Hi all.

I'm in the late stages of building Tamiya's 1/32 Mustang, Ive never done a NBMF before, being one of the stringbaggers from early aviation. I've a bottle of AlcladII highly polished aluminuim I bought years ago to use.

I just hope someone can give me a few pointers to whats best, what pitfalls etc or a link to a blog on the subject.

Many thanks

Keith

Hi Keith

Nige's Alclad Adventures is a great place to start.

Looking forward to seeing your finished 'Stang!

All the best

Rowan

There's a good guide of "Alclad adventures" under THIS LINK.

Do not use the alclad gloss black for an undercoat! it is horrible.

the tamiya gloss black in a spray can works great. even though it is a lacquer base instead of the recommended acrylic, it works really well.

I use Tamiya Gloss or Semi Gloss Black acrylic under my alclad with really good results

This is the semi-gloss


with airframe aluminium alclad


and with polished chrome alclad




Cheers, D

Thanks for the replies Guys, all much help.

I dabbled with the Alclad and did a little trial with Citadel paints to, to be honest I found the citadel metallics as good as the Alclad in appearance, which surprised me.. Anyway I sprayed her in them.



thanks again
Keith

Hi Keith

Which Citadel paints did you use? I'd be very interested in trying them myself if the results are comparable to Alclad.

All the best

Rowan

I'd be interested as to how you airbrushed the Citadel paints as when I tried it just went lumpy and clogged my airbrush no matter what I tried to thin it..

Rowan

I use Citadels Chainmail 61-65 for the polished ali mixing a little Boltgun Metal 61-57 to add some tonal differences (this incidentally comes out as a lovely steel used alone. High lights can be added with Mithril Silver 61-55.

Allen

I thin them with Tamiya X-20A thinners, but I keep the mix very thin. the paint seems to swirl in suspension but i dont get clogging. In the past I tried with water and it went lumpy as you describe or puddled too easily.

Hope this helps, as soon as I get chance I'll pop a couple of snaps on to show how it looks.

Keith

Cheers Keith

My local Toymaster shop carries Citadel paints so I'll give them a try. I've never used their metallics, but I've found the couple of standard colours I've bought lately are really nice to work with.

All the best

Rowan

I like the Citadel metallics too. Nice selection of shades and the pigment size is pleasantly small. I've also tried airbrushing them and also noticed their tendency of clogging the airbrush. When thinned with water to airbrushable extent, the pigment likes to separate and cause clogs.

Then one day I got the idea of adding Future to the mixture and bingo! Some Future in the mix seems to reduce airbrush clogging significantly. As if the pigments didn't settle down that fast.
So far I haven't done that much experimenting yet, but a mixture of 1 part water, 1 part future and 2 parts Citadel metallic seems to flow much better and clog much less than the simple 50/50 mix of water and paint I was struggling with before.

I haven't tried Lifecolor acrylic thinner yet, but since it works so nicely with various acrylics, I can't see why it wouldn't work with Citadels as well.

Hi Eetu

Thanks for the Klear/Future tip - I'll give it a try.

I bought some today and found they airbrush beautifully if thinned with Liquitex Slo-Dri. (I also tried Isopropyl Alcohol, but that turned them to goo instantly - which surprised me as it seems to be the principal ingredient in Tamiya thinners...)

Looking at my results so far, I wouldn't say they capture the "real metal" look of Alclad, but I prefer them to other acrylic metallics I've tried to date.

All the best

Rowan