Gary: If you doing Alclad you need gloss black for the super shiny chrome finishes. For a normal war-time aircraft black or grey should be fine. I don't know about flat, I've never used anything other than gloss black and grey semi-gloss.

Sorry for the hijack here - Do I understand that I can use Alclad 2 pollished allu over gloss black base for the high shine look BUT I can also use the same stuff over grey to look like "normal" bare matal?

If so that is absolutely great! Would the base then be a gloss grey or a matt grey?

I just got hold of some Alclad pollished allu for  my SAAF mirage 3 c and was surprized at how "granulat and dull" it looks in the bottle. Not what I would expect from seeing the results of using it over gloss black!

OK - Hijack mode off LOL!

I will be starting on my Hobbyboss 1/48 Mirage 3 next week (just need to complete a few projects and make space!)

Would a full size aircraft that was actually painted silver (not left NMF) qualify for this GB or did it need to be "real" NMF? (darft question I know!)

Theuns

Theuns,

All the high shine Alclads are recommended for use over a gloss black base to make use of the shinyness the most. If shinyness is not the biggest issue but the shade of metal is, then you can use just about any color you want to change the end result metal finish. glossy undercoats or maybe even satin glosses are recommended over matte ones though.

Swanny's article on Alclad on his website even mentions the use of blues or reds to give your panels different shades of metal.

But yes, in general, black gloss undercoats usually give the best and shiniest result.

Richard

Thanx for the advice Richard, I will give it a try :-)

Theuns

Doogs - great work so far on the B-25. That office is about as good as it gets!

Roger - I'm going to be following your build closely. Masking and oleo's are the only thing I've used the foil for - never on an entire airframe. That looks really cool so far!

It may be an extra step, but I'd still recommend a gloss black undercoat for a duller natural metal finish. It doesn't hurt, AND you can use some haphazard spraying to add a bit of depth. Did this on the wings of the P-51 I built last year for NMF III:

If you want to dull Alclad, I HIGHLY recommend going with their clear coats. They've got gloss, semi-gloss, light sheen, matte and flat. Light sheen is my favorite for a war-weary NMF job:

The -51B is coming along. Still have some details to pick out in the cockpit, and an oil wash to go, but I'm about ready to close the fuselage:

Looking good Doogs!  Did you use MM interior green for the cockpit?

I've had decent results with putting the Alclad down over a coat of Mister Surfacer but yeah I won't argue the gloss black is probably the best bet- I've used it on all my recent NM builds.

Doogs- again kudos on the cockpit sir!

Gamera

I've had decent results with putting the Alclad down over a coat of Mister Surfacer but yeah I won't argue the gloss black is probably the best bet- I've used it on all my recent NM builds.

Doogs- again kudos on the cockpit sir!

Yeah, I've had good results using Alclad over Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver. Thing about black that I like better is you can see where you're spraying!

Oh and...calling the P-51 cockpit:

v-man - question for ya. I know it's not technically natural metal, but would you accept the entry of one cheap dirigible?

My son discovered this K-Class blimp the last time we were at the LHS...planning to build it to hang in his room. I figure it's not NMF, but it is covered with aluminum paint...

Doogs Wow !!!!! a masterful job on that pit there buddy !!!

Theuns and Doogs in answer to your question yes I will accept your builds A lot of the so called NMF aircraft were actually painted with silver lacquer, Navy birds and even the P-51s were. As for the Blimp they were painted with clear dope with aluminum powder added to it, still a common undercoat for rag wings these days as a UV protectant.

Doogs CAN NOT wait to see your son's build !!!! Let me know if you are going to officially enter it and I will get it listed asap

Cool, blimps are awesome!!!

vetteman42

Doogs CAN NOT wait to see your son's build !!!! Let me know if you are going to officially enter it and I will get it listed asap

Doogs that pit looks fantastic man !! Makes me want to break my Tami B model out.

Theuns sorry it took me so long but the front page is updated with your builds, Just need kit info for the ME 262.

Doogs I also need info on the blimp, and hope you don't mind me calling it a Doogs & Son build. I started Kenny last year ( he was 4 yrs old then ) helping Uncle Randy at the bench, found all kinds of little things he could do to help. He was really  good at using white glue to glue toothpicks to strategically drilled holes in small parts and a few large ones for painting. We have built a chopper and a couple aircraft that he keeps in his room. He's really proud of them and is surprisingly gentle handling them too. In fact I got him a wooden racer the kind the Boy Scouts build and he painted it all by himself with water colors, did a good job of it too. Anyway just meant to toss an idea out there for you to ponder about building with your son.

@ Vettemann 42 - I am very sory for messing you about mate, but may I delete the ME 262 and replace it with an Academy 1/72 P-47D? My plans for the 262 is not going to work out so I am in with the p-47, a 1/48 Hobbyboss Mirage IIIcz and a 1/72 Italeri silver painted Sikorski S-55 (or as you called them H-13b Chicasaw)

I got this little Academy 1/72 P-47 Jug as a testbed for using Alclad for the first time, I didn't want to try something totally foreign to me on a nice labour intensive model LOL!

It will be a very simple out the box build.

Theuns

Theuns a good start on the jug buddy and a good choice for your first try using Alclad. I am sure you wont have any troubles with it. I have updated the front page with your builds, cant wait to see how the jug comes along.

Like all Academy small kits it is a very simple and fast build. I have already joined the fuse halves aswell as made up the wings, this only took about 30 min or so. The only problem is that as soon as you start to really have fun with the build it's finnished LOL!

I am not sure yet if I am going to try any different shades of NMF with the Alclad just now, I have only the pollished allu paint. Here in South Africa it is extremely difficult to get hold of and even more expensive!

I have read that different shades of grey with the gloss black makes a difference to the overall effect. Are we talking a medium grey or much darker? I assume it will make the Aclad "lighter" than the black base areas?

Can I do the following? - paint the model with different greys and some black in various pannels and then cover the paint with future to give a very glossy finnish . After fully cured then air brush on the Alclad?

Will this give the effect of different toned pannels? Or is the only real way to use different coloured Alclads?

Thanx for any input ,it's all new to me.

Theuns

Hi Theuns,

Have a look at this site wrt Alcald, it seems that you are the right track,

www.swannysmodels.com/Alclad.html

Theuns I haven't used Alclad paints but have seen some very nice results using greys from light to medium to dark and black. I even remember someone using white to good effect. The trick seemed to be building the Alclad up slowly to get the effect that is desired, even to the point of misting separate panels to darken them. Hopefully some of the Alclad experts will chime in for ya, there are a number of them here.

Well I am certainly at the right place to learn here! No doubt about that with what I have seen on this thread :-D

Theuns

The aircraft are NMF soooooo figured you all might like to see this video Sure hit the wow factor for me.

http://vimeo.com/18135369

Double-dog wow! That's wonderful!!!!

I concur on the Alclad method, Thuens. Giving the silvers and chromes and good glossy black surface helps them with their mirror effect. Like a mirror actually. Variations in the panels through many gradients of grey help give character and real definition to the surface. And I have even used white to get an interesting effect as well. I have 4 shades of Alclad, aluminum, chrome, magnesium and jet exhaust. The darker colours look better with greys underneath especially the magnesium.

Cheers

finally got arounfd to starting properly after finding a resin wheelwell part i mislaid.

have desprued all the parts i need to, opened up the vents etc in the fuselage and starte the intake area.

DSC01427 by omgpainful, on Flickr

DSC01430 by omgpainful, on Flickr

this will obviously be all but invisible when closed up but what the hell

Wow, those strakes are going to look great when you've got the intakes painted. Maybe you could drybrush them with a little light silver/aluminum to make them stand out more?

Ok, been a longtime since I've done any work on the Anson. Got the final wing attached. Because this kit has not guiding pins or anything helpful, the wings were attached with patience, CA glue and kept stable with whatever I could find to get the dihedral correct.

Next up is finishing the canopy masking and a frightening amount of puttying to do!

Cheers

The Jug comming allong at a blistering pace!

Here is the basic MB Mk.4 bangseat (resin AM) for my 1/48 Hobbyboss Mirage IIIC in SAAF delivery sceeme.

I still need to do some washes on it and add the bang handle

Kit shot -

For interest sake, the SAAF castle insignia is incorrect, the springbucks need to be gold not yellow.The rest is good however.

Theuns

She's assembled, painted, and ready for weathering!

Ready for paint.  The wings didn't quite match up at the rear with the booms, the booms were too narrow.  Took a lot of trimming and sanding.  The nosecone also took a bit of work to match up.

I decided to do the trim colors first, particularly since to mask the booms the other way would have been a pain.

Forgot to get a shot with the gloss black primer.  But the alclad came out looking beautiful!

Awesome work, Mac!

Cheers