Alclad order of things

I Googled Alclad and came up with this article,there are many more.Hopefully they can help

www.swannysmodels.com/Alclad.html

Ya that certainly does answer a lot of my questions! Thanks!

Going back to it, I just reread it and am confused on the primers. From what I gather using an acrylic primer is completely ok?

The word "primer" can mean a number of things. I prefer the term "undercoat" for what you put under Alclad. I prime plastic first with a primer that aids paint adhesion.  Then I apply a gloss black undercoat, then the Alclad.  Sometimes I will add some other dark gloss colors over the black, in a pattern, corresponding to panels, to get some variation to the Alclad appearance.

The undercoat must be flawless, because you put the Alclad down very thin.  So I often find it takes several coats of the undercoat, sanding and fixing flaws as necessary.

Also, I do the alclad last, to avoid having to mask over it.  So if the model has other colors than just the alclad, I paint those colors first (over the primer) and then mask those colors and do the black and Alcad.

Don's way is the most efficient way to get a great NMF. Each step will need to be done and checked  before the next so errors/omissions can be corrected before it's too late. 

Sometimes the long way IS the short way 

Good luck you'll enjoy the beauty of Alcad once you get it down.

Here's a link to a scale model site which shows his excellent results with Alclad in its various finishes. Look at the list at the bottom of his cover page to find a link to his thoughts about Alclad II:

http://floch5.com/index.htm

Some beautiful models - worth a visit.

Thats a great link!  That actually answered a lot of questions I had regarding Alclad and how to make panels of various colors on the same model!

The main thing with Alclad II is to have as flawless a surface as possible.  A glossy smooth surface is the best.

And just for the record you do not need to use gloss black as the undercoat.  This is a sort of internet rumor that has become the truth over time.  The only time you really need to have the gloss black surface is when you are using the Alclad II High Shine paints such as Airframe Aluminum or Polished Aluminum.  For the regular colors it doesn't really matter.  You see, the high shine colors are translucent so the undercoat shines through a bit.  The regular colors are opaque and the undercoat will not shine through.

Now you can use gloss black if you want to under the regular Alclad II paints...there's no problem with that at all and many here do exactly that.  But you don't have to and it won't change the color of the regular colors at all.

I think FSM needs to make this regular shine vs high shine info into a sticky thread because it comes up so often.