THE PINK GUITAR

The understudy (the test guitar) took a plunge today. Came out pretty sweet if I may say so myself.

One of the things I have learned from this adventure is that you have to base-coat your work in a color you want in the final design because there will be spots where the enamel will not go on... I am sure that people who are better than myself at swirling will not have this problem, but I decided it's a quick fix to a very hard to overcome problem. If the thinner in the paint, the amount of borax in the water and the water temp aren't just so, there WILL BE parts on the water surface that have no paint. No paint on the water surface means no paint on the substrate.

Anywho, I feel much more confident now for the oh so important dip of the LP, but I do need to do some more prep work on it... As always, to be continued!
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That looks absolutely killer, the colour choice is bang on!

Terrific swirl effect & I'm another one who really digs the colour scheme. Reminds me of one of my favourite critters (see pic)
The prospect of immersing a labour intensive project into a binful of water, paint and stuff is terrifying to me. I reckon doing a test job like you have is a smart move.
Let's hope the LP comes out looking just as good.

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that swirl turned out really well!

You are right, it does look exactly like a galah! Never thought of that. Thanks for all the kind words everyone.

The white is the base coat, so in other words the paint didn't stick there. My "expert" tells me my paint is drying too quickly, in other words I am dunking to slowly, not working fast enough. I did however notice that there are parts of the water where paint doesn't spread to before I even dip anything, so I am not getting my ratios correct me thinks.

Tips for others wanting to try this: Please be aware that the complexity increases with the size of surface to be painted. Make sure you prime your stuff! You basically want to "water proof" your axe. That means the cavities that will never see the light of day also need to be basecoated. Cover holes (like wiring routes) with blue tack. Don't try this with anything but enamels, nothing else will work.

trouble is every swirl is different, hope you havent used up the best one on the test guitar!

looks awesome Jay, well done

Long time no see, but if you follow along on Facebook, the updates are a bit more timely. So, as I had feared the actual product turned out not nearly as good as the test... BUMMER! Look at the pictures and judge for yourself! So I sanded it back, put a coat of black basecoat on (dark covers colors much easier than white and is quickly covered by white afterwards.. Yup counter-intuitive isn't it?), multiple coats of white, pink and then went to town using a stippling technique with several shades of pink before glad-wrapping it with silver.

That finished the back of the body until i get the whole thing ready for clear-coat.
Looks quite different from the original swirl idea, but as far as I am concerned... Pretty damn good!

So, we are "back to the front...". You can look at the photos for a reminder of how that looks. The sketch is what I will be laying doing in tape soon-ish

I personally find flames a bit tacky but if that's what you're after mate that's cool. Different strokes hey

I personally would keep top with the grain as feature but it's important to follow your vision and enjoy the satisfaction at the end when it turns out as planned.