that. Very nasty stuff. The helmet was primed, painted black, and glossed with the 2K clear. This is the “base coat.” Over top of that, a silver nitrate finish was applied for a mirror chrome finish. A new batch of 2K clear was tinted to make a “candy” coat, and sprayed over the chrome for the final gold look.

If you want a look very similar to the bio helmet without the health hazards and huge material cost, you could use Alclad chrome and top coat with Alclad Candy Yellow, or tinted Alclad Klear Kote. The surface of your piece needs to be perfect. If it isn’t a glass smooth gloss black you will get a cloudy chrome, and that will make a very dull gold.

As far as the easiest way to get a nice gold finish, especially for a home maker? Molotow top coated with Alclad Candy Yellow or tinted KK.. Molotow is a lot more forgiving in its application, and the surface doesn’t have to be “perfect” like it does with Alclad. The folks over in the Molotow thread have done a great job documenting their work and tests on the subject.

The benefit of doing a chrome base and top coating with a Candy as opposed to just using a gold paint is you can control the exact finish you get. Here are two Pred helmets I painted.. one with a lighter gold, the other with a much more rich gold. Finally, an Iron Man helmet where I did a little of both.

Hope that helps,

J

Ayye! I was hoping you'd chime in here lol. Yes I'm sure the pic looks very familiar. I just absolutely love the gold in it, stunning! I'm going to give that thread a dedicated read, maybe even resurrect it haha. The post definitely helps, and awesome work!! The rich gold look is precisely what I'm going for. So for that one you used the 2k, and for the lighter gold color chrome base and top coating with a Candy?

Thanks a ton!!
 
To touch on that Molotow Silver, apparently you can clear it with Liquitex high gloss varnish with great results!
 
Thank you!! I'll definitely look into that. I saw some nice gold enamel paints that I considered as well.



Thats actually where I received the photo above of that gold predator helmet! It really is a great source of info, I agree. Hopefully Jackson will chime in with some info there for his gold! I find some of the other ones from that show up not "rich enough" that's kind of what I mean in the original post when I say too "fake" or "mirror chrome-y"



I'll do some searching on youtube, thanks!
Took me a minute to find it, but here’s a good one I remembered.
 
If you want a look very similar to the bio helmet without the health hazards and huge material cost, you could use Alclad chrome and top coat with Alclad Candy Yellow, or tinted Alclad Klear Kote. The surface of your piece needs to be perfect. If it isn’t a glass smooth gloss black you will get a cloudy chrome, and that will make a very dull gold.

As far as the easiest way to get a nice gold finish, especially for a home maker? Molotow top coated with Alclad Candy Yellow or tinted KK.. Molotow is a lot more forgiving in its application, and the surface doesn’t have to be “perfect” like it does with Alclad. The folks over in the Molotow thread have done a great job documenting their work and tests on the subject.

The benefit of doing a chrome base and top coating with a Candy as opposed to just using a gold paint is you can control the exact finish you get. Here are two Pred helmets I painted.. one with a lighter gold, the other with a much more rich gold. Finally, an Iron Man helmet where I did a little of both.

Hope that helps,
J

One more thing, for the candy need to be coated or sealed with something after being sprayed on the Molotow chrome?

Took me a minute to find it, but here’s a good one I remembered.

Thank ya!
 
The post definitely helps, and awesome work!! The rich gold look is precisely what I'm going for. So for that one you used the 2k, and for the lighter gold color chrome base and top coating with a Candy?

One more thing, for the candy need to be coated or sealed with something after being sprayed on the Molotow chrome?


Both the lighter gold and darker gold were done with 2K clear tinted to make a gold candy coat.

The difference in color is due to the intensity of the pigment added to the clear, and how many coats were applied. One was tinted much more yellow, while the darker one was actually orange with a very small tint of green. If you add more coats, the gold gets darker, but not necessarily more rich, which is why I tinted towards an orange, with green to tone it back.


Assuming you mean Alclad’s Candy Yellow, no, it does not need to be sealed. It dries to a very nice hard finish, but you could use Alclad’s Klear Kote as a sealer if you’re worried about it.
 
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