Like the song says…“My Favorite Color is Chrome” [{(-_-)}]
Jerry
Hey Jerry…Do you know how many Minimum wage types that Kermit Weeks employs to polish his mustangs??? About 30!!!
Barney
This will give you an idea what BMF looks like on a Mustang.
Enjoy!
Leon
Here is a current photo of a beautifully restored show plane. Don’t let that handsome devil[:-^] in the shot distract you. This has a pretty good representation of the wings on a 51 and of a highly polished skin. But one of the problems using a modern photo of restored war birds is there may be changes of mods that don’t accurately portray the a/c as it was 60+ years ago. As an example, note the antennae wire configuration. It’s a little hard to see butit goes form the tip of the mast, to the tail, then bck down to a hole just above the reflection of my head… that’s OF my haed…not OFF my head.[|(] And the entire cockpit, except for the IP, was painted a pristine gloss white.
This Mustang is at the Palm Springs Air Museum.
A good smooth polished finish can be achieved by spraying the model with Model Master Gloss Black and when dry to the touch, rub in SnJ Aluminum Poeder.
Barney
argh! well, i had bookmarked this post and viewed it briefly the other day…enough to realize that it answered my questions regarding wing treatment. i just tried to go back only to find out that ARC has changed their user forum and hasn’t bothered to forward old urls…i’ve been searching through the forums to no avail. If anyone comes across this one please forward it my way…it had some great photos in it!!
The new URL for ARC’s forum is on the top bar of the home page.
Barney
Ya, found that…it’s the specific post (mentioned above) that i’m not able to find…
bcamp Here you go it’s at the top of the props section.
http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=21362&st=0
Ah! Of course, the props section…why didn’t i think of that 
Thanks mkhoot!
Another question…what is “Factory NAA” NMF? : )
I’m running across this everywhere and haven’t seen an explanation yet=
NAA stands for North American Aviation the makers of the P-51. Factory NAA NMF means the natural metal finish it left the factory in.
If you go with Alclad II Chrome, which I highly recommend, you can use Alclad II Gloss Black base if you let it dry/cure at least a week before spraying on the Alclad II Chrome. In fact… I recommend you let each coat of Alclad II cure for a week before doing anything… always good to have another project on the bench when doing NMFs to keep temptation of trying to do too much at bay. It also helps the curing process if there’s low humidity. This time of year is great for painting NMFs.
Quagmyre…How you you explain the still tacky C-47 that I painted last March> I used Alclad II Gloss Black Base, let it dry for over a week. I then shot light coats of Alclad II Polished Aluminum only to have the darned base coat go tacky again. And 10 months later, the model still cannot be handled to complete the detailing.
I agree with Barney…I’ve had terrible results with the Alclad black base. I’m not sure that stuff ever drys. The Alclad clear base, however, is wonderfull stuff.
Jerry
Barney, I have heard that many, many times. And I have also heard others say they have never had the problem. So based on that, this will be something that will come up again and again. If you are using an Alclad that needs a gloss black base, I suggest a coat of primer, and Krylon gloss black decanted into a jar ala Swanny’s method of using a straw. The one time I did use it I go the “For Plastic” and did not use a primer and is crazed the plastic a little. Some test on sheet styrene with a primer first went just fine. Turned out… for the duraluminum I was using… I didn’t need the black anyway. Oh well… live and learn. I have masked Alclad II after 20 minutes dry time and had no problems.
Wing-nut: I have since used Tamiya TS-14 Gloss Black on another model, de-canted as you suggested and it works beautifully…and maybe one day the C-47 will finally cure and I’ll be able to finish it.
Barney
It sounds like a week was not enough. From my experience humidity plays a factor in the curing of Alclad lacquers. I guess I have been fortunate using the stuff in my basement with a dehumidifier right by my bench to keep the basement real nice an dry. I’m sorry you had a bad experience with Alclad.