Eagle and American Flag Helmets paints (Red, Blue, Yellow, Magenta and Black),
My name is Paul Shaw and I currently reside in E’TAC Reduce Air, FW Acrylic Artists Ink (Se-
Radcliff, Kentucky. pia 251), 4H Pencil, Kneaded Eraser, Electric
For this article, I will be showing you how to cre- Eraser, Iwata “Stretch mask”, Iwata HP-C Plus,
ate an Eagle and American Flag design on a Mo- Tack Cloth, paint brush, Xacto Knife and blades.
torcycle Helmet. I used the following supplies: Supplies also used for prepping the Helmet were
Auto Air paints (Sun Gold and Sepia Transpar- Red Scotch Brite pads, Masking Tape, Prep-All
ent and Semi-Opaque Deep Red), E’TAC EFX “Wax and Grease Remover” and Rags.
To prep the Helmet I masked off the bottom rubber edge and front vents with masking tape. I scuff the
original clear coat with the Scotch Brite Pad, wiped with the Tack Cloth and cleaned with the Prep-All
and Rags. Once the helmet was prepped, I covered the entire helmet with Stretch mask. This was my
first time using the Stretch mask and as you can see in the photos, I still had problems getting it to
lie flat without the “ridges”. Using a 4H pencil I drew the design outline directly on the Stretch mask
itself. It took me a few times to get everything positioned exactly the way I wanted it. With the design
laid out I’m now to begin cutting out the design.
I will be using the original white color of the helmet to my advantage while painting the
Stars, Stripes and Eagle itself. Keeping this in mind, I begin by cutting out the blue of
the flag with the Xacto knife and a new blade. The Stretchmask will cut very easily with
a new Xacto blade, very little pressure is needed. Once the area is cut out I lay down an
even base of E’TAC Phthalocyanine Blue. After the blue base is down, I add a few extra
layers of blue around the edge of the rips. These extra layers will help me begin adding
depth and dimension to the flag since I want it to appear as it is under the white helmet
and behind the eagle.
At this point I use five drops of blue and add 1 drop of E’TAC Carbon Black. Working
in light layers I start shaping the blue of the flag. I leave the high points which will be
the center areas of the original blue base and start fading from the white edge inwards.
This is also the point were I begin to create the rolled edge in the second star from
the right. Next I mix two drops of Carbon Black and two drops of Reduce Air to get a
reduced black, this will be my shading mixture. This mixture is then sprayed from the
edge inwards covering half of the area I previously did with the 5:1 mix. Now I go back
over the entire area with straight blue. This should give the blue the gradual fade I’m
looking as I’ll be doing the cast shadows and highlights next.
I mix a thinned down E’TAC Plasma White and spray very light the white stars and stripes at the same time, this should give
layers over the high points in the Blue. I cut out and peel off the them uniform shadows. I work with this mixture in layers build-
Stars and White stripes. With the same reduced black mixture I ing up my shadows until the white stripes; stars and blue are
used earlier I go in and add the drop shadows over the blue and complete with the exception of the final highlights.
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