I wanted to try Alclad for a NMF. I had this 1/72 Mustang in the stash and tried my hand at it. For a first time I think I did fairly well, definitely learned I need a perfect finish before putting it down. This was more of a trial with paint techniques, can’t wait to do my next one! Also did my fist “scratch” part on this, in reality it was just gluing in some filler styrene to the inside of the flaps, but I’m counting that as an introductory to scratch lol!
In the pic above you can see the insert of the styrene, I just didnt like the look of having a hollow wing where some mechanical flaps should have been.
Well thats it for now. Decals will go on today and I’ll try and post a few pics of that when its done. Like I said before, this was more of a test of techniques, not a show model. There are various issues that I didn’t fix cause I either thought I could hide them or just wasn’t worried about the flaw that much. One thing though, I am frustrated by the few spots where the tape ripped up the paint. It shall forever be the more nerve wracking part of modeling for me.
Looks nice, Squatch.
Which Alclad shade is that, and did you spray it over primer, or bare plastic? I ask because I have not had too bad of an issue with tape lifting.
It’s just the aluminum alclad and I sprayed it over a black gloss primer. I think I didn’t give it enough time to cure. I got a little too eager. Lessons learned for the next time round
Looks great Squatch. The blue is very convincing too. What did you use for it?
Joe
Looks good.
I’ve had tape lifting happen with alclad. Drying time doesn’t seem to matter as much, as I had it happen a week later. A clear coat over the aluminum finish helps a lot. Also, sanding the primer coat really well seems to help the alclad stick better. The good news, at least for me, is areas where tape lift occurred were very easy to fix, and not very noticable.
Lawdog- I used Vallejo blue. They are great paints for airbrushing.
That’s weird that it lifted as I have heard many say it is virtually bullet proof. The thing with Alclad is surface prep must be as perfect as possible as any little scratch or bump will show. I have used Alclad with excellent results but have never taped over it, so it’s something to look out for then. One thing I learned with Alclad is that the underlying paint must be as smooth as possible in order to get that smooth metallic finish, otherwise it may come out pebbly or grainy.
Another method I have used and works well is spraying different shades of primer by masking off panels and shooting black, grey, darkening or lightening the shades then spray on the Alclad which will result in multiple metallic shades. The glossier the under paint, the shinier the Alclad comes out, flat paint produces weathered or oxidized panels.
Ya it was definitely the primer that caused the lifting. I itially put down a flat black coat of acrylic and then went back with a gloss cost. Just need to prep the surface better next time. I have an F-82 in the works I plan on doing a thread on, hopefully I’ll do a better job with the alclad
Try gloss enamel instead. I use the Testors in the small square bottle. Don’t know if using acrylic is a good combo with the Alclad. I had acrylic paint lift up when removing masking tape so that may be the issue here.
Normally I dont have any issue with the acrylic paint lifting up when I mask. I’ll try the enamel though, I think I have some in my stash. I may try a lacquer as well since the alclad is a lacquer.