A Car's Finish - with AlClad II .. Thoughts ?

[panzerace007]

Hey Guys,

I wanna run something passed ya' & get some feed back. I'm currently in the middle of a Review build for AMPS for ICM's Opel Admiral. The instructions suggest to build it as a War Car with a Panzer Grey or camo scheme. Well I wanna take it in a different direction. It was produced from '38-'39 , when th War started it was all of them were collected up & pressed into service & given to Top Officer's of the Wehrmacht & Luftwaffe. I wanna give it a Pre-War Sports car look.

In lue of painting it in Enamels & having to Wet sand it & buff it ( also because it IS a Flat Kit & not a 1 pieced body like a lot of the American kits in 1/24th. I would think it would be a little fragile to put th car through all of the handling it would take to sand & buff it) , I decided to go with AlClad & in theory , her's what I came up with -
All colors are AlClad
1) Black Primer
2) Gloss Black Base
3) Chrome (for plastic)
4) Tape off the Chrome bits - The Grill, body tim, Window trim & Under the suggestion of the AlClad rep I emailed, I'll shoot a coat of Their New Aqua Gloss Clear - for a barrier between the colors.
5) Several coats of Transparent Red

I really wanted to stay away from Bare Metal Foil for 1 - because of the scale -1/35th & 2 - I wanna try th AlClad Chrome out to see what it looks like. This is all an experiment. I ordered th AlClad colors from Sprue Brother's & it shipped yesterday,so it should be here on Friday !

Thoughts ? Suggestions ?

 

[moon puppy]

STill going to try this on something to play on. I like the idea of the Aqua gloss clear, need to get some. You could really build up some effects with this method. Using one of the other clear colors, say a green, on one of the top coats and then more red...Might give it that other tone, a little more depth.

The only thing I can add out of what we had talked about in public is make those coats as slick as you can, Alclad reflects the base it's sitting on, if it's flat it's going to be flat no matter what you do to it.

 

[panzerace007]

Hopefully using AlClad's Gloss Black Base will allow th Chrome to Shine on !!!

:hmmm I like th idea of th different colors for layers. I'll play around with it before I shoot it on th car.

 

[Iron Mike]

That OR you could hit the local hobby shop that sells Tamiya sprays and buy one of their reds. The stuff goes on very smooth and glossy. I'm really partial to Mica Red!

Arrest Me Red

Shot straight from the rattle can!

 

[panzerace007]

Hey MIKE,

Did you feel th need to Wet Sand it or Buff it out ? Those Cars look Bad AZZ !!!

 

[Iron Mike]

All paints have a texture to them, light wet sanding and buffing (with Tamiya Compounds)remove that micro texture and impart the mirror like gloss. I use Tamiya spray primer, lightly wet sand the body and let it dry. When the body is completely dry, I wipe everything lightly with a tack rag. I then heat the rattle can in a big cup or bowl of HOT (not boiling)water for 5 minutes or so. This raises the pressure in the can and helps with the atomization. I spray a light mist coat over the entire body and let it dry for 30 minutes, then apply another mist coat. Waiting another 30 minutes, I then inspect the paint for dust and other ferch that seems to love wet paint. If you find any, let the paint dry overnight, wet sand and tack rag like before. This time, the coats can be heavier, building the coverage and gloss. That's it. If you get dust in the final coats, you should be able to sand and buff them out, just don't try to bury them in the paint, never works.

 

[moon puppy]

Yeah, but that would be how everyone who knows what they are doing does it. We don't know what we're doing so we're making it up as we go...Right Erik?

 

[panzerace007]

Well Yeah Basically MOONIE,

I'm trying to avoid having to do any Sanding. I like th Idea of the AlClad & not having to sand or buff it to get th Shine. Plus I'm wondering, because of th Scale, & th fact that it's a flat kit, if that would make th Car fragile & susceptible to twisting or getting out of Square from holding it to Sand & buff it.

Plus also, as I mentioned this is sort of an experiment. At least in Theory it should work out great !!! Right ...

 

[Bagge]

I have tried something like this but i used vallejo gun metal as basecoat and then tamiya clear blue ontop, came out a very nice dark blue metallic on Veerle's Bike she's building B)

 

[panzerace007]

BAGGE,

Great Idea !! I never thought of using th Tamiya Clear stuff. I just use them for lenses & Periscopes !! I'll keep this in Mind !!! Thanx for Sharing !!! :drinks

 

[Iron Mike]

Erik, you can get a shine out of most any paint without sanding, but that mirror finish takes some polishing. Of course, if you polish without sanding, you get shiny orange peel. :laugh:
The Tamiya rattle cans give the simplest approach to a great finish, in my opinion.

 

[panzerace007]

Hey MIKE,

I hear ya' Buddy. I'm just being a Lazy AZZ ! I wanna try this AlClad thing out & see how it goes. I've heard that you don't have to sand & buff AlClad, so We'll see how it goes .... I appreciate th Notes on th Finish. I'll hit you up for some pointers when I get into th Car Arena !!! I'm gonna get into th Hot Rod Build .... with a '57 Bel Air ... I think ... So , I might need your Coaching on gettin' a Mirrored Finish !!

Cheers Brotha' !! :drinks

 

[moon puppy]

So I did some testing, don't think you're going to get away from the polishing.

 

[panzerace007]

Pix ??? I'm in th middle of testing My Self .. Now .. all I'm testing on is a Tiger I turret that was previously Painted ... So I shot it with th Black Primer . I buffed it with a 12,000 grit pad & then Shot 2 coats of the Gloss Black Base. I'm letting that dry & will shoot th Chrome on it soon. I just buffed th top of th Turret - the sides have Zimmerit on it !!

We'll compare notes ... although I probably should have used some Styrene Sheet as a Test Bed .. I didn't have any Car bodys laying around I could Use ....

 

[Kreighshoer]

5) Several coats of Transparent Red

why not HoK kandy red? the effect will be much better than with ordinary transparent red! having a daring plan for a kandy finished kit myself and having some experience with HoK kandies i say that their kandies are superior to any ordinary transparent colors ...

 

[panzerace007]

HOK Kandies .... do you have a Link ?? Sounds intriguing ...

 

[Kreighshoer]

here you are erik: http://www.houseofkolor.com/index.jsp

 

[panzerace007]

WOW !! They have some Cool Colors ... But That's th Real Deal Car Paint .... EEEk !!! Have you ever used Their Stuff ? What type of Quantity do you have to Buy ? I'd hate to have to Buy a Gallon of Their Paint for one Car Model ? How well does it shoot in an AB ?

They do have some Kick Ass Colors !! I would just need like an 1.5 oz. And Do you think that th pigments would be right for such a small scale car ? I'm just thinking out loud here .....

 

[Kreighshoer]

WOW !! They have some Cool Colors ... But That's th Real Deal Car Paint .... EEEk !!! Have you ever used Their Stuff ? What type of Quantity do you have to Buy ? I'd hate to have to Buy a Gallon of Their Paint for one Car Model ? How well does it shoot in an AB ?

no problem with those colors being intended for cars - kandies are available as water soluble and lacquer based. the latter ones are quite aggressive and should not be used in a plastic airbrush like e.g. most aztek models. i have three 75ml bottles of laquer based kandy - blue, green and purple - and use them undiluted (they have ink consistency already so thinning isn't needed) and never faced a problem with the ab used.

be careful though - i almost ruined the second laptop i pimped with airbrush works due to a small spill of kandy ... i could witness how the color ate it's way through all layers paint right to the plastic. it took seconds and only immediate wiping away safed the laptop from disintegrating.

kandies should be applied in several very thin layers with enough drying time in between!

if you are too much afraid of using them, you could take a funky flipflop color (HoK Kameleon Kolor) into consideration?!

if you have further handling questions, i'll gladly answer them ... just fire off a pm!

 

[moon puppy]

Erik take a look at my Mig thread. But since you're buffing out with 12000 you should be good.