Yes I sprung for this kit because of the fit of tamiya. There was a revell mustang for $16 but i saw for $10 more i could tamiya quality mustang, so don’t mind if I do. 
Excellent fiting kit with great details. You can actually use one shade of Alclad and get different panel colors by spraying different primer colors like black, grey, white. The gloss colors will give you a smoother metal finish and the flat primers will produce a slight oxidized look.
I have also tried Extreme Metal paints and work well too but I find Alclad more durable being able to mask off panels within a few hours of drying time.
Airfix kits has been getting rave reviews as of late. I know they have the P-51 Mustang kit in Airfix as well - if you can find it at Hobby Lobby. Definitely better quality than Revell.
No, I checked the airfix and it was also about $15 so I thought, just like the revell kit, why not pay ten more and get a tamiya mustang. Besides I’m a little sceptical about airfix because I have never had or built an airfix model and I know a guy who said the fit on the airfix p-51 was exceptionally bad. I have built tamiya models though and I know they are one of the best.
I’m trying to figure this one out. I’ve never had Alclad melt anything. Not being obnoxious. Just curious.
Yes I found that very odd. Alclad dries within seconds of application and have never had any issues.
Alclad is laquer base and so plastic doesn’t like it.
I painted an engine in their steel colour and for some reason it just wouldn’t cure at all. Even after waiting a week I could still leave a fingerprint in the paint.
I gave up with Alclad. If it can melt an expensive kit even after priming and then refuse to dry and cure then there’s something wrong.
My adventures with both Xtreme metal and Vallejo Metal Color has, after a learning curve, been very sucessful as you can see above. They may take slightly longer to cure completley, but not being hot products they won’t damage the kit and for me give Alclad a run for it’s money.
You can use both together and side by side and because both have overlapping colours that have different shades etc then you have very much a broad shade range as well as altering the shade by using different primer colours.
For instance, try doing exhaust pipes with a red primer and then put Vallejo burnt Iron over the top of that. I didn’t do that on the engine above, but to add a variance I did the air intake pipes with duraluminium which up against the stainless steel cylinder blocks draws the eye and keeps it moving over the engine.
I do go through quite a lot of plastic spoons testing metal colours with different coloured primers underneath and the variations can be very interesting and informative and can lead to different usages on engines and aircraft. You’re not limited to a black gloss undercoat!
Alclad is an expensive product and it has had a chance with me. I’ll stick to something that I can spray directly onto unprimed plastic if I need to with no worries that it will not reduce it to a lump of unusable styrene.
Sorry, chaps, but there you are.
Well I would say use whatever works for you and it seems the Vallejo and Xtreme are working very well for you. Although I wonder if the Alclad melted your model or was it a defective model.[^o)] But thanks for the warning( I’ll keep my eyes on it)and good modeling.
I don’t know why Alclad, being a lacquer, works so well for me over enamels, but it does. Same thing with glosscoat. Maybe they evaporate so fast they don’t have time to do anything.
I do not find Alclad expensive. You use such a thin coat, so that a bottle lasts for several models. It is about twice as expensive as enamel paint, but I use several coats of enamel, and only one thin coat of Alclad.
Oh yes, I found that, at my local hobby store, I can a nice big bottle of Alclad for only about $9. This is about double the price of a large testors enamel , so not that bad.