Metal flake

"Metal flake" or "Metalflake" is a real-world term describing a high-end, labor-intensive (and thus expensive), attention-grabbing custom painting technique. It was hugely popular in the 1960s and 1970s on fast cars, boats, and motorcycles. The painting technique still has a real-world following amongst fans of various made-for-speed vehicles and related artwork. The coolness factor never went away.

## Canon references

* (Dark Future rulebook describes red metalflake on an Interceptor. I'll try to find the exact page number.)
* (One of the short stories in the "Route 666" anthology includes references to blue metalflake on an Interceptor's paint job. I believe it was the "Maverick Son" story, but I'll have to double-check. I'll also try to verify page numbers.)

## Technical description

The idea behind applying metalflake is that many small, highly-reflective pieces of material (somewhat like tiny mirrors) are mixed into a clear or a transparent paint; and that see-through paint is then sprayed as a top coat, over one or more opaque and/or transparent layers of paint. While metalflake can be applied over even a stock, factory-applied paint job, it is most often used in combination with one or more other custom painting tricks: such as a highly metallic, opaque base coat as a lower paint layer; followed by artwork of some kind, done with either opaque or transparent paints; followed by one or more layers of clear paint. Alternately, the artwork layer may be followed by one or more layers of transparent paints -- such as various colors of "candy" paints -- which is then coated with a tough, protective clear coat layer.

At the painter's whim, other products may also be added into the final or nearly-final transparent or clear paint layers; along with metalflake. These additional products may include dry "pearl" powders (which come in various colors), or even various forms of highly crushed, very fine glass. The overall effect or intent is to make the whole paint job "pop" in a visual sense. That is, to make it as eye-catching and visually attractive as possible.

The metalflake product comes in the form of a dry, powder-like substance. It comes in a wide variety of colors. Some painters use a silver or gold base coat; then, they add silver or gold metalflake into a transparent paint, and spray it over the metallic base coat. Alternately, they may spray closely-matching, colored metalflake over a colored base coat.

The exact size of the "tiny mirrors" available on the market varies widely. Metalflake can range from almost a microscopic powder form (mostly for use on scale models and the like) to being so large (relatively speaking) that the addition of the metalflake product may cause some spray guns to clog or jam during spraying. (Siphon feed guns are probably best for applying the stuff. Modern, top-fed guns may tend to clog more often than Old School guns: since the relatively heavy sparkly stuff wants to settle or sink within the gun's paint cup; over time and with gravity, during spraying. Thus, too much of it may try to feed through the fairly small internal channels within modern spray guns. With the older style guns, if the heavier particles sink to the lowest spot in the gun, that just means less of the sparkly stuff gets sprayed; but the clear component will still pass through the gun with no problem. (Assuming nozzle sizes used are appropriate, etc.)

(Fans of custom paint jobs, who want to find out more about actually applying this stuff, should love seeing the various how-to DVD's put out by a custom painter whose company name is "Spritz by Fritz". Those DVDs show this work being done; with lots of tips and tricks related to how it all works; and what it's intended to do, and so on. Highly recommended!)