Not sure whether to put this here or in my "removing chrome " thread in the lounge.
These are some of the chrome parts. you can se large amounts of flash that was also chromed so its impossable to clean this up and keep the Airfix supplied chrome.
I have tried all the usual methods to remove the chrome from car brake fluid, bleach, oven cleaner and even caustic soda ...nothing worked and it became pretty obvious Airfix have found a way of actually chrome plating plastic (its usually a very fine Finnish alloy coating like used on car reflectors in headlamps)
eventually i stumbled across another build where the guy had used an etching fluid used on PCB's and by industry for etching Glass and steel.
Now this stuff will kill you. Just one glance at the bottle from 100yds can leave you mortally wounded.
I really dont recommend it unless you are super careful.
Parts dipped in this went back to copper in20 seconds. another sign this is real chrome.
and back to clean plastic in about 1 minute.
(forgot to take a picture ).....
Once back to plastic the parts were cleaned up and rubbed back with 4000 and then 8000 wet n dry and given an fine under coat
Next will be gloss black and alclad
the guy who's build suggested this etching fluid said it turned the plastic incredibly brittle and his online build stopped abruptly after this.
My guess is he did what most people would do and submerged the parts in this stuff and left them.. Don't do this, take them out after 1 minute and wash them with clean cold water and assess ? they may need another 15 seconds...that the sort of time scale we are talking here.