Heya Fellas,
I’m planning to paint a P-51H in almost all bare-metal
using silver paint. I was wondering what type of clear
coat to use? Ordinarily a war-bird would have a flat
coat, but what about a bare-metal bird? Is a gloss coat
in order to make the metal shinnier?
Also, what about the black propellor on a Mustang.
Glossy or Matte? I painted it using flat colors, and it
looked good, but I just gloss coated it prior to decals
and it looks good that way too!
Thanks,
WH
You can use just about any of the name brand products such as Model Master, Floquil etc if you want a solvent thinned product. You can use them straight as they come, Gloss, Flat or do a mixture of 50 / 50 or what ever amounts you want depending on the sheen you want to achieve. Remember to thin if airbrushing. Look at publications with photos of Bare Metal Aircraft to get an idea of what look you want. Cannot comment on Acrylics as I have not used them.
If a laquer based product is open to you, give the Alclad II product a try.
I’d say that your plane would have to be shiny. My father used to tell me that when they had air dominance they stripped the cammo paint off their aircraft and would go out and wax them when they could.