It’s a Wingnuts tip of painting it first with XF-16 flat aluminum, then doing X-11 chrome on top.
I did airbrush a piece with XF-16 flat aluminum thinned 1:1 with X-20A. I found it very hard to spray, and didn’t like the finish, too grainy.
When I brush painted thinned X-11 chrome on top of the aluminum, I noticed zero difference. Maybe because they are using enamel, and I am using acrylic, maybe I thinned too much, but it was just a grainy mess.
For indoor reasons, I want to use Tamiya acrylics only.
Anyway, here are my battery of questions to all of you who have NMF experiences:
if I paint XF-1 flat black before the XF-16 aluminum, would it help in changing the aluminum look?
What if I would add a gloss coat between XF-1 and XF-16? Would it make the aluminum glossier, or it would keep it flat, it would just settle better?
Here’s a thought you might try, using the Tamiya Flat Aluminum. I’ve used the shiny NMF finishes from several of the acrylic lines of other manufacturers, they look really good, but some are not as durable as I’d like. Handling can damage some while finishing assembly, decaling, etc.
I agree, the Tamiya flat aluminum is grainy and needs work. Just experimenting with it, I found the fine polishing pads work wonders by leveling the gritty look, and leaving a fine, realistic polished aluminum appearence. The level of polished look is easily adjustable, either by grit of polishing pad, or time spent buffing. It polishes easily and very quickly.
I also find that even though I customarily prime the model with Stynylrez, (I know, a strange name,) the flat aluminum works well with primer, or without.
My process is to polish to desired level, then a coat of Tamiya clear, adusting polished look by using whatever combinations of their clear finishes works. I use only their X-20A, and combinations of gloss and flat as my clear mix. My favored thinning ration is 20-30% thinner to paint.
Worth a try, I’m sold on it and continue using it. If you feel like it, let us know what you think of the results, others might want to try it.
If you are trying to do the engine turned finish, the effect with the overlapping circles, it is very hard to paint the circles properly with an airbrush or even a regular brush- they are so small even in 1:32 scale. What I do is use a homemade (inkjet decal). I do the array of circles with a light gray color in my graphics editor (like Photoshop, though I use a clone, not PS). The decal does make the surface glossy, but then I dull it down with a dull clearcoat.