I don’t usually do model cars (two in the last decade, including a Wallace & Gromit Anti-Pesto van). However, recently on eBay there was this Tamiya Mini Cooper at such a good price that it would be rude not to have a bid…
Anyway, it’s a very fine kit, with good-quality chrome trim on all the larger chromed parts. On some of the smaller, thinner, chrome-plated parts on the real thing (window edge trim, bodyshell edge, no chrome is provied.
What thoughts do people have on representing these thin chromed parts. Ideas that occur to me include:
Chrime silver paint, painted freehand with a thin brush;
Chrome or standard Bare Metal Foil;
Bright silver marker or gel pens
Mask bodyshell or lgazing, spray Alclad II Chrime over gloss black base coat.
All these have worked for me on small silver details on non-car kits in the past. Is there a consensus on what works best in these situations on model cars?
Among my car building buddies we use a mix of alclad on some parts, Bare Metal foil on others. If a part is an integral part of body or some other part, like windshield frame, it gets BMF. If a standalone piece like a bumper, Alclad. Rather than the pens, which I have used in the past, I do very small parts, or touch up flaws on kit chrome, with Floquil “Old Silver.”
Another trick- on racing cars and show cars, kits often finish in chrome parts that are polished aluminum on the prototype. I spray these parts with Testors dullcoat to get a polished aluminum look.
Good point re the body trim, but I was planning on spraying the bodyshell first, then doing the chrome trim. I spray aircraft canopies all the time, so masking off areas 1mm wide is no big deal. By contrast, getting bits of BMF less than 1mm wide to stick in place can be.
The BMF does not need to be the same width as the trim stripe- it can be wider. This is generally how folks do it. Cut a strip several mm wide, apply it, and nestle down carefully along the edges with point of a toothpick or end of fingernail. Then, take an X-acto with #11 blade and cut along the outside of trim. Remove excess chrome and it will look fine.
Bare Metal Foil? I take it that BMF stands for that. Avoid it like the plague!!! It’s crap, and it looks unconvincing. Use the Alclad paint on all your models - it looks the most realistic. The foil just looks dull, and cheap! That’s stuff made for junk yard cars, and RC cars that will be crashed. You want your models to look convincing - not amaturish! As soon as I can get some Alclad, or Killer Chrome, I’m going to finish all my cars with it. I want my vehicles to look as good as physically possible with the utmost realism as I can with what I have, and can do with the skills, and available materials on the market. Foil just doesn’t cut it for me anymore!
I think that’s possibly a little unfair on BMF. While I would accept that Chrome Alclad II can, with skill and practice, give a very realistic result, I think the same can be said for BMF. This Hsaegawa 1/48 F-86F was covered almost entirely with BMF:
and so were the shiny bits, especially the hub caps and ligght fittings, on this Airfix Anti-Pesto Van:
