What's the best shade of Alclad II to replicate this bare metal?

[Tony P]

http://www.adastron.com/lockheed/electra/h7vhuzo.htm

Am I right in thinking that Highly polished Aluminium would be the shade?

Thanks in advance.

Edited May 17, 2008 by Tony P

[MickeyThickey]

THat's probably what I'd go with. Maybe spice it up with a bit of chrome or stainless steel.

[jenshb]

Equally important is the quality of the base coat. For this to work with Chrome or Hilghly Polished Aluminium, your black base coat must be as smooth as glass. If you have orange peel on your base coat, then your finish will not be as shiny and it will be bumpy.

Jens

[juanchopancho]

Alclad sells a black base coat, you can find some at Squadron Mail.

[DC10Oiller]

I've done well using gloss black enamel (MM) as a base for my chrome parts. And yes it does have to be very smooth. There was also a post here (can't remember exactly when) where someone used gloss white for a base coat under polished aluminum and it came great too.

[trojansamurai]

When I built the 1/72 Special Hobby Elektra Junior, I tried chrome on one wing and polished aluminum on the other wing to see how they looked. The chrome gave me a deeper, darker finish that looked closer to your photo. The aluminum looked a little light in tone and made the model look toy-like.

In both cases, I used an undercoat of gloss black enamel that was allowed to cure 2 weeks. Once cured, I polished the black to a mirror-like finish with Micromesh prior to applying the Alclad.

I think for smaller scales, chrome may be better, and as you go to larger scale models, the polished aluminum may be more appropriate.

Edited May 20, 2008 by trojansamurai