Lace job

Time to bring the sexy on.

For the lace to say in place I found a large piece of cardboard and put my tank on the center of it. I then laid the lace of the area I planed on shooting. Then pulled out all my pushpins and pined the lace down as tight as i could around the entire tank. This cause the lace to pull around the tank, keeping it flat all around it, and it keep the tank from rolling around.

pointing at a pushpin in lace. 

Post spray, I forgot to snap a photo of the mask i put over the lace. But it was basically newspaper taped down to the lace.

After removal of lace.

And the finished tank! (well it still needs some clear)

Now to do that fender.

Tank paint

Fisrt step, watch a few Dexter Episodes and really learn his technique for wrapping a room. Now use less than half that knowledge and wrap you room.

Step 2, make something to hang the tank from. I found three points at opposite ends of the room and attached a singe nylon string to them and they all of them, meeting back at the center point each time.

Prep your cans in warm water, while you do other things, like drink beer.

Pull out the preped tank. sorry no photos of that. but it was boring as all hell. a bit of sanding to roughen up the metal.and some tape over the gas hole.

Hang tank, and go! I used an old drill bit wrapped in masking tape to silde through the mounting holes and attached string to the far sides to hang the tank. One side of the bit I used a strong and tight knot, and the other is a slip knot for easy removal of the bit.

First coat of primer.

Frist coat of Silver Metal Specks Duplicolor, Dont recommend unless you want to spray for five seconds, remove the cap, clean it with lacquer thinner, rinse it off, dry it off and repeat till done. So these coats probably could have come out better, but i was getting annoyed with all that bs.

Now for the fun part. Grab a beer, preferably Tecate. (build not sponsored by them, but it sure as fuck should be) Bust out your 3M striping mask tape. and lay down your lines.

Now back to the paint booth, for the first color. I went lightest to darkest. It is probably the easiest to do as well. As its easier to cover light colors than it is dark ones. 

Now let it dry, have another beer, Play some video games, watch some porn, whatever you need to do to stay away from the tank for a while. 

Okay, now take the tank back to the masking station, for some fun. Mask off the areas that you want to stay this awesome golden yellow color.

My process, was a second layer of the striping tape, just over and inside the current lines. Then, cut out some paper, to match the shape, and taped in to to place. taping over all missed areas. Then because i would rather waste tape, than time painting, I cover the paper with more tape, and then masking tape.

This set of photos shows the steps best.

Cover half the original line, and half on the inside of the area.

Cover the rest with paper.

Tape down all the edges, any areas that don't meet the first layer of tape, need to be filled in.

Then I covered the whole area with masking tape.

After all that masking is done. Go paint some more!

Some slip ups in my mask.

Forgot to take photos of the gradient I did. But it was pretty simple. I just pulled the can away from the tank where i wanted the transition to be, and focused heavily where i wanted full color to be.

But over all it looks pretty fucking killer.

Heavy boots of lead

Fills his victims full of dread

Running as fast as they can

Iron Man Lives again!

I am okay with the colors looking straight IronMan, mainly because he is Marvels version of Batman. Yep, think about it. Rich smart dude who makes all his shit to fight crime. their are some character differences but they fill the same holes. lots of ladies holes. 

Now Masking off for the details.

Snake belly pattern. All around the tank.

This is two days in to this tank. Tomorrow there will be more ... 

Hopefully ill post shit tomorrow as well.

Forgot to mention, all the paints I bought were from Napa, the primer and silver were nothing special. But for $24~ they will mix you up some special paint, which is what the yellow, red, and dark red are.