Alclad II

[Guest]

I know there is no such thing as a stupid question, so here is mine :question: Can someone please explain to me what Alclad II is used for and what exactly it is:thumbsup:?

It seems that I see this advertised all over but have never been able to find it's uses. I am sure that somewhere here, someone will be a regular user of said item!

Cheers

Andy

[Guest]

never used it but it is a specialised paint for creating a bare metal finish on your model as opposed to just painting silver,aluminium ,steel etc comes in different shades,i will have a go with some one day as the finished results look fantastic. there are some planes on this site that have been finished with alclad ,just cannot remember where or which they were.it is used with an airbrush and beleive you HAVE to wear a face mask as it is quite bad for you.

[yak face]

hi andy, ive not used it myself yet but i know its a laquer based metallic finish, which is very tough and lifelike. It has to be used over a primer to prevent any damage to unpainted plastic , usually the primer is gloss black. Once dry it can be masked without any fear of marking the surface (unlike most other silver finishes) and comes in many colours /shades of metal. AS with any silver finish ,its most important that the model is as blemish free as possible before final painting, the slightest scratch or sanding mark will show up like a sore thumb! Im sure someone will be along soon whos more experienced than me , in the meantime check out this thread of steves (stona) he uses it to brilliant effect on his me 262http://www.scale-models.co.uk/under-construction/9142-me262-two-one-4.html hope this helps a bit , cheers tony

[stona]

Hi Andy,Tony has pretty much covered it above as well as making me blush. I'll add a couple of things. AlcladII is a lacquer based metallic finishing system. It is easier to spray than most acrylic paints and is used straight from the bottle. Mist on several light coats for best results. I clean up with cellulose thinners. You've got to have a good surface finish and you do need to prime. You will read a lot about priming in gloss black but I have found that this is only vital for the highly polished finishes like chrome. For everything else I use my regular grey Halfords plastic primer. There are other ways of getting a natural metal finish but Alclad is easy,no need to be scared of it! It comes in various shades or you can darken a shade yourself by adding a drop or two of gloss black (enamel). The shading can be quite stark (as on the Me262) or more subtle as on the underside of my Ta152. Pre-shading is a bit tricky! It tends to be invisible when seen from certain angles yet way too obvious from others. I would advise against it. You can mask Alclad (I use Tamiya tape de-tacked a little) as soon as an hour after spraying and you can apply weathering and gloss coats like Klear with virtually indiscernable changes in shade except for highly polished finishes which do dull/darken.

Here's a piccy of the inderside of the Ta152. For the "darkest" panels I darkened the standard Aluminium shade,everything else is three or four different shades (Duraluminium,Dark Aluminium etc) straight from the bottle. This is gloss coated,decaled and washed.

I honestly think it is the easiest way to realise a convincing NMF.

Cheers

Steve

[Ian M]

And just to add my tuppence worth; you can also get very good results with mixing alclad using the darker tones like gunmetal, Works the other way to, alu mixed in with the darker colours to lighten them.

Dont forget that they do make more than just metal effects. The clear colours are also great and can be used to great effect to reproduce heat stains, stress discolouration and the like. I used four or five colours over the BMF on my lightning to break up the singularity of the otherwise huge expanse of shiny aluminium, just pick out a panel here and there.

Should you wish to keep the colours true and the shine, try Alclads clear lacquer.

I would also like to just add that the primers that they do are also well worth trying, they give a rally smooth surface to paint on and are also a micro filler.

I am not normally one to hop onto hyped up things, tending to just wonder what all the fuss is about. These I tried and I am glad I did.

On the minus side: They smell. As mask is a must and good ventilation too.

Ian M

[Guest]

Cheers Chaps, might experiment with this, next time I build a natural metal finish kit, thanks also for the heads up with the ventilation factor!

Andy

[stona]

Dont forget that they do make more than just metal effects. The clear colours are also great and can be used to great effect to reproduce heat stains, stress discolouration and the like.

The primers that they do are also well worth trying, they give a rally smooth surface to paint on and are also a micro filler.

Ian M

I've not tried that Ian but I will now,it sounds like a very good idea!

I've not used their primer but Ian has confirmed what I've heard on the grapevine.

Yes,they do pong a bit.

Good luck with it Andy,I'm sure you won't have any problems.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Great stuff Andy I use it all the time when doing race cars and bikes etc , and as the lads have said for any bare metal finnish on an aircraft it can`t be beaten , the chrome is very very life like but you have to do the prep work with a primer and gloss black , even then it takes a bit of practice to get the chrome right but is well worth it mate ,

Could not agree more with Ian , this stuff stinks and the thinners and airbrush cleaner are even worse , its dangerous stuff so take as many precautions as you can , if you can spray it outside do , if not ventilate the area your working as much as you can and wear a mask even outside , please don`t let this put you off , the results you get are amazing and well worth the work involved and safety precautions you should take.

Richy