re : " resin swirl fins " .....

…So, has anyone here made them ?

Got any photos, please ?

Like to talk us through the process of how you made them ?

… I have METRES of spare cloth, some spare resin and catalyst , PLENTY of pigment, so was thinking of ways to ‘use it up’…

Any photos, tips, experience shared of making ‘resin swirl fins’ would be MOST appreciated…thanks !

cheers !

ben

p.s. - ’ DJK ', are you there ?! … you never DID tell me how you did YOUR groovy FCS ones ! Have you finished them yet, are they on a board now ?

If so, HOW did they go…have you made any more ? Got any plans to ? [I reckon some resin swirl twin keels for the Lokbox system on your fish could look pretty good, eh ?]

I “accidentally” made resin swirl fins the first time I attempted to lay up fins and I was really happy with the way they came out. I will be posting pics soon b/c they ended up on a 6’1 fish that I shaped.

Basically, I took a sheet of glass about 12" X 12" and cut 6 oz cloth the size of the glass. In total, I think that I used about 15-20 pieces of cloth to make medium width keel fins. In retrospect, I probably would have used 4 oz cloth but 6 oz is what I had so…

Anyway, I then started laying up the fins with purple resin. I took 3 sheets of cloth, laid them on the glass and saturated them with the purple resin.

Next, while the purple was still wet (as in RIGHT after I saturated the first 3 sheets with purple resin) I laid down 3 more sheets, took another color - I think it was red - and completely saturated the second 3 sheets of cloth.

At this point, I saw that the purple was “bleeding” through to the red, which initially bummed me out because my intent was to make fins that had alternating colors so that when I foiled them I would end up with 2 keel fins that went from white-to-red-to-purple.

But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the way that the purple was bleeding through so I just went with it and continued the above process - adding 3 sheets of 6 oz. as soon as I saturated the preceding sheets of cloth and then completely saturating using a new color.

In total, I used purple, red, white, and pink. When I foiled the fins, they came out really cool - sort of a redish-white-pink marble effect with solid purple on the flat side of the fin.

I think that the key was setting the resin up really slow so that it didn’t kick before I had finished laying up all 15-20 sheets of cloth. Also, I really worked the resin in hard and “smooshed it down” to cause the resin from the preceding layer of cloth to bleed through.

Anyway, I hope that helps. There are probably better/easier ways to get the same result and hopefully some of the old timers will chime in, but that is what worked for me.

Pics coming soon.

thanks T-Roy !

I look forward to seeing the photos…

The 'purple resin" … did you use tint , or pigment ? [or both ?]

cheers !

 ben

Hey Ben - I used pigment from FoamEZ. I just mixed the red and blue until I got a deep, plum sorta color. I used pigment throughout, varying between red, white, pink, and purple. Give it a try - it was fun making them.

hi T-Roy , if you still post here ?

I’d really like to see shots of those fins’ swirls , please [pm me if you like , because it doesn’t seem the "photo upload " for the forum is working yet …]

cheers !

ben

saw tim cousins renditions out of the wolfman studios in haena

he swirled the hotcoat on the finished foiled fin

then a final sand and gloss I believe

…ambrose…

capable method for maintaining full color,[no mud], renderings

mud can swirled but still lacks color definition

thereby … orchid glow mud puddling swirl job

Hey Chip - I am right smack dab in the middle of driving across the U.S. because I am relocating from CA to the east coast (for a couple of years, anyway). My boards are all packed away in a moving truck somewhere. Once I get to Connecticut and get my life back in order, I will shoot you some pics.

thanks very much mate !

have a good safe drive , and I hope everything works out really well for you !

cheers !

ben

hi T-Roy !

I just thought I’d check in on your resin swirl fins …

how are you going there on the east coast mate ?

cheers ,

ben