Custom Flame Paint Jobs - Paint Your Own Flames

Next, fill the cup on the airbrush with some orange paint and go back over the flames, this time filling in the interior while leaving a red border all the way around. Part of the trick here is to fan the edges so the transition between orange and red is more of a fade than a sharp border. The orange paint in the kit was the hardest to work with, as it was a transparent color and very thin, which made it run easily. If necessary, the air pressure from the compressor can be reduced.

'These flames look like they're straight out of Disney's Fantasia. After the general shape of the stencil has been dusted on the surface, remove the stencil and go back over the flame, filling in the interior with more red paint, but leaving the edges fairly light.

One of the things we learned is that the real fire-style flames don't get impressive until they're done; during the process they tend to look like a mess. We point this out now, because the next step is not going to look good initially, but it should pay off later. Use white to create a series of Y-shaped highlights that look sort of like lightning bolts within each flame lick. The idea is to add dimension and depth, which should hopefully appear later in the process.

After the white highlights are down, the next phase involves fogging over them with a transparent yellow/gold. The yellow/gold is sprayed over the white and somewhat beyond, blending over the orange. Afterward, reload with white and add more small touches to the Y-shaped highlights, and then dust them with more yellow/gold.

Another step that might seem counterintuitive is the addition of black highlights. The effects become apparent toward the end of the flame process. For this, the positive stencil should be used to apply lightly sprayed subtle black outlines in the interior of each flame. We strayed from the instructions and freehanded this step-using the stencil would have been better. Black is the only color not included in the paint set, so we used some black Rust-Oleum thinned down with acetone.

Once the black accents are down, add more white with the negative stencil to create depth. Hold the stencil and move it around, using portions of it to make varying licks in the interior of each flame. Like the black accents, these should be small, subtle, and evenly dispersed. Aspiring pyros need to be patient and understand that practice will improve their technique. Onlookers seemed to think our flames turned out trick, so we must have done something right. Maybe next time we'll actually use a car.