How do you make a checkerboard w/ an airbrush??

Alex · May 7, 2005, 1:09am

Any body have any experience w/ this? A stencil would fall apart - me thinks.

have · May 7, 2005, 1:19am

tape…

wildy · May 7, 2005, 1:45am

And a blade.

doc · May 7, 2005, 2:28am

Ah - I think I see what you’re driving at there, but - do your stencil a little different.

Kinda like a silk-screen, get some mesh like fly screen, hot glue your squares to it . The mesh would be on top, just barely off the foam. If your mesh isn’t too fine , then airbrushing should do a fair job without leaving any particular grid pattern. I’d do the red background first, then do the black squares over top of it. Practice on some coarse paper.

I gotta say, though, you must have some awful long lulls to need a checkerboard on a surfboard.

hope that’s of use

doc…

kokua · May 7, 2005, 7:12pm

 Howzit doc, Black paint over red paint is a tricky paint job since they are the 2 colors most likely to crystallize. One of my shapers who like to airbrush checker board designs does black over red and I have had problems with them.Aloha,Kokua

ambrose · May 7, 2005, 7:23pm

lay the airbrush down on the top and fold the checkerboard over…ambrose…over active mind

doc · May 7, 2005, 9:26pm

Ah? ok, wonder if that is specific to the paint types.

You know, it occurs to me that this would be the ideal spot/application for a rice-paper graphic.

Alex · May 7, 2005, 11:06pm

Thanks for all the input. I have thought about this and if you use tape the corners don’t touch and you don’t get a checker pattern unless maybe you do a two step process but then you have to pull up tape and with it probably paint.The blade could change that.

I want a curved checker design ( parallelograms really) colors would be violet and aqua for a MR/fish/swallow/small wave machine I’m working on.

If the checkerboard was playing checkers during the lulls I would be airbrushing on a Monopoly board with suburbs on the back. This is for Virginia Beach where even though there are shining moments, lulls are the norm.

mtb · May 7, 2005, 11:42pm

Quote:

Thanks for all the input……I want a curved checker design ( parallelograms really) colors would be violet and aqua for a MR/fish/swallow/small wave machine I’m working on……

Contact Jeff Clark and find out who did the magnificent red/white curved checkerboard on the fish he brought to the Oceanside Fish Fry. mtb

Pauluk · May 8, 2005, 12:03am

why not spray the base coat on the foam and the other colour over the hotcoat. then lacquer or gloss

atomized · August 3, 2010, 5:34pm

Wow! Resin work- I can’t believe you went back and opaqued the white squares after the black. That’s a lot of work! Turned out really nice.

Here’s a similar positive/negative checker cut mask using overlayed transparent colors.

tblank · August 3, 2010, 7:16pm

Why not do like auto body guys and spray one color over entire surface and then just tape off for the contrasting color? Two step process.

roninsurf · August 3, 2010, 9:01pm

You could try building a stencil kind of like a comb or castle wall and shoot one column at a time. Stagger the stencil and cover the previous columns. I haven't tried it so I couldn't say how clean it would come out. Otherwise tape, cut, peel...

insideout · August 3, 2010, 11:53am

I know it’s not quite the same, but I did it in resin. Took ages to mask off the squares. Half way through I realised the error of my ways. Still, I think it turned out ok for my first fully finished board.

eggyghostshaper · August 4, 2010, 5:23am

Just spray your base color on and let it dry over night, then tape it off and cut it out and spray your top color. Pretty straight forward.

insideout · August 4, 2010, 9:18am

Sorry to jack the thread.

Atomized - Thank you! Looks amazing in the flesh. Was going for a hot-rod style theme. I grinned from ear to ear when I realised just how much harder I had made it for myself. You live and learn.

Back on topic, I reckon tblank and eggy’ have the right idea. Exaclty how I should have done mine. If two tone, then spray the lightest colour first as it would be harder to hide a dark colour under the light, if that makes sense?

trent · August 4, 2010, 10:15am

Hi, I saw a guy spray checkerboaard for a car once and he masked it off with lines of tape, sprayed half the squares, masked it off with more lines of tape (like a grid) and sprayed the other half.

At the time i remember thinking "why waste the time to spray twice?" now that I think about it I imagine he saved hours and hours of cutting and peeling tape.

Trent

huie · August 4, 2010, 10:38am

corect method.

yorky · August 4, 2010, 10:47am

Thats one beautiful board mate

atomized · August 4, 2010, 4:17pm

More checker fun