Alclad II drying time

Check Swanny's website. It should answer every question you have about Alclad. If it doesn't, email him and he will respond.

 

http://www.swannysmodels.com/

When applied correctly (small coat) it should dry instantly. so few minutes/hour after, you can apply clear. But I find that clear "dull" the color.

Alclad II metallic paints are laquers and, as Vric pointed out, do dry very quickly.  If you have the time be safe and let them cure for 24 hours before doing anything else to them.  If you don't give them a couple of hours at least.  There is no cut-and-dried curing time for them, just as there is none for any other paint.  It depends on many environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, air circulation, etc.

Their primer, on the other hand, never seems to fully cure.  I used it for a while and finally gave up because I never could get it to behave.  There is probably a way, and it's probably something I was doing wrong, but at times it would still feel tacky weeks after it was sprayed.  I even have a little test model I sprayed with it that still felt tacky 6 MONTHS after I sprayed it.

From my experience with Alclad II paints, they dry almost instantly. But I recommend you to at least let it dry for an hour, so that the paint get time to dry into the primer before doing more coats of paint or clear coating.

I've experienced paint 'flaking' off when I've accidentally rubbed a part against another surface if they have not dried properly, but if you let it dry a while, you should be able to avoid such problems.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the Info, guys. I build in a basement with about 50% humidity and it's always about 65, pretty good conditions, huh? for my primer, I used paint from a rattle can (thru my AB, of course). Something really funky happened when I got too much paint on a part... the paint seemed to raise up in a spider web kinda pattern. Anyone ever have that happen??

MusicCity wrote:

Their primer, on the other hand, never seems to fully cure.

It's normal. This is why Alclad ask for Enamel Semi-Gloss black for the chrome. Enamel paint do dry very slowly and it help alclad to "stick" to the surface. I even seen some people spray alclad paint right after the "primer" coat with good result (well a bit dry, but still very sticky)

I haven't really tried using paint from a spray can in my AB so I can't tell. But getting spiderwebs or 'splash' like marks when you paint isn't good. Generally I believe it's because you have too much paintflow and too little airflow. Try experimenting a bit on something that you don't care about too much to see just about how much of each you should use.

And with Alclad paints, I have found that they work great even without primers, but the downside is, it may be hard to put on a good coat since there is a high risk of the plastic color shining through the paint at some areas.

But I do recommend you to prime first with a half-matt black color.

MusicCity wrote:

Their primer, on the other hand, never seems to fully cure.  I used it for a while and finally gave up because I never could get it to behave.  There is probably a way, and it's probably something I was doing wrong, but at times it would still feel tacky weeks after it was sprayed.  I even have a little test model I sprayed with it that still felt tacky 6 MONTHS after I sprayed it.

Scott - I don't think it was you... I had the same problem along with a few others in one of the GB's I was talking about it in... basically 4 or 5 months later the Alclad branded primer was still sticky... it left finger prints in the paint even after 3 or 4 months!!!

Since then I have gone through a set of experiments on priming non shiny Alclads and found Future to work the best... the next NMF kit I build I will try black acrylic UNDER Future and see if there is an improvement.. For Alclad I thin my Future about 3:1 Future to Tamiya acrylic thinner.. It usually takes about 3 to 5 coats to get it totally glossy.. (you want a shine off the future type glossy) let it sit a day or two then use the alclad.. it covers well, and does not affect the Future.. in fact it is listed on the Alclad site for non polished alclad colors... I will never again try to fool with that Aclad primer!!!