Steelhead Paints

Working on my very first mount ever, learning as I go. It was a Lake Michigan caught fish so I had some scale loss, but hopefully I should be able to paint them right in/tip them in. I did a custom cast head of the actual fish and used mass produced fins that I remodeled down to size of actual fishes measured fins. So onto the point of this post I am completely unfamiliar with the paints to use. I know of Lacquer and water base, but also seen bits of other methods mixed in. The fish was a bright pure silver, not a trace of reds so I plan to scale tip by hand. Just looking for info on paint medias and maybe a color list of paints to get. I plan to white it out also but maybe tape the fins (or just certain fins) off so they can keep some transparency. Ill add a photo of a living fish to give a better representation of the looks I am trying to achieve.

 

I ordered last night a bunch of water based air brush paints to get my bases and two colors of pearl/silver scale tipping colors to get me started. I did watch part of a Rick Crane video of him using some raw powder pigments.

 

I believe I got that color in a water base. I ordered I think 12 different colors mostly pearls, iridescents and silvers, opaque white, scale detail black for spotting, and dark green blue for the main top level color. Hard to judge them by the photos so will have to test and see what they look like when they come in. May have to come up with a more grey blue idk.

 

Guess will see what comes in haha. Can water based paints be used with lacquer?

 

Could I use a white spray paint to white it out?

 

Can I use my water based paints over top of the lacquer?

 

Got my lacquer white, started coating after a anti fungal spray down. What kinda gloss/sealer do you guys use in between coats of paint?

 

Spoke to soon found a clear lacquer spray in the same kinda white I picked up. Are enamels a bad mix?

 

Well here is a mid progress photo, adding tipping across the back now and starting to un tape the fins to work on them. Whited the fish out, used a bright silver airbrushed under the scales section to give it that gray metallic base and went with the Paynes gray for the back. Then painted in the scales with white acrylic then tipped over with silver pearl.