Alclad question

[mike_45]

Hello All,

 

Since Model Master is going away and thus the pains of using buffing aluminum paint I have finally branched out and am trying both Alclad and Vallejo Metal.  I did one bird in Vallejo, I learned a lot about surface prep there that I carried over to my Alclad bird.  I am not ready to totally say yes to one over the other yet.  But I have an issue  I was curious about here.

 

Painting my Eduard P51D.  I wanted it to be shiny, so I bought some Alclad Polished Aluminum.  I primed the plane in the Alclad Gloss Black, then painted it with the Polished Aluminum.  Then I buffed it with Micro Mesh.  Wow, its like a mirror now.  It is blinding me as it sits next to me as I type this.  

 

What is my next course of action here?  Can I pick up some more Alclad, like airframe alumnium or duraluminum and reshoot it?  Or will it still be just as shiny?  As I have gathered that Alclad will really show its undercoat through, and since this one is so shiny already...will a different sheen tone it down a bit?

 

Someone on another site in a very old thread said they would do this and then spray model master metalizer over it, but that seems kind of backward.

[Bob Beary]

If you want it shiny, your next step is to leave it alone.

 

Any other Alclad coat will kill the shine. In fact, any other coat of anything will kill the shine to varying degrees.

 

Bob

[mike_45]

Thats what I am wanting...Its way to shiny right now.  Looks like a mirror!  

 

 

[Bob Beary]

The way I see this, if you spray any other shade of Alclad over what you now have, it will be that new shade. I don't think any of the underlying Polished Aluminum will show through.

 Is there a small panel on the underside that you could mask off and use a test bed? Maybe over spray a VERY light coat?

 

Bob

[mike_45]

Thanks Bob that is what I was thinking.  I only have polished aluminum, but I remember before I buffed it, it was a bit duller.  So I think to use this stuff up that I have I am going to shoot it tonight and see what happens.  If it mutes a bit I hope I will not buff it.  But am prepared to order some different colors.  

 

What you said about the underlying polished aluminum not showing through was what I was wanting to know 🙂

[TheRealMrEd]

Actually, you have two good options:  1) Overcoat the aircraft with ANY of the Alclad II clear topcoats, preferably Light Sheen (ALC-311) , or Semi-Matt (ALC-312).

 

Polished Aluminum on the F-84E on the right, ditto over-coated with Light Sheen on the F-84B on the left:

 

 

or 2) shoot a thin layer of around 95% Alclad II thinner, mixed with around 5% plain Alclad II Aluminum (you can play with the ratio -- you won't hurt it -- start light first), and shoot it over the top.  YF-105A shown below has several Alclad II colors over-coated this way to sort of kill the shine, and reduce the darker extreme colors at the same time. The lightest color is the Polished Aluminum (originally):

 

 

Duck Soup!

 

Ed

Edited May 23, 2020 by TheRealMrEd
typo

[mike_45]

On 5/22/2020 at 11:04 PM, TheRealMrEd said:

Actually, you have two good options:  1) Overcoat the aircraft with ANY of the Alclad II clear topcoats, preferably Light Sheen (ALC-311) , or Semi-Matt (ALC-312).

 

Polished Aluminum on the F-84E on the right, ditto over-coated with Light Sheen on the F-84B on the left:

 

 

or 2) shoot a thin layer of around 95% Alclad II thinner, mixed with around 5% plain Alclad II Aluminum (you can play with the ratio -- you won't hurt it -- start light first), and shoot it over the top.  YF-105A shown below has several Alclad II colors over-coated this way to sort of kill the shine, and reduce the darker extreme colors at the same time. The lightest color is the Polished Aluminum (originally):

 

 

Duck Soup!

 

Ed

 Ed,

 

I went ahead and reshot it and it toned it down a lot.  I wont be buffing it in the future 🙂