Afraid To Go Bare...Metal

Hi Steve, I'm not an expert on this, but I think this might help...

First off make sure you know your subject. For example a P-51D's wing was actually painted and not bare metal. The moveable surfaces were also painted. While the fuselage was bare metal. Pre WWII aircraft were painted with an aluminum laquer. I like Floquil silver paints because they adhere well to the model and they aren't grainy.

While there are several brands of paint on the market, everybody seems to be raving about the Alclad II paints. You can mask them and they're ready to shoot with an airbrush right out of the bottle. Depending on the finish you're trying to achieve there are various levels of prep work. Check their web site which has examples and techniques.

http://www.alclad2.com/index2.html

There was a recent article in FSM about a guy that used aluminum foil with great success on a P-38. You might look at that. This is a lot of work but it gives a very realistic panel look when you're done. Bare Metal Foil is a great product too. You can buy it in various finishes. What I have done is take a sheet of it and shoot washes over it to give various shades of aluminum. I believe Bare Metal Foil has suggestions on how to do this. Here is their web site. One thing about aluminum foil or Bare Metal Foil is that they have a grain. The smaller the scale the worse I think it will look. You always want to make sure that your model has a scale look to it when you're completed.

http://www.bare-metal.com/

This is one of the most written about subjects. You can find lots of material on web sites and in modeling publications.

Hope that helps. Best of luck!
Dave

The Metalizer finishes are very good, but the surface prep is demanding. The surface has to be flawless, and any filler has to be superglue or coated with superglue. Also the surface is very prone to damage when handled. SNJ is a similar product but is not nearly so delicate when finished. If I were buying new metallic finishes, the Alclad II is how I would go. The British-based Scale Aircraft Modeler International, which is fairly widely distributed in the USA, has had several build reviews using it, and it appears that it can be used over primer, which makes surface prep simpler, and that it resists handling very well indeed.

I forgot to mention that in the 1950's when my dad was in the Air Force and we would go to Open House events on base, the natural metal finishes were shiny but rough looking. My dad told me the crews used Bon Ami scouring powder on rags and brushes to polish the surface. The finish was definitely not mirror-like, with swirl and scratch marks clearly seen.

If you want a great looking finish that can be masked over without hesitation, then Alclad II is the only choice! I have been very pleased with the finish attained with this product and would highly recommend it if you are nervous about bare metal. You will still need to do a good job of eliminating any sanding scratches and will have to prime the surface first. Once applied though, Alclad II is bulletproof!!

Joe

I agree, Alclad II is the only way to go. Sure the prep work must be flawless but the application of the paint and the results are wonderful. I used bare metal foil and real aluminum foil for years and was very pleased. Recently I painted the wings on a LT-11 with Alclad II and I will never use anything else again.

The Alclad goes on very easily and dries almost instantly. Alclad reccomends using gloss black laquer as a base coat which works well. But I have found using gloss black and different color gloss greys as a base coat will give you the variations in panels instead of changing paint colors frequently. The Alclad is so thin when it is applied that the color underneath effects the tint of the topcoat so varying the base coat can make the final surface look like different types of metal.

To mask Alclad I use post-it notes. They are low tack and because the paint dries so fast I can quickly apply these and shoot another color.

I just tried Bare Metal Foil for the first time recently. I practiced on an F-104, then went to work on my Dad's two WWII P-47s. I probably have a ways to go to get the technique right, but it was way easier thatn i was afraid. It's especially neat-looking when you use fine steel wool to burnish in different directions to get different panel tones. Here's some pics:

http://members.fortunecity.com/jpayne/SQUAW011.jpg
http://members.fortunecity.com/jpayne/models/ICKY012.jpg

John P:

Tell me more about your 'burnishing' method with steel wool? The pics look great!! Is the entire model covered with the same type of foil or did you do some panels in alternate shades/types?

If the panel differences are a result of your 'burnishing' method, I'd be really interested in hearing more!!

M.

It's all the same - the matte aluminum BMF. What I did was first burnish the sheets down with a Q-Tip (I've also heard to use a soft flat piece of balsa wood). Then you use a toothpick to gaet it down into the panel lines and grooves and such.

Then pick a panel you want to look different, mask it off with low-tack tape,. take some VERY fine steel wool, and polish the panel in one direction only, say vertical. Then mask off another panel, and polish it in the horizontal. This gives the panels a brushed aluminum look, and the different directions catch the light differently. Do this to various panels in both directions, with varying amounts of polishing, and leave some panel untouched. If you wanna get really anal you can try to duplicate the exact panel shade differences of the real plane from a photo, but I didn't even consider putting THAT much attention to deatil into it!

Simple, but effective. I like it!!

Thanks.

M.

John P. I was interested in reading how you got your different panel highlights. I will have to try it out. I was going really anal and burnishing the entire sheet of BMF with fine steel wool, then cutting the sheet and applying to individual panels. The results looked about the same, but was creating a lot of waste of an expensive product. I do recommend that you apply gunk to your panel lines to bring them out though. I did it with my P-47N and the results were great. Gunk is a little acrylic black paint mixed with dishwashing liquid. Apply it with a small brush to your panel lines, LET DRY, then rub off the excess with a damp Q-tip or paper towel.

Try SnJ paint sets. A rock hard finished that is impervious to masking. The polishing powder also comes in handy for other paints as well as the SnJ base colors.

I have had great results with Testors MM Metalizers like others have mentioned. I used the Testors Technical book as a reference in which they recommend using Parafilm-M as a masking material for the metalizers. I followed the recommendations in the book and was very pleased with the reults...it works just like they say it would. Although it's now where as durable -a film as Alcad, but preparation is minimal and the Metalizers are very easy to use. These are the only metalics I use for my modern military warplanes. See photo below of a recent 1/72nd scale Mig-15 finished using Metalizers. I use Future instead of Testors Sealer.

Greg Williams
IPMS /Roscoe Turner Chapter
Indpls. IN.