OK, here’s the boggle. First time user, long time reader on Alclad products.
3 nights ago I laid a coat of Alclad Aluminium onto my P-38J, all the prep work was done as required, primed, glossed with black, sanded smooth as a bubba’s bot bot, and all with the Alclad products, but now I have hairline cracks appearing through the finish, and I didn’t lay the Alclad on to thick, it was all done just right.
Only reason I got is expansion and contraction of the plastic itself, seeing as I live in the desert, 44 deg C during the day and down to 20 deg C at night. Has anyone else had this problem???
Secondly, how the hell do you hide the edge of your carrier film from your decals!!!
This Alclad makes the edge stick out like ants in rice, and I laid them down with Micro Set & Sol!
Was your primer coat fully cured? If you cover after 4 hours or before 48 hours, the primer is in a state of curing, and may have shrunk under the Alcad. I’ve only used Alcad on interior surfaces of my AC, so I have yet to apply decals to it. Can’t offer any suggestions there, other than trimming the decals closely before application.
Hope this helps.
Hmmmm, it was only 24 hours before I applied the gloss black, so that might be it.
Can disguise most of them with shading and weathering, gotta stop being so impatient I guess.
I’ll remember that for the next one I do, just not sure which craft to model from the same era.
Any ideas anyone!!!
Oh, sorted the decal problem. After they have cured for a while (24 hours), further applications of Micro Sol almost hid the edges totally, unless you look REALLY close, this only worked with the ones I applied over the Micro Set, so go figure.
I just painted some exhausts with Alclad II chrome. I primed with Tamiya gloss black in the spray can, and cured for about 12 hours. The exhausts came out looking great !
No problems whatsoever.
I normally let the gloss black (Testors Model Master) cure for a week or 10 days prior to applying Alclad and haven’t had any difficulty with cracking. To date I haven’t applied decals to any Alclad painted areas; I’ve used it solely for exhaust areas.