Alclad had issues with a few batches of their Gloss Black Base back in 2010 or 2011. Whoever it was that produced the paint for Alclad had the formula wrong. Alclad has corrected the issue and their Gloss Black Base works as advertised.
It is important to get the word out on this because a great product is getting a bad rep for something that has been rectified. I've used it (the correct formula) several times in the recent past with great results! I feel like its the people who don't use it who keep telling everybody that its a bad product.
But this brings up point that I have made several times on these boards. There is no need to apply a gloss black base when using the regular Alclad II paints. This is only necessary when using the Alclad II High Shine paints. Applying gloss black when using the regular paints is a completely unnecessary and is just one more thing that can go wrong (which happened in this case, didn't it). I've experimented on scarp plastic to see if the regular Alclad II paints looked better on a gloss black surface and there was no noticeable difference.
It has become a sort of internet legend that gloss black under Alclad II regular shine paints some how makes them shinier. It really doesn't. The regular shine paints are opaque while the high shine paints are somewhat translucent. Now, having a smooth surface under the regular Alclad II paints is a must...it absolutely doesn't have to be gloss black and it really doesn't have to be gloss, either, though. If you used fine sanding paper over something like Tamiya Surface Primer you will get great results with Alclad II regular paints.