How to tone down the brightness and off scale color of chrome pieces

ALCLAD Chrome is the way to go.

These bumpers were all done with it.

Undercoat it with gloss black acrylic, and spray over it. Buff it out if you want to for a high shine, or leave be for a more muted flavor.

most chrome paints look more like unpolished aluminium, i've not found a paint that can get close to shinyness required.

Big Mike said it all. The chrome parts in the kit give a toy like appearance. Strip the chrome and refinish with Alclad. You'll be amazed how good it will look.

                                                                                                     Ken

I dont like the kit crome, i strip it in some bleach and respray with Alclad crome witch is much better. or you can over spray the kit crome with some thinned down tamiya smoke that will tone down the crome. just my 2 cents

Thanks Don i learned somthing today .

Ron

I don't think scale effect is a good idea. It is most applicable to small scale models that you view from a scale distance of hundreds of feet.  We generally don't view model cars from that far away.

Also, some chrome plating of kits looks, to me, a lot like fresh chrome.  I have seen some freshly chromed parts that looked fantastic.  There does seem to be a very slight bluish tinge to chrome compared to shiny aluminum, but getting that slight a tint would seem to be very difficult.

A bigger problem to me is the sprue attachment area which lacks plating after you remove the part from the sprue.  Some kit mfgs take good paints to make their attachment points where they do not show, but others don't worry about these attachment points.  So many of my friends strip the chrome, prime the parts and alclad them.  Personally I usually just touch up the spots with Floquil "Old Silver."  Only if the chrome is really bad will I do all the work of alclading.

good thought, the chrome is definately too bright for scale - for grills a black was usually does the trick, and a flat clear can make a car look more road used - if you can get a flat clear to be more satin colored you could probably get right on the money (just bright enough to give the chrome look, but doesnt look like plastic)