Alclad Chrome

[Didymus]

Well, I've settled on a method:

1. I'm stripping the parts with my stand-by: alcohol + purple cleaner.

2. I'll use Testors glossy black spray enamel to prime the parts. They are small and delicate and need to be painted on all sides. That makes it tricky to hold them while I paint them. With parts like that, I'll hold the part with a tweezer, hit it once, let it dry, move the tweez, and hit it again. (I put a little cardstock cover inside the tweezer jaws and fold the edges back. That blends the painted and unpainted areas.)

3. I'll let the enamel cure for just a couple of days.

4. After I airbrush the parts on both sides with Alclad, I'll let them sit for a week before handling them again.

Ddms

[Didymus]

Originally Posted by klutz_100

I am not an expert on enamels because I never use them but I always thought that they can be thinned/cleaned with White Spirit.

Thinned yes, cleaned no. Once enamel is dry, mineral spirits (aka white spirit) has no effect on it. Lacquer thinner, on the other hand, will dissolve lacquer or enamel even if the paint is 20 years old.

It's similar to the situation with waterborne acrylics. Water won't affect them once they're dry.

Ddms

[klutz_100]

Originally Posted by Didymus

Thinned yes, cleaned no. Once enamel is dry, mineral spirits (aka white spirit) has no effect on it.

I expressed myself badly. It wasn't dried at all, it was totally fresh and wet paint immediately after tipping out the paint cup.

[Didymus]

Originally Posted by klutz_100

Mr Muscle oven cleaner in spray in a plastiv bag.

My paint removing stage hasn't been entirely successful. The chrome color came off, but beneath it there's a clear brownish film of some kind. I can get it off by sanding or scraping, but those suspension pieces are fragile, and I don't want to risk breaking them with a lot of handling.

I'm continuing to soak the parts in the alcohol/purplepower mix, but I'm not sure it will work.

Did your oven cleaner method strip off that film completely?

Ddms

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Originally Posted by Didymus

My paint removing stage hasn't been entirely successful. The chrome color came off, but beneath it there's a clear brownish film of some kind. I can get it off by sanding or scraping, but those suspension pieces are fragile, and I don't want to risk breaking them with a lot of handling.

I'm continuing to soak the parts in the alcohol/purplepower mix, but I'm not sure it will work.

Did your oven cleaner method strip off that film completely?

Ddms

That clear base can be nearly impossible to remove sometimes, no matter what chemical you use. If that clear wasn't on the plastic, the plating would be a matte finish. It provides the gloss/reflection. Just like a perfectly glossy black base for Alclad.

99% of the time I strip chrome w/Easy Off, it only takes seconds to remove the plating. I leave the clear underneath, it's usually smooth enough to be a good base for the Alclad base coat. You can still remove mold lines and clean a part up w/o having to strip all of that clear base.

I don't go into OCD stress over that clear, and usually only the worst AMT parts from the Mexico era would really need all that clear removed.

[Didymus]

Originally Posted by ZoomZoomMX-5

I leave the clear underneath, it's usually smooth enough to be a good base for the Alclad base coat.

Yep, these parts are really smooth. And definitely black. So maybe I should just skip the Testors Black Enamel and go directly to Alclad?

Will it stick to that coating?

Ddms

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Originally Posted by Didymus

Yep, these parts are really smooth. And definitely black. So maybe I should just skip the Testors Black Enamel and go directly to Alclad?

Will it stick to that coating?

Ddms

That's the million dollar question. No guarantees. You can test it...

Alclad really needs to chemically bond to whatever it's applied to. It does that best with enamel (I don't have the luxury of waiting a week to handle parts shot in Alclad over TS black to see if that theory works...when I know I can shoot Spaz Stix over TS black and be wiping off the overspray in 10 minutes and be done with it, or the same with Alclad over black enamel).

[klutz_100]

Originally Posted by Didymus

My paint removing stage hasn't been entirely successful. The chrome color came off, but beneath it there's a clear brownish film of some kind. .....

Did your oven cleaner method strip off that film completely?

No, the oven cleaner didn't take it off. I just scraped away the mold lines with a fresh blade to clean up the parts and filled a couple of ejector marks and then put the base coat black over the varnish.

[Didymus]

Originally Posted by klutz_100

No, the oven cleaner didn't take it off. I just scraped away the mold lines with a fresh blade to clean up the parts and filled a couple of ejector marks and then put the base coat black over the varnish.

Done. Looks good, like enamel should.

Ddms

[denle]

Try dip the chrome parts into some bleach (Javex), it works very good for removing the chrome.

[Didymus]

Originally Posted by denle

Try dip the chrome parts into some bleach (Javex), it works very good for removing the chrome.

I try to use the least destructive and least toxic stuff that will do the job, so I think I'll stick with 91% isopropyl alcohol with some Purple Cleaner mixed in. If a drop of bleach goes astray, your shirt has a white spot forever.

I'm done with that stage, by the way. My stripper mix worked just fine. Then I sprayed the stripped parts with Testors Glossy Black Enamel. The Alclad II looks terrific, the best chrome I've seen on models. All in all, the Alclad process went very smoothly; I see why Chilly recommended it. Get well soon, Chilly!

(For certain parts, BMF is great, but for small chassis parts like these, it would be hopeless.)

Ddms