Snake skin camo Sasquatch

[Kirkll]

I just finished one here that came out pretty cool. Thought I'd share the build album with you.




https://photos.app.goo.gl/YSgmnXP7Mangezsi9

[Watsonjay]

I finished a pretty cool bow once and epoxied on the fake cloth rattlesnake skin from 3 rivers then cleared it. Clear started flaking off the fabric within a couple hundred shots. Wont be doing that again. I am going to try hydro dipping some limbs at some point.

[Kirkll]

These are painted myself and clear coated.

[Watsonjay]

These are painted myself and clear coated.

Yes, it looks really good. Much better than my experience with snake pattern

[Longcruise]

Unique.  Looks good.  Did you use some sort of masking technique?

[Kirkll]

Not exactly masking... I used a couple strips of plastic gutter guard material for the pattern and carefully wired it on both edges to hold it tight to the black glass and just  free handed the different colors with a rattle can. It took a little trial and error on some scraps before I got the system down. The trick to Getting a relatively uniform  Diamond pattern on both limbs was putting them side by side and doing just one quick coat for each color at about 10" distance. Trying to put more paint on, or touching up a color results in the pattern fading out.

I've probably done about a dozen sets now using different colors. I've always wanted to try out a snow camo pattern like this using tan, gray, dark brown, and white paint.

[Longcruise]

It's a very unique and attractive system.  I might experiment on a set of sage limbs.  How did you clamp the edges of the limbs without interfering with the the paint application?

[Kirkll]

It's a very unique and attractive system.  I might experiment on a set of sage limbs.  How did you clamp the edges of the limbs without interfering with the the paint application?

I tried all kinds of methods with various levels of success, but what worked the best for me was using light gage copper wire. The stuff you see at craft stores to hold it relatively tight to the glass. You want the stuff you can easily twist with your fingers. It takes more time getting that done than painting the limbs. But it's important that the pattern is touching the glass surface evenly.

You do get some over spray on the edges, but nothing a little 220 grit with a palm sander won't polish up without effecting your tiller or draw weight.

I saw some heavy plastic gutter guard material that had round holes that might look cool too.

This last time I tried some lighter weight plastic flexible mesh with a thinner Diamond shape it was tube shaped. I thought if I could use a tube that would just pull over the limbs like a sock, it would take all the meticulous wiring out of it. Great idea, but it failed miserably due to the tapered width profile shape.  I suppose you could  very carefully cut the stuff so it fit perfectly and stayed tight, but even trying that it was lifting up off of the glass.  I messed with it for an hour or so, before going back to my tried and true method.

I've done some pretty wild air brush painting in the past, and learned the technique of painting realistic flame patterns. That was fun, but time consuming.

You can also do some really cool looking patterns using clear glass, and using silk under the glass. I did some leopard skin limbs before using silk.  But be warned... that silk under glass will bump your draw weight, and it's tricky getting it to lay down uniformly when putting epoxy over it. The stuff stretches easily and distorts the pattern.....   all kinds of fun stuff to try!