“Quick and simple helmet design”
Painting helmets can be a great money maker to all airbrushers. met work tends to be relatively simple designs. But that does not
With changes in local helmet laws and an increasing number mean boring! This client wanted his helmet to match the color
of riders using helmets, the potential client base for this type of and graphic pattern that we had previously done on his midget
work is increasing daily. While super involved, time consuming race car, which has a base of yellow, a torn checkered flag with a
design’s look great and are fun to do, the majority of our hel- simple flame design coming from underneath the flag.
The helmet has been disassembled, taped
off to protect the inside of the helmet and
prepped for the base painting. The prep
consists of cleaning the surface thoroughly
with PPG DX 394 wax and grease remover.
The helmet is then wet sanded with 1000
grit 3m wet or dry sandpaper. In some of
the tight areas, I use a small piece of a 3m
gray Scotchbrite pad to scuff those little
areas that the sandpaper will not get into.
Once there are no shinny areas left, I clean
Our victim is a new black Bell racing hel- again with our 394 cleaner and we are ready to get to the painting.
met with Hans device capabilities.
After lightly running a tack cloth over the I have now masked off the area of the hel-
At this point, I have run a double line of
surface to get rid of any dust that may have met that will remain yellow and shot PPG
1/8 inch 3m blue fine line tape to map
settled, we shoot a PPG medium chrome basecoat white on what will be our check-
out our checkerboard pattern. In the ar-
yellow basecoat over the entire helmet. ered flag.
eas to be painted black, the liner tape is
cut and removed, leaving tape only around
the areas to be painted white. Using this
method insures that all of your lines will
be straight and eliminate much of the cut-
ting that is necessary when drawing your
pattern over masking tape and cutting out
Our white areas have been masked and
each and every line by hand. In the areas
the blue fine line tape has been cut and
that are to remain white, I have placed a
removed, exposing the areas that will be
small piece of tape in the center of each
black.
one to insure that there is no confusion.
issue24-3.indd 15 6/1/2009 2:37:19 PM
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