Can I seal Alclad airframe aluminum?

[Lucas C.]

I just finished spraying a fairly decent coat of Alclad Airframe Aluminum and would like to seal it with Alclad's Aqua Gloss, but when I looked at the paint bottle, it says sealing is not recommended with Airframe Aluminum. The Aqua bottle, on the other hand, has directions on how to use it to seal Alclad's Hi-Shine paints (of which Airframe Aluminum is one). I am therefore confused and hesitant to spray the Aqua and chance ruining a finish I worked hard to achieve. Any thoughts or experiences with both products? Thanks!

[CrowTRobot]

I normally spray a coat of Future over Alclad with no ill effects. I've never tried Aqua Gloss, but when in doubt it's best to experiment on some scrap plastic so you can tell exactly what the effect would be without jeopardizing the finish on your model.

[72linerlover]

Hi, Lucas.

Probably Alclad Aqua are designed for the Alclad range, but I've never tested them.

In my opinion the "hi shine" finishes are so nice that everything you put over will make them worst.

I don't know the reason you think to seal your bmf, but if your concern are the decals, trust me, there is no need to do it.

The decals adhere just fine with no silvering also without setting solutions. Look here.

Regards

Euge

[nightiemission]

Hi, Lucas.

Probably Alclad Aqua are designed for the Alclad range, but I've never tested them.

In my opinion the "hi shine" finishes are so nice that everything you put over will make them worst.

I don't know the reason you think to seal your bmf, but if your concern are the decals, trust me, there is no need to do it.

The decals adhere just fine with no silvering also without setting solutions. Look here.

Regards

Euge

I concur, no need to seal Alclad. IMHO, sealing Alclad would diminish the overall effect.

[Lucas C.]

Thanks, guys. I'm a bit worried about the long-term adhesion of the decals and their ability to conform to detail. Silvering is not my main concern. I've sealed normal Alclad finishes before and there is a slight lessening of the effect, but I can live with that. I've never used a High-shine Alclad paint before, and if a sealer will really ruin the effect, I won't seal it, but it looks like Aqua might be usable, at least according to what it says on the bottle, so that's why I'm interested.

[Sebastijan]

I've used Alclad Honey Primer for sealing Alclad finishes before with great results - I found it doesn't change the finish a bit. It does have a unique smell to it though.

[oppenheimerj]

Lucas in my opinion you dont need to seal Alclad, i have done several model with alclad and the decals adhere pretty well, here you can see a model done by me a year ago and is perfect with out sealing the alclad

[MikeEM]

Wouldn't the thickness or difference in decal finish be apparent if foregoing a sealant?

I've never used Alclad Airframe Aluminum and probably don't know the difference between that and other NMF's.

[Lucas C.]

I applied a couple of decals as a test and, unfortunately, they did not conform very well. I went ahead and used Aqua gloss to apply a thin sealing coat and have started decaling. It's a good thing I did, because several decals need to conform to very prominent surface detail, and I've had to use strong solutions to coax them to snuggle down. With only a thin coat on, the shine of the airframe aluminum has changed a bit, but still looks good. It's not duller, just different (hard to describe). We'll see how the final coat looks.

Edited February 4, 2015 by Lucas C.