Mother of pearl type finish.. any idea?

[Carlos]

I've been asked if I can do a mother of pearl type finish, which would be a pearlescent white, but would have spectrum like colours showing in it when reacting with light.

I work in AA's so I got my colour chart book out, and see they do a pearlescent white, which I suggested to the potential client, but he said: too flat, he wants to see the spectrum colours. The nearest other thing is the colour flair in silver with spectrum highlights, but obviously this is not white!

Has anyone got any thoughts on mixing colours like these together? I'm thinking it might be possible to put some silver flair into the pearl white, and get what he wants, or would the white kill the spectrum reflective colours too much? Perhaps it might be possible to start with a pearl white base, then shoot an intercoat of flair silver? I dont have the paints in my stock, and too expensive to buy in to experiment with incase the job doesn't go ahead, so thought I'd try asking you guys?

[Shiva]

need to switch to automotive.. and perhaps with a some kind of iridescent with/on top..
I am specifically thinking of the Cadillac Mother of Pearl paint, at some unholy $ per quart..
$600 or 900 per IIRR.. BUT its is a GREAT Pearl.

[Carlos]

it's just for one helmet, so that's totally out of the question. I might have to admit defeat on this one and tell him pearlescent white or nothing. He has been trying to knock me down on quotes anyway, so probably one of jobs I'd be better off without, especially if there's going to be lots of time spent experimenting, which I wont earn money for.

[tugg]

createx do a cameleon purple which is like a white pearl with a purple flip You could get an interesting effect if you used this over a white/silver pearl marble base

[Grashopr]

It's probably going to be cost prohibitive, but the PPG Chromalusion colors (look for any with a blue/green/violet flip) over white will give you a close effect, but you will be paying a lot for matials. The Cadillac pearl white is actually a white pearl mid-coat over a silver base that looks way wicked, and you could probably get away with for 1/2 or less in materials than the Chromalusion stuff. I know that a few airbrush shops used to sell broken down Chromalusion by the Oz or 2 Oz bottle, but if you buy from a PPG dist., expect to spend close to $400 per pint. It'll last forever (all you need is a tiny tiny bit.. ), but it's expensive to keep around.

Oops, just noticed the thread was nearly 5 months old... my bad.

[draggin81]

get some "micro pearl" additive from E'Tac and add it to a weakened transparent white.
Put down a very light grey base (you can add some of the micro pearl to that, too, if you want), then spray on VERY light layers of the weakened white until you get the effect you're after.
Jaquard also makes a similar powdered additive, but I haven't used that one personally, so I'm not sure how it compared to the E'Tac powder.

Then, after this job, throw away your AA and get a better paint.

[Skids]

taxidermy paint for fish underbottoms sounds like just what you're after...been a long time since i needed and though so dunno where you'd find it.

(yes i said fish underbottoms...hehehee)