Natural metal finish - my attempts with alclad

That French Hun looks fantastic. Great work Sir.

Thanks for the info TUG, out of curisoity how did you get the finish of the planes to look like aged metal, I mean some Alclad finishes do look like real metal but it often makes the planes look like metal models rather than the real thing, you have managed to get the metal effect just right, did you use a matt coat? Or is there a specific Alclad paint we should be looking for?

Awesome work. I am considering starting to dabble with Alclad and indeed have some bottles already.

I would like to know what's the difference between the primer and the primer with microfiller. Which one should I use?

Jay Jay

 I should live so long as to create such wonderful looking aircraft such as yours.  .  Simply stunning work !

^^^^^^

This!  Amazing builds, one and all.

Gary

Now ,That's what I mean .

Those look great .The fact is they look like unpolished in service working birds . Not show birds or prototype or advertising birds  .Civil aircraft on the other hand don't get let go that long in the looks department  .Working Birds don't have time to look pretty . But look great they can .Kudos , young man    T.B.      P.S.   I like your very subtle weathering and aging .

The finish on those aircraft is outstanding!

Mike

I'm 66 years old and being retired, I have time to re-enter the modeling world.  I've been at it for about a year now but I should live so long as to create such wonderful looking aircraft such as yours.  .  Simply stunning work !

Tug, what you're doing is truly amazing!  You've given me some good ideas for my next build as far as weathering. One thing, and I may have missed it, so I apologize if I do.  Are you masking the lettering and surraundals too!?!  If so, I'd love a play by play on how you do that...  What you use (I saw Tamiya tape) method ect.  I'd love to be able to get away from using as many decals if I can...  Raymond

Hi Dave - yes I used the Aires cockpit, U/C bays and exhaust nozzle. Well up to Aires usual great standard the cockpit fitted exceptionally well as did the nose U/C bay between the cut out and the underneath of the intake tube. The Main U/C bay was very close too though not quite 'perfect'. The nozzle - 'Aires at its best' inside - needed some additional plastic card supports. No connection with Aires - just a consistently satisfied user.

The kit overall was not too bad. The worst problem area was the radome cover which is separate and made from two halves. Were I to do it again I would put strong location strips around the edges of the bay to hold the cover out to the fuse edges - there is nothing locate it on the fuse parts. I had to shave the surrounding raised areas on the main fuselage and remark the rivets. The other slight discrepancy is inside the intake - despite lots of dry fitting it did not locate well at the lip when gluing and there is a slight witness.

The wing fitting is marginal - much the same as the 1/48 version but using a 2.5mm diameter ali wing 'spar' kept every thing aligned and rigid. Apart from these points though I had no real issues with it.

I'm on the east coast of the UK - if you are going to Telford come and say hello - I shall be with the Norfolk Scale Model Group.

Regards - Tug

Thanks TUG, I use polyfilla as well, I'm only a short trip away I'm guessing being in N.I. myself, I never thought of using white spirit to creat oil stains on the surface it's a really good idea. Also I was wondering on your 1/32 F-100 did you use any after market accessories? I have heard many complaints with the kit and yours is inspirational to me it's fantastic. To me the model looks right, but I don't know anything about the aircraft so that's why I was asking.

The runway on that Mirage diorama looks like it's moving,  like the focus is on the plane. Were you trying to accomplish that,  or is that my imagination?  I should try to achieve that look on one of my builds.

Steve

Dave, I was typing as you posted.

Glad you like the Marauder - it's a particular favourite of mine - I do wish there was a state of the art kit available for it. There was talk at one time of a 1/32 example coming (along with the A26 Invader- another favourite) but that seems to have died a death.

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't have any other source than on here as this is the only plastic forum I post on.

Jelliot - don't be - just try it out on an old kit first - panel by panel. Try different techniques with it too until you are happy with the outcome. The big thing is not to spray (Alclad) at too high a pressure nor heavy coats - let it build up slowly. Though many favour the technique I never put it over gloss black just the Alclad grey primer.

Regards - Tug

Hi Guys - glad you liked it, many thanks for your comments.

Dean - Most of the runways are created using a water based powdered wall crack filler - Poly-Filla in the UK.

It's about 3-4mm thick - the area is defined by laying down two layers of masking tape and cyano 'tacking' 3 - 4mm balsa strips to act as a guide. The filler is layered in and scraped off with a straight edge to the thickness of the balsa.  There's a point as the water evaporates when it's perfect for grooving the edges of panels and contouring the surface texture. The one issue with this method is that it's very difficult to do individual panels so the contouring can be carried over one panel to another which doesn't quite look right once noticed. It does take acrylic paint extremely well and will absorb white spirit based oil paint 'oil stains' quite realistically 

On this F-100 I tried a different approach using 'mount board' as used in picture framing. I cut out several 'slabs' to a uniform size, sand ing the edges at a slight angle then 'scratched' the surface with coarse sandpaper stuck to a flat block. Each panel was painted separately with acrylic before being stuck down with spray on contact adhesive. The bitumen sealer was replicated using Humbrol satin black laid in with a fine pointed brush. I was concerned that the white spirit based oil paints used for staining afterward might seep through and affect the adhesive but no such problems occurred.

This proved to be a much easier method than using Poly-Filla.

Hope that's of use Dean, to you and others of course

Regards - Tug

I love the looks of the NMF on these aircraft and I would love to give it a try; however, I have to admit that it scares the bejeezus out of me to go there, I'm not one big on failure.

TUG your stuff is definitely inspirational!!  Awesome

Wow, absolutely beautiful work on all these models. The B-26 is especially impressive.

These are definitely inspirational. I could probably study the pictures of these for hours.

Tug, do you have an online gallery of these models?  I'd love to see more pictures.

Dude ....... Whoa!!! 

Amazing Hun! Looks 100% real! Exhaust area looks killer!

Looks great, Tug.  It's nice to see your work again.

Blue

TUG,

Your work is amazing! I've got nothing else, just amazing.

Steve

Simply brilliant! The 1/32 F-100 is on my to buy list and has been for some time. I have to ask though, where did you get the runway bases for your aircraft? Do you spray them yourself or buy them ready painted? They look superb, and the runway is excellent, of course the palnes are too lol, but I have not seen those sort of bases before.

Tug...gorgeous.  =D  Everyone here can take some notes on what you've got going on with this Hun.  And not to worry...the deadline for the NMF GB was extended, so you have plenty of time to amaze us with another beauty if you're up to it.  =]

Two thumbs way up!

Hi Guys - Thought you might like to see my latest attempt at NMF finished just today. It's been featured during it's build on the NMF Group Build (where you can find more details) but as that's been very quiet on there lately I thought perhaps this would be a better place to post the finished images.

It's the 1/32 Trumpeter F-100D kit (the Thunderbirds version) which I got for a knock down price at last years Scale Model World. Unfortunately, though it normally retails for the same price as the standard D that kit does not have the missiles nor fuel tanks. (Makes for some expensive decals!) The lack of missiles wasn't an issue but it would have been nice to have the fuel tanks fitted. 

It's an all Alclad finish over Alclad grey primer and the cockpit, exhaust nozzle and U/C bays are Aires resin with  scratch built speed brake bay details.

Major markings are masked and sprayed - decals used for stenciling and information.

Hope you like it.

It's taken three major sessions to complete starting around the early part of the year. I have other non plastic modelling things to do for a while but the result has fired me up for tackling another NMF at some stage.

Regards - Tug

they all look good to me, especially the weathered markings

Love your models! I've always liked the 1950s-era American fighter jets.

Hi Guys, Thanks once more for your kind and appreciative comments. My apologies for not responding sooner but the last few days have been rather distracting!

Silver - That's one awesome thing to say - From the outset, when I returned to modelling I was inspired by an ad in FSM which said something like 'Any more real and you'd be eating fumes' - I think it was a paint ad. For me it's all about trying to achieve a degree of realism so to recieve that kind of comment means so much - much more than winning any comp. That said - all the very best for the 12th in Seattle, I hope you have a successful time and agreat show.

Patrick -  I began airbrushing using a Paasche double action with a side cup. This tended to get in the way at times so I bought an expensive (to me!) Iwata with a central top cup. Just after this someone at my club showed me a very similar 'brush which cost just £22 (about $35 I guess) - this had the small valve underneath for varying the pressure. I bought one just to see how good it could be - Believe it or not I have used nothing else since The Paashe still gets used for priming and sealing only and all painting is done with this 'Spraymaster'. It had (originally) a .2 jet which became blocked when I tried using another acrylic paint other than Tamiya. Having tried everyway to clean it including Ultrasonic I resorted to opening it with a very fine wire which turned it, I guess to, around .3. It's proved more than aceptable ( particularly the price!) - and has not yet let me down. I think the first model I did with it was the Junkers 52 and have used it ever since - the Iwata virtually redundant except for the very finest detail and thats usually only as a last resort.

One of the things I do do that I don't see referenced that often regards using Alclad (indeed any paint) and one which I believe raises the quality of finish considerably is that I always smooth each and every coat out using Micromesh 6000 with water as a lube. (The water has just a drop of washing up liquid added to about a litre to help break the surface tension)

Before I had this 'brush I sprayed Alclad at around the same pressure - now I have the pressure at a constant 40psi and vary it at the brush to suit. I think it's much better to keep the pressure lower than higher - that can lead to the paint drying before it hits the model leading to rough, dusty surfaces which can also come off on the fingers.

Hope that help some - I'm no 'expert', just someone who enjoys what he does and tries to learn off others where and when I can. I would like to do more but I share this hobby with two others - doesn't leave much time - As my wife says 'something has to go' but which one!

Regards - Tug

Sir Tug -  Among the best NMF I've had the pleasure to see, your work is just so very well done. Then, to learn that you paint markings??? You have nerves of steel and some mighty steady hands.

Would you please share with us the types of airbrushes you use, tip sizes and pressures? I use .5 tips and 10-12 psi, looks ok, but nothing at all as perfect as yours.

Quite beautiful to see, thanks so much for sharing. (Wonder if the spider was killed by exhaust heat?)

Patrick

Thank you, the results are absolutely incredible!  I'll have to give it a try.

Groot