ALuminum foil or acrylic silver or aluminum???

Hopefully this info will help .Good luck and hope you have great results.Now I have to get back to polish my modeling awards.

For a perfect metal finish w/the panelization process using Alclad will probably cost 130$ .Thats w/the 1/48 F-100.Each bottle will evaporate in due time if you don't watch out in storage.Also the cost of the materials needed for a complete flawless construction.I have just completed an F-100d in 1/48 by Trumpeter using the Alclad products.Nothing can match it Alclad wise.It took 200$ and about 70 hrs.I done it to show other modelers the Alclad system.The $ did not bother me because I am a retired one star.

Sealing with semi gloss (Testors)

The Alcad comes in several "colors" with respect to shiny.  Their Polished aluminum is really shiney, like the Squadron Commanders plane, the just plain old Aluminum is a medium shiny, and the "white aluminum" is a heavily weathered look.

I have piloted the F-100 and they were not that shiny like the manufacturer intended on Alclador Foil.SN J system is the more realistic.Yes,they went out of the market but the metal powder of other companies are around.the powder can be buffed into a semi flat paint surface to creat a good base for your panelization process.

Try all on the same model.

Hi :

   John , if you do as I did you will have a gorgeous bird ! I did use foil and yes , it is tedious , but the results are spectacular ! Now you do have to do this .After you've foiled the bird ,and moved pieces around to get that special look, Polish the bird with a very fine Baby's " T " shirt till it shines really great .Put on the Decals . After trimming them so no clear edge is visible .Then cover  the whole bird with clear gloss After waiting about a week .Gently wipe the model down with that " T " shirt and shoot the clear at that point . She'll be awesome .Good luck !

Yes that is a good practice to alternate directions to get different effects on the foil. I've been told by modelers that foil that with age, the foil will weather and oxidize which is a plus, but the decals may lift along with some panel corners. I think I will stick with Alclad.

Foiling is tedious, but if you do it panel by panel it can look pretty good.  If you opt to use foil, it has a slight "grain" to it like wood does.  If you rotate a piece relative to the rest, it will give an ever so slightly different hue (the way the light is reflected) that the other, which really makes the panels stand out as individual.

Groot

I have never been able to cover a whole model, nor large areas, with foil.  But I love Alclad.  Further, while I normally use enamel for an undercoat, I have successfully put alclad over an acrylic black.

I know you said  acrylics only but have you considered Alclad? It produces the most realistic metal finish I have ever seen and is a lot easier and faster to apply than foiling.

At that point in the F-100's service life, they were in bare metal, as opposed to the later aluminum lacquer that they wore into Vietnam. I would suggest foil for the most realistic bare metal finish, as opposed to any acrylic paints.