Looking For Paint Schedules And How To Videos

Check rick Krane and all the supply houses

 

Jaremy, as per your post, one of the hardest colors to truly replicate in fish taxidermy is the reflective quality needed for many salt water species like you listed above. A very large part of the repo's I do call for a "chrome" finish, not anything close to typical taxidermy paints like Bright Silver.
Your best bet is to use one of the specialty Chrome paints made for the auto industry. Over the years, I have used many but have found the best results for a true chrome finish to be these three products.
Alsa Killer Chrome
Spaz Stix Chrome
Motochrome
All three are excellent, spray well with an airbrush and give you a very reflective chrome finish. It is recommended to use a gloss black base coat, but that is not necessary. The issue with any bright silver or chrome paint is the dulling and flattening of the finish when a clear coat is applied. Spaz Stix makes a special clearcoat to use to keep that from happening, and I have used it on all three of the above listed chromes with great results. To really bring out the reflective qualities, and once completely dry, I found buffing your application of chrome helps by removing any dry particles that would also flatten the finish. Be aware, true chrome paint can be expensive even in small amounts, but the results are worth the expense for a superior chrome finish. Good luck and I hope this helps

 

I would highly recommend Rick Kranes videos. They are pretty tough to beat. His videos go over everything in incredible detail. Similar to you, I started from scratch and the first fish I painted turned out pretty darn good! I have a lot more time I can devote to each fish since I'm doing it for myself. Most taxidermists would be out of business if they spent as much time as I do on each fish. The results speak for themselves! Anyway, I would highly recommend Rick Kranes videos.

As a side note to crablover's above post. I would highly recommend liquid scales for silver or gold tipping of scales. A fish species like tarpon has very large scales that likely need tipped? There are a number of shades of silver available in liquid scales for silver colored fish scales. Rick goes over a lot of this in his videos.

 

Jaremy, the video you posted for a Bonefish is far from accurate. There should be no scale tipping at all on a Tarpon or Bonefish, even tho many do. It is the Chrome basecoat that is important. As Jmiss stated liquid scales work well for many species, but fall way short, due to color shifting on large scale fish due to the pigment size. After liquid scale application dry's, you can rotate your fish and see that color shift. The pigment in true chrome paint is so fine that color shifting is eliminated, and the reflective qualities do not change regardless of viewing angle. There is a very visible difference between liquid scales and true chrome paint.
As per video's and paint schedules, IMO, they are worthless and someone else's interpterion of how they see and apply color. They are helpful however for detail placement and duplicating patterns on different species. I would collect as many photos as you can, and break those down for every part of your project ie: head, body, fins and tail etc. Make a test board, apply your base coat then test the effects when you apply your color choices over that. You will be surprised at how much info you can gain by doing this. I hope this info might help you achieve an accurate representation of your three project fish. Good luck

 

As for color shifting. Isn’t that what we want? I’m not a experienced salt water guy in the least bit, but on freshwater fish I do know if move a live fish around and some colors appear and then some disappear. A fish should change color depending on lighting and angle. Or maybe I’m reading what you are saying wrong.

 

As far as replicating chrome on fish I've had good luck using Lifetone's Chrome Pearlescent lacquer. I use it on the chromish Great Lakes salmonids. Of course I also do some scale tipping depending on the fish.

 

Ryan, unless you have had the opportunity to see the brilliance and reflectivity of certain fresh caught scale less salt water fish, you would see that there is no comparison between "brite" freshwater species like salmon and trout and ocean going scale less species. Some scaled saltwater fish display the same brilliance like Tarpon and Bonefish. My meaning of color shifting means going from a reflective chrome to flat dull chrome. I have yet to find anything other than specialty paint that can duplicate a true chrome paint. Lifetone's Chrome Pearlescent lacquer works well for most freshwater species, however falls far short of true chrome. The majority of fish I do are saltwater species unlike the typical species most taxidermists mount. Bass, Salmon, Trout and panfish. The typical silver paint used for those is nothing like what is needed to match the color of Mackerel's, Wahoo, Tuna and billfish. The only way to see the difference is to compare the finish between the two side by side. Keep in mind also, many ocean going fish have no scales to tip at all which eliminates all scale tipping mediums.

 

Unlike the typical freshwater fish done by most taxidermists, very few near coastal or ocean going fish ever need scale tipping. It is the base color of chrome that needs to be duplicated, and is the first color applied over primer. Scale tipping is usually done towards the end of the paint process, and brings the tipping to the top rather than from under all your other colors. The brilliance and reflectivity of a true chrome paint cannot be duplicated with the typical taxidermy paint like Cecil's suggestion of Lifetone's Chrome Pearlescent lacquer. Chrome Pearlescent lacquer is however a good choice for most fresh water "brite" fish. The particle size in most tipping mediums is not fine enough to stop the shifting of color from brite to dull, and can easily be seen when you rotate your fish. Since most fresh water fish done by taxidermists are much smaller than the typical saltwater fish, this shifting is acceptable due to the scale size. As previously noted, other than near coastal and bottom species, a large majority of saltwater fish are scale less and no tipping medium is needed. The proper base color is the key to the accurate representation of certain saltwater species ie: Tarpon, Bonefish and Permit. The specialty Chrome paints I listed above duplicate the best base coat color for brilliance and reflectivity. The particle size is so fine, that there is no change, or color shifting in the finish. Color shifting can be from brite to dull in a single color like Liquid Scales or duel colors like Pearl X duo powders. That shift can be seen in Frank's Barracuda mount below. Like the typical freshwater fish done by most taxidermists, very few near coastal or ocean going fish ever need scale tipping. It is the base color of chrome that needs to be duplicated, and is the first color applied over primer. Scale tipping is usually done towards the end of the paint process, and brings the tipping to the top rather than from under all your other colors. The brilliance and reflectivity of a true chrome paint cannot be duplicated with the typical taxidermy paint like Cecil's suggestion of Lifetone's Chrome Pearlescent lacquer. Chrome Pearlescent lacquer is however a good choice for most fresh water "brite" fish. The particle size in most tipping mediums is not fine enough to stop the shifting of color from brite to dull, and can easily be seen when you rotate your fish. Since most fresh water fish done by taxidermists are much smaller than the typical saltwater fish, this shifting is acceptable due to the scale size. As previously noted, other than near coastal and bottom species, a large majority of saltwater fish are scale less and no tipping medium is needed. The proper base color is the key to the accurate representation of certain saltwater species ie: Tarpon, Bonefish and Permit. The specialty Chrome paints I listed above duplicate the best base coat color for brilliance and reflectivity. The particle size is so fine, that there is no change, or color shifting in the finish. Color shifting can be from brite to dull in a single color like Liquid Scales or duel colors like Pearl X duo powders. That single color shift can be seen in Frank's Barracuda mount below. Also, the live Tarpon and Bonefish pictures clearly show the brilliance and reflectivity not found in typical paint used by taxidermists. The true chrome finish in the helmet picture best duplicates the natural coloration found in many scaled and scale less salt water fish. I hope some find this interesting and another option to the standard choice of color duplication.

 

Thanks crablover I wasn't aware about the chrome look and lack of scales. I know salmon and trout often have tiny scales and I've always had pretty good luck with the combination of sprayed paint along with different shades of liquid scales for the chrome phase. Bonefish and tarpon have scales so I thought I would toss out the idea of using liquid scales. I wasn't aware that LS doesn't offer a chrome color. It's apparent in your helmet vs scale tipping photos that there is a big difference.

 

Jimiss, although taxidermy paints and liquid scales do work, the issue with both for Chrome is the color additive and its particle size. The larger particle's allow shifting in the reflectivity and brilliance once dry. The particle's in true chrome paint are so small and nano sized that reflectivity and brilliance is maintained. The application of any scale tipping medium whether by airbrush or paint brush needs to be applied in the same direction to get the best effect of the product. Specialty auto body painters who spray metallic and flake based colors always spray in one direction and is critical if it is a duo color. This can be applied also when taxidermists use Pearl X duo powders or a liquid based Flip Flop color.