Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way of painting the silver front part of Civillian jet aircraft engines.
Most of the engines are white, grey or painted in special livery colours, however the ring which surrounds the air intake fan is usually silver.
Thanks
Tony
I don’t have an answer for you but I know there are several experts on these forums that will give you the answer you are looking for. I just want to say [#welcome] to the forum.
[#welcome] to the FSM forum.
As for your question, I’ve only built a few civilian aircraft, and none featured that. However, you may wish to look into Alclad lacquer. I hear they’re very good at replicating that polished silver finish.
Also, there’s always bare metal foil.
I have used bare metel foil and it takes some practice. In order to smooth out the foil in the inside of the narcelle, I made a burnishing pen out of boxwood with a ball at the end that was close to the contour of the narcel. Foil also will look out of scale on anything under 1/48.
I think the paint method with the new metal paints would be better. Mask off the area with Frisket or Drafting tape, paint, then polish like any other metal replication.
That particular part you are referring to is the anti-ice ring. hot engine compressor air is routed in there to keep ice off the intake. They start life being highly polished, almost chrome in appearance, but as time goes on they begin to abrade and roughen so the finish dulls. Same thing applies to the wing leading edges.
This gives you a lot of leeway in the treatment. Bare-Metal foil is the most realistic if you can get it to burnish down without wrinkles. Testors silver enamel replicates the duller finish well. Also, at the hardware stores, I came across a “chrome” spray paint that dries to a sheen somewhat in between the other two.
Many thanks for all of the replies. It’s given me some great pointers.
Kind regards
Tony