different shades of aluminium

If you only have access to one type of aluminium paint, then the best way is to spray the base colour, and then leave it a few days to cure. Then, mask off the areas that you want to stay the base colour, and add a few drops of grey paint to your aluminium paint, and spray the exposed aeas.

Leave this to cure, mask the bits you want to stay this colour, and then add a few more, or fewer, drops of grey, or a different shade of grey, spray again, and so on until you have achieved the range of metallic shades you are looking for.

You can also experiment by spraying the whole model aluminium, and, again, leaving the paint to cure. Then mask off individual panels (Post-it notes are good for this) and grind up some spft pencil lead fine. Dip a piece of clean lint-free cloth into this, and rub. This will result in a darker metallic shade. The more you rub, the darker the shade.

Leaving the paint long enough to cure is essential. If you don't the chances of the masking lifting the paint when you remove it are excellent. Also, if there are any non-metallic areas on the model (such as anti-dazzle panels), paint these first and mask them, before applying the metallic paints.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Chris.

I would not recommend using MM aluminum. It will pull off if you use any type of mask, even if you prime. Trust me, been there, done that. I would switch gears and recommend Alclad II metallic paint. They have several "shades" of aluminum which will answer your original question. Most online hobby sites carry it now. If you are not going to mask the model at all, then you should be ok with the MM aluminum.

Andy