I just found out that Hawkeye’s Hobbies has ceased production of my old favorite paint for NMF. I’ve used it on several builds with pretty good results. My very first NMF job (1990) was the Monogram P-51D, Drew Urban’s “Detroit Miss”. I used Humbrol Metalcote Polished Aluminum and it actually worked good. Well, it looked a lot like the silver lacquer paint used on the Mustangs. Later I used Floquil Bright Silver and Old Silver too. They are tough, very durable finishes as well. It was after that that I tried the SnJ and really liked how it worked too. Now, I guess it’s on to Alclad for me now. I’ll probably be picking someone’s brains and asking for some advice/help with it though as I’ve not used it yet. Anyone else a SnJ fan?
I had never used those products, and just when I went to the website to try some Talon I found the same thing. On the page he did offer to sell the line to someone, so here’s hoping.
I used to paint with SNJ but it’s been on & off the market so many times and my LHS stopped carring it years ago because of the companies inconsistancy of production, I had no choice but to go with Alclad II, now I’m addicted to it and can’t get enough if it. it’s really easy to use and you’ll enjoy not applying the paste after painting and utilize that time for other duties like finishing off the kit sooner and starting another right after.
Sprue Brothers has some of the SnJ in stock. I’d say try Alclad. I was excited about Talon though because I wanted to stay Acrylic, but I just can’t ignore how amazing Alclad looks.
I believe Hawkeye had a post about this on his blog - upshot being that he’s on the road a lot more, and keeping up a paint line isn’t something easily done on the road.
Personally, I was never very taken with SnJ. Could never get it to spray the way I wanted, and since it’s not all that tough in my experience, I’d rather just use Model Master Metalizers if I wanted to go the kinda-sorta-enamel route.
Talon - I know people who love(d) it. I had spray problems with it, but used it enough to have a healthy respect for it. And the polishing powders are pretty awesome.
But Alclad II is my favorite. Every time I use it I get a bit more comfortable with it. Yeah the prep’s a pain, but really no worse than other metalizers, since needing a nice, smooth surface is kind of key. On my latest build, I discovered that decanted Tamiya TS-14 works REALLY well as a base. I feel for anybody using it without ventilation, but seriously, Alclad’s good stuff.
Doogs, what sort of problems did you experience spraying the SnJ? It always worked like a charm for me(until it separated into three distinct layers in the bottle, that sucked quite a lot)). Do you think the MM Metalizers are a tougher finish? I’ve never used them as I was discouraged by reports that they were too fragile. I never had any problems with SnJ lifting under tape, and I sure have handled the planes finished with it a lot since they were done. It seemed to hold up just fine to the handling. I will try the Alclad II though, probably on my next NMF job. It seems like a popular paint and a lot of you seem very satisfied with it. Gotta get some…does it have a long shelf life?
The prep is exactly the same. Any surface flaws that affect Alclad II will also affect SnJ. You might be thinking of the extra steps involved with the Alclad II HighShine paints, which includes having a flawless surface and an undercoat of gloss black paint. You can’t get that kind of shine with SnJ anyway.
And I’m not totally sure that SnJ is acrylic. The Talon line of paint is acrylic, though. But it too is inferior to Alclad II. Plus it sprays on a bit think. In order to get good coverage you really need to apply several coats and I end up with ridges along the masking lines.
Plus, to really get the metalic look you should use the polishing powders, which is fine, but you run the risk of getting the powder on other parts of the model and the powder can be messy anyway (i.e., it gets all over the bench and/or you hands).
Its alot longer than SnJ, I can tell you that fore sure. SnJ has this weird recommendation on the bottle that says you should move the paint into smaller bottles after you use it. And I guess its good advise because I used some SnJ, left it in the same bottle, and a month or 2 later the pigment clumped up at the bottom and no amount of shaking or stirring would get it back into solution.