What would be the best paint to use to simulate silver doped fabric on late '20’s early ‘30’'s aircraft?
I use Floquil RR Colors “Platinum Mist” or “Old Silver.” Strain it through an old nylon stocking; thin it 4 parts paint to one part each Floquil “Glaze” and Dio-Sol. It goes on very well through an airbrush, and leaves a durable finish. Other options are metalizer type finishes like Alclad, but I’ve never used them and can’t report on them.
The Old Silver will work great for silver dope. Whatever you use, you don’t want much gloss. It is not a dead flat finish, but more of a satin that the Old Silver replicates very nicely.
Gunze acrylic ‘Silver’ H008 is also pretty good.
Mix 50/50 with Tamiya acrylic thinner and it sprays beautifully.
Karl
Having covered what I consider more than my fair share of control surfaces and a few complete airframes, it’s my observation that most silver doped surfaces look more dull than gloss. And that surface gets duller as it weathers.
Clear dope (both butyrate and nitrate based) are gloss. And to make silver dope, you add either powdered aluminum or a concentrated aluminum powder paste. Which tends to have the same effect on the final surface tone as you get when you add talcum powder to dope, ie the dope goes to a flatter tone. To get a true gloss surface to a silver doped surface, you need to apply a coat of gloss dope as a final step. And as most aircraft that remain in the doped silver schemes tend to be working aircraft (ie trainers, spray planes etc) that the fabric rarely lasts to its life limit (5 to 7 years) but usually has to be replaced because someone did something stupid. So very few people or organizations spend the time and money to apply the gloss coat.
I use aluminum colour (like humbrol 11) and the put a flat finish on it.
I agree with the Floquil Old Silver. Alclad2 is better if you want a NMF finish, but the Floquil comes closer to a silver doped finish.
Regards, Rick
Note: Floquil and other lacquer based paints, like Alclad, mut be sprayed over a primer or something like floquil’s “Barrier” so that the lacquer does not etch the plastic. You could also spray on light coats to prevent the lacquer from attacking the plastic.
I too have gotten excellent results with Floquil platnum mist and old silver. Either color can also be polished for a variation in natural metal finishes.
I know this will sound so cheap to everyone, but the old testors silver in the small glass bottles, after it has dried for awhile (couple of weeks) burnishes down to a dull glow very nicely. It’s not super fancy but it does work
Ric
Thanks guys, will try all your suggestions.
Ric, your suggestion is not cheap, I actually like to use the testers small bottle paints, especially the silvers, coppers and gold, they tend to have a finer pigment than the ones in the larger MMP bottles and lay down smoother when I spray them.