Alclad with an airbrush newbie, ok or bad idea?

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Painting and airbrushing
1

Just wondering how fussy Alclad is. I have a Paashe VLS but don’t really use it much, mostly as a glorified rattlecan. I’d really like to give Alclad a try but don’t know if it might be a bit advanced for me or if its pretty straight forward to spray. I plan to use the Krylon gloss black paint Swanny suggests since I already have several cans of the stuff. I know the base coat as to be pretty much perfect, just wondering about the Alclad itself.

So give it a try or get more comfortable with the airbrush first?

2

It goes on pretty well. It does take some practice though. I recommend practicing on an old model to become familiar with how it behaves. Spray it at a lower psi so it won’t dry before it hits the model. This will cause a gritty texture which will have to be sanded off and retried. However, can’t beat the finish. They also can be ‘polished’ with a very small grit pad (8000-120000 to give more of a lustre. Hope this helps…

Andy

3

Alclad is very AB friendly. Don’t thin it & don’t spray too heavy. Two or three light coats will give better results than one heavy coat.

Regards, Rick

4

Thanks, from what I’ve read it doesn’t sound particularly difficult but I wanted to check before getting too involved.

5

Alclad is fairly straight forward to use, as long as you follow the directions. The only thing you have to be careful about is keeping the paint aggitated so the metal remains suspended in the carrier. there were times when I wasn’t getting a decent finish and it was because the metal had sunk to the bottom of the jar (bottom feed Iwata eclipse).

But, there is a much easier way to get a more uniform finish…[;)] /forums/928189/ShowPost.aspx

-Fred