I’m ready to start painting my 1/48 Monogram P-47D bubbletop. I really like the results I’ve gotten with my Floquil paints like Old Silver and Platinum Mist but I’d like to try something a little different this time. I’ve used Alclads twice in the past. The first attempt was sheer joy. I think I managed to Forest Gump my way through it and it turned out great in spite of myself. The second attempt just didn’t turn out great at all and I’ve stayed away from it ever since.
Seeing as how I’m batting .500, I’d really like to give it another try. After looking at some good high quality pics of P-47s from WW2 as well as watching some WW2 era videos of the plane on YouTube, I’ve decided that I’d like to try to give my plane a pretty reflective natural metal finish. Mind you, I am NOT talking about a mirror finish like you’d see in an air show! I’m talking something that was not heavily oxidized and was kept in good condition by her ground grew.
Based on that, what would be your recommendations for Alclad shades to use? And should I go with a black undercoat? White? Something else? I’d love to hear your opinions on this.
Since you want a shiny but not brilliant finish my advice is use either polished aluminum (less shiny ) or airframe alum ( more shiny but not chrome looking ). over a gloss black undercoat. Spend some time on the undercoat cuz the better that is ,the better your finish will look. Sand/polish all the boogers and orange peel etc. with 2000 to 6000 grit wet paper.
While I don’t have so much experience with alclad paints, I’d recomment going for the glossiest thing there is, and should it ever get too bright for you, you can always overcoat it with different clear coats to tone it down as you please - you always need a clear coat on your alclad to prevent it from deteriorating - and it wears down every time the model is handled, and so on.
Hope it helps, good luck with your project, and have a nice day
Duraluminum is nice and doesn’t require a gloss black base. Its not too shiny and not overly dull. A gloss black base would act as preshading though, if you skip around some panel lines with the airbrush.
Hi, Eric - I am rather new to Alclad myself, so with only three builds finished with it so far I’ll lend my limited experience. I replicate military aluminum finish in service, well maintained but not polished. Personally, I didn’t care as much for the gloss black primer coat as I do the Alclad gray primer, that seems more in line with what I try to get when the NMF is applied. So far I prefer Aluminum 101, compared to the others.
I think Pawel is correct, when you have the NMF to your liking you have several clear coats available, to make the end result as you want it. And I think a clear coat for protection against handling is needed, as well as for sealing decals. For me, Alclad has been easy to get familiar with and user friendly, but a SMOOTH primer finish is a definite must. Best of luck with it.
Thanks to everyone for the great responses! They’ve definitely been supportive and have given me more of a determination to make this work.
I’ve seen a couple mentions of the use of a clear top coat. Is there a specific one I should use? I’ve heard that Alclad has a glossy one but is that the one I want to use for the type of finish I’m hoping to capture?
Also, I have primed the model with Tamiya’s grey primer from the rattle can and it’s as smooth as a baby’s you-know-what. What’s everyone’s thought on using Alclad on top of it. I know that Alclad can be pretty hot but will it attack the Tamiya primer?
Again, thank you all for the great insight!
Eric
(Edit) JayJay, that’s a great looking Thunderbolt! Which kit manufacturer is that? Is it the Hasegawa one?
I used Testors gloss black enamel in the small bottle under Alclad polished aluminum on my old Monogram Voodoo. If you spray light coats to let the black come thru it will be shinier but if you spray slightly heavier coverage the shine will be less but still retain the metallic tone. I then shot some Alclad Aqua Gloss over which diminished the shine just a tad making it look well maintained but not a mirror finish.
I then shot some panels with other shades to get some variation. As you can see, the finish looks well maintained but not like a mirror except the fuel tanks which received a lighter coat letting some of the black peek thru creating a mirror finish.
Here are 2 examples of my Alclad experences. #1 the F104, you were so kind to supply decals for, was shot with a gloss black (MM acrylic) base.
Next is an F 100 done with a mix of gloss black with gloss grey sprayed in areas over the black to make it look a little weathered. That’s with just the Alclad over the base black and grey, no clear coat. You can really tell the difference with the two different colors. By the way, the fuel tanks were just gloss black base only.
So many models! Never enough time! Plasticjunkie, I love your F-101! I truly have a soft spot in my heart for that plane. I’ve got one in my stash that I am just chomping at the bit to build. Now all I need is the time to get to it. Ugh!
Steve, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the side-by-side comparison of the techniques!!! That is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to find somewhere somehow. And I’m still so very happy that I was able to help out in some teeny tiny way by contributing some decals for your F-104. If you can recall, what was the main shade of Alclad you used on your -104?
JayJay, thanks for the info on the kit! I think the last P-47 I built was the bubbletop kit from Hasegawa. It’s been probably a good seven or eight years since I built that and I remember it went together quite nicely. Right now I’m working on the Monogram kit. I bought it off a friend of mine who was asking for far less than what Mr. Hasegawa was asking. Ha-ha-ha!
It was Polished Aluminium. The 100 was Aircraft Aluminum, same as the drop tanks, You can really tell the difference the base coat makes.
Aircraft Aluminium seems to has a greater shine than Polished Aluminium.
Edit. On second thought, the 100 was Polished Aluminium mixed with White Aluminium. The drop tanks are still Aircraft Aluminum because they would not be weathering as much, at least in my mind.
I was 1 at the time.
I have had the opposite experience. I can get a mirror-like finish with the polished aluminum over gloss black, much more polished than with the straight aluminum. However, to do so you must put it on VERT thin Too thick a coat really dulls down the shine, so I dial the flow way back and lay the stuff on slowly. You need to know when to stop- when you reach maximum shine.
The 104 was my first Alclad experience, so I may have put too much on, I tend to over apply paint rather than under. A flaw that I’m still working to correct, regardless, both colors are very sparkly.
I have only used pollished allu and airframe allu (a little dark allu aswel) over gloss black enamel with good success.
I have also learned that as you build it up is is initially very dark and the more coats you shoot on the lighter and more shiny it gets.
I will shoot 3 light coats on, mask off the areas off I want to be dark than shoot more on.
This way you get a nice tone difference without having to buy different paints and the difference is more subtle.
If you want a real shiny plane seal it all with alclad clear gloss, if you want to tome it down then used the light sheen clear…right down to semi matt for a dull look.
Here is my Hun in airframe allu over gloss black with some pannels masked darker
Then dulled down with semi matt…
My 104 was done also with airframe allu, but dulled to semi sheen level…
I also experimented with airframe allu straight onto pollished plastic on mi MiG and it gave a much lighter look.
Here’s my question, and perhaps Don can answer this.
How can one get the smudges, aluminium imperfections, streaks etc. that seem to be on NMF AC?
Here is a picture of Precious Metal however I could’n fine exactly what I was looking for. Hoping you know what I’m talking about.
Thank you again for the wonderful input. After reading them all, I have finally decided what I’m going to do. I’m going to send my P-47 to Theuns for him to paint.
In all seriousness, I think I’ve learned more about the various shades of Alclad in this thread than I have from reading similar topics in other forums. I can’t thank you guys enough.
Today after work, I’m going to pick up a couple of new bottles of the stuff. Interestingly enough, I need to stop off at a local train hobby shop. They carry the stuff. The only other place I could get it in town was at a real Ma & Pa hobby shop that used to be in the area but they, like so many others, closed their doors not too long ago.
Just as a matter of interest, I have tried the alclad gloss black primer but it really didn’t work for me.
I prime the model as per usual with tamiya fine primer , sand it with 4000 MM, then shoot on gloss black enamel (tamiya), pollish that with 12000 MM and it is ready for alclad.
I also decal straight over the alclad, no gloss coat needed, I just seal it aterwards to protect the paint, agian I tried different clearcoats but only alclad clearcoat doesn’t take away from the look of alclad.
The biggest thing with alclad is to have a flawless finnish, and shoot it on in thin coats, the first 1-2 you can hardly see. Usually at 12-15 psi.
Clean the AB with lacure thinners afterwards.
@ MC, the thing you talk about is the thin metal “oil canning” between the formers /stringers. The proccess of riviting also slightly stretches the metal.
The “swirly” look is the way the pollisher pollished the metal, I have seen this on the Beech 18 where I worked.
