Can I use MM gloss black under Alclad?

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Painting and airbrushing
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Hi everyone! I’m about 95% done with an F-84. All that’s left is the painting. I’ve used Alcald once on a Mustang and loved it. For the base coat I used Krylon gloss black. While it worked out okay, it went on with sort of a pebbly effect which I had to gently sand down. Actually the first coat did not look very good at all and I ended up stripping it down and sanding the plane with polishing cloths before trying the Krylon a second time. I was wondering if I could use Model Master gloss black as the undercoat rather than the Krylon. I thought I’ve heard of people doing this but only if they used certain shades of Alclad and not others. Can anybody lend any insight?

Thanks!

Eric

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It should work fine as long as it isn’t Model Master Acryl which is an acrylic. I haven’t had good luck using acrylics underneath Alclad.

The only two colors that really need the black base are Chrome and Polished Aluminum. The others supposedly don’t have to have a black undercoat.

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the only acrylic I have had luck with under Alclad is Future… it seems to be a recent addition to the primers they list. (still isn’t listed on the bottle, it’s on the website) But the black enamel acrylic should work fine for ya!!! I’ve seen some review shots with it used under Alclad that made it look like a mirror finish when done… even for the non shiny colors!

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Ditto the use of Future for all but the polished shades. You can use MM gloss black but why not use a lacquer based primer such as Krylon to complement the lacquer based Alclad. I think you will like the results better.[:)]

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Thanks to all for the replies. As I mentioned before, that Mustang I finished with Alclad turned out so beautifully! I’m sold on the stuff! I was just a little “put off” (for lack of a better term) by the fact that I had to sand down the Krylon a bit to give it a mirror-like surface. It was just weird. When I sprayed the Krylon on, about 90% of it went on nice and glass-like. The remaining 10% was not as nice. After putting in a bit of elbow grease I got it to look realy purty. I was hoping to minimize the work. I figured I’d have better control by running MM gloss black enamel through my air brush but I couldn’t remember if you could use Alclad over MM enamels.

As far as Future is concerned, I’ve just never had the best of luck getting a super slick finish on it. It always cures sort of pebbly. I’m sure the problem is with me and not the product. I don’t thin it and I usually have my compressor set to around 18 psi. I’ll figure it all out some day.

Thanks for all the tips, guys! I haven’t posted many pics lately. I’ll try to do that once I’m all finished. I especially like to show the planes when I’ve gotten help and advice from the folks here on the forum. It makes me feel like we ALL worked on it together. :slight_smile:

Eric