Natural Metal Finish

Definitely not going the polished aluminum route.  Sticking to the dull aluminum for the puttied wings section and varying the shades for the unpainted areas.  Thanks for all the help guys!  It's very much appreciated.

I used Tamiya AS-12, bare metal silver, for my P-51.  The AS series is hard to find, but can be obtained from Sprue Bros.  The AS series of colors are designed for aircraft, and this one looks just right. They are synthetic lacquer in spray cans.

Boy, I have seen the painted wing issue debated a lot for at least a decade or so.  My understanding is that when the AAF decided to go to the natural metal finish the wings were still painted, but supposedly some crews often removed even that paint, so that some were natural aluminum all over.  But I have no real references to back up that statement.  Some authoritative research still needs to be done on the subject.

Don, thanks for the tip.  Yeah, I was thinking the polished alum. would be too shiny.  Going with the standard alum colors, white, dark, normal alum. and the duraluminum as my shades of choice.  Being this is a P-51, I understand that the wings were puttied with exception to the moving parts of course and was sprayed an aluminum "color" while the fuselage was au natural.  I have heard mention that a cool way to preshade is by differing the black at different panels and going so far as leaving gray at others then shooting the Alclad on.  Then if going "balls to the wall", you can even buff out some panels more than others to give an even more realistic effect.  This will be my most intricate build, I must admit but can't wait to get started.  My wife is not turning loose my Mustang until it's "officially" my birthday which is this Monday..."come on Sweetheart - please"?  

The polished aluminum almost looks like chrome if you put it over a good gloss black. It is too shiny to represent normal "as from factory" aircraft.  Only military aircraft I have ever seen with truly polished surfaces were squadron commanders aircraft, and then only on smaller planes- trainers and fighters.

Airliners used to be polished till labor costs and size of airplanes made that impractical. I have seen really polished DC-3s in old days.

Don and pj, many thanks for those tips!  I really like varying the shades of black undercoat for varying the shades of aluminum - very nice!  I was wondering what the polished aluminum looked like.  I think I'll shoot some test pieces before I put the balls to the wall.  Much appreciated guys!

I'm another Alclad fan.  There are three Alclad colors for aluminum.  Polished aluminum is probably too shiny for wartime- in any case it was probably only squadron commander's aircraft.  For normal aluminun, the just-plain "aluminum" represents fairly new, fresh aircraft, the "white" aluminum represents more heavily weathered, older aircraft.  You can mix shades for different panels, or change shading of panels by having different colors of undercoat before applying Alclad.

If you are not used to using Alclad, undercoat must be flawless and a very thin coat of Alclad applied.  The heavier the coat, the duller, more weathered it looks.

The primer part is good cause you can catch any defects that will show up later. One trick u can use when using Alclad to keep cost down, instead of buying different Alclad shades which are expensive is after priming, shoot different shades of black enamel toning it down to greys by masking certain panels. Then when u shoot the Alclad these different shades of black and greys will produce a metallic color variation. I find this method more cost effective when dealing with Alclad. Try to get the smoothest surface for the Alclad to get the best effect.

Ok, thanks!  I'm hoping I didn't bite off more than I can chew.  I saw the different colors of aluminum, guess I'll be ordering those too! 

Dazed and confused.

Dean

I never use primer on my models, but if you use it, then I guess that sequence is fine. You don't have to use the Alclad Gloss black, I use Humbrol enamel.

Not sure about the Polished Aluminium. I use the regular colours, and I think that's most common. For aircraft, the colours I have are Aluminium, DurAluminium, Dark Aluminium and White Aluminium. But these paints are not cheap, and you might need a bit of it for a kit that size. I normally use several colours on each model, and even mix them to get different shades for the panels.

Been searching the internet high and low and came up with this approach.  Please let me know if there are any surprises here for those that have had the experience.

1. After prepping the model, shoot it first with the Alclad grey primer/filler. 
2. Buff this out and check for imperfections.
3. Next shoot it with Alclad Gloss Black.
4. Again, buff.
5. Finally, shoot it with Alclad Polished Aluminum.

If any of you have done this, I'd appreciate a tip or two if possible.  Looks like I'm going to have to try my luck at this and hope for the best.

Thanks,

Dean