By the kind request of mucker, here are some progress pics of Tamiya’s 1:48 Raiden Jack. I wanted to give this one the usual Japanese ‘crappy paint job and fading to the original aluminum’ look. I couldn’t find any how-to’s online (sorry DrewH, your e-mail of the article was unreadable, thanks anyway!). So…I devised a method on my own. I haven’t heard or seen this idea so I’m going to fumble thru it and hope it turns out. I ran some experiments and it seems to be feesible so far. I’ll refer to it as the ‘fade to foil’ method.
First, the experiments. I painted acrylic over a piece of foil to check for adhesion. The paint, after a good dry time, seems to adhere pretty well to the foil. Then, with a variety of tools, I tried ‘removing’ the paint for the effect I wanted. I used a toothpick for chipping and scrathes, sand paper for a fading effect and paint solvent for large area removal. The solvent and sandpaper won’t hurt the foil which is what I was afraid of if I had used Alclad as the basecoat. I don’t trust my skills THAT much yet.
This is the paint solvent I use
I primed as usual with acrylic primer. Then, I foiled the areas that would have faded or chipped away on the actual plane.
Then, I preshaded as usual.
Next, is the final topcoats and painted on insignia. I’ll post more when I get some work done.
11/24
OK, I got the final coat on with the unfinished painted insignia. I’m painting the wing insignias on because they are going to get a little rubbed off too. Masking went real well. I was afraid the paint might lift off of the foil but I was careful and no problems.
Next will come the chipping and fading. I’ll post more then…