Red Flake Looks Orange

[mark poulson]

Help!

I'm trying to make some watermelon/red flake worms.

I've been using the .15 red flake, but it winds up looking orange when I pour.

I'm using Bear's med. plastic, Del's flake, and a combination of Del's and LC coloring.

I use light watermelon, green pumpkin, and black coloring until I get the shade I want.

I'm also adding salt.

My worms look more orange after the pour, and the flake definately looks orange.

When I hold one next to a Yamamoto watermelon/red flake worm it's like night and day how different they are.

Any suggestions on how to achieve the same Yamamoto coloring would really be appreciated.

[patrick reif]

when I was trying to make GP worms with blue flake, it ended up as a watermelon with blue flake.

Blue and yellow make green.

I had to add red colorant to the mix for it to brown back out to the GP I really wanted.

Orange is made by mixing red and yellow.

Primary colors are red, yellow and blue.

Maybe you need to add a touch of blue to offset the color change. Chunk in a quarter of a blue crayon if you don't have the colorant

Try it with a one cup mix and see.

[mark poulson]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a try, and let you know what happens.

i never considered that the color in the plastic could be tinting the red, making it look orange.

Makes sense.

I assumed that the red flake was actually changing to orange somehow. Doh!!!!!!

[gone2long]

All I can add is my red flake is red when cooked in my watermelon so not sure if adding color its the real answer may be a bad batch of flake?

[mark poulson]

All I can add is my red flake is red when cooked in my watermelon so not sure if adding color its the real answer may be a bad batch of flake?

Hmmmm....

I have some .35 red flake that I will try instead, to see if the flake itself is the problem.

[mark poulson]

Well, I tried the larger flake, .035, also from Dels, and bought at the same time as the .015 red.

It also looks orange in my watermelon.

Next, I'll add a couple of drops of blue to see if that helps.

Any other ideas would be very much appreciated.

[crappieklepto]

Could be getting too hot red flake is bad about curling and bleeding when it gets to hot!

[mark poulson]

Could be getting too hot red flake is bad about curling and bleeding when it gets to hot!

I've kept the temp. to 340. Any cooler, and I can't inject more than one cavity.

Do you think that's too hot?

Edited April 11, 2012 by mark poulson

[crappieklepto]

No thats not to hot! Are you adding the flake at the very last?

[mark poulson]

Yes, I add both the flake and the salt after I've brought the plastic up to 340, and have already added my coloring.

But I stir it enough when I add the salt and flake that I need to put it back in the micro for another 15+- seconds before I inject it.

Is that last microwave session what's changing the flake color?

I'm going to pour some today, and I'll try adding the salt, reheating, and then adding the flake without reheating before I inject it.

Fingers crossed.

Edited April 18, 2012 by mark poulson

[crappieklepto]

I have to agree with the other poster almost has to be a bad batch of flake!

[mark poulson]

I was going to try again today. I'll let you guys know what happens. I am ready for it to be operator error, which seems to be my strong suit.

[crappieklepto]

Man I know all about operator error! I use the poly flake from hobby lobby in my watermelon red. You just got gotta make sure that its poly flake and it real fine, but I like the effect you get from it!