Alclad airbrush help

[Vric]

Too wet. Alclad paint work nicely in thin coat.

It's actually a quite simple paint to work with. This thread make everything too complicated imo. Just do multiple light coat on a smooth surface. Just like any other paint that require clear coat. (Zero paint or any other laquer paint)

[keveuh]

Too wet ? What do you mean is too wet ?? The Aluminum on the spoon or the spider web effect ?
Because I didn't apply medium/heavy coat and those spider webs came out like at once when I sprayed just a little. I tried on that piece of paper board to spray heavily, with lower/higher pressure just to see how it would react but I still had those spider webs anyway. And from what I saw on the web that's because of lack of thinner... but Alclad paints don't need thinner ! Something to note, is that the spider webs came after the paint had stayed in the cup for some minutes. As I said the spoon was already painted and I just wanted to had more to see how it would look and there on the edges of the spoon I stared to see wired "wires" building up.
Maybe the thinner had evaporated to much from the cup and the paint got too thick ?

Yes and also I tried to spray primer again, and since it was a bit rough still I tried the toohbrush/toothpaste trick and it works pretty nice, I should try it next time I have a primed part which is too rough and too hard to sand.

[keveuh]

Well problem solved. I followed the instructions from Vric, spray directly on the bare plastic and it worked perfectly well ! So the problem was the primer too rough and absorbing the paint. The regular Alclad don't seem to be very agressive paints, because I have a bottle of Alclad Aqua Gloss here and it says on it that it can be used as a primer for Alclad Regular paints. So if they can be painted on water based clear they can certainly be safe on plastic.

Here's the pics:




Thanks everyone for the help.

[POPSICLE_PETE]

What kind of alunimum are you looking for. Its its cast..thats looks pretty spot on. If polished...then yes, you need gloss black. I think you have the wrong bottle of alunimum. BTW. Used testors black in a can. Alclad black primer is the best but I have had too many problems with it. The cap seized to the bottle everytime I went to use it and will eventually crack. Also everytime..I noticed the surface of the paint hardened and I needed to punch a hole in it to get paint out. Eventually the paint had too much particles of dried paint in it. So if you do buy it..paint 3 or 4 models worth of chrome at the same time. I did a test on a big can of plastickote gloss black enamel and dint turn out too bad. But it does not have as glossy a shine as alclad or testors.

[keveuh]

I don't have any problems with my bottle, but as soon as one talks about Alclad people understand at once their hig finish paints, and this thread was about the Aluminum which is a REGULAR finish.

I have some Polished Aluminum and that's the result I got:



Exactly like it should be, nice and shiny and I applied a black gloss enamel base. So I never had problems with the high shine polished aluminum, but only with the regular aluminum. My problem was the primer being too rough and painting directly on plastic (so on a very clean and smooth surface) gives perfect result for me. But one thing for sure, I'll stop buying Alclad primers because they give a too rough finish, I'll get some Mr hobby primer because siince you need to thin them you can then decide to thin them more or less according to your need.

Thanks anyway

[CrateCruncher]

Airplane modelers have worked out a lot of the problems you encountered as they build a lot of metallic finish subjects. Here is a link to my local club's latest newsletter which includes an in-depth article on Alclad II from a guy that knows his stuff:

http://www.austinsms.org/news/2013/June2013.pdf

[keveuh]

Originally Posted by CrateCruncher

Airplane modelers have worked out a lot of the problems you encountered as they build a lot of metallic finish subjects. Here is a link to my local club's latest newsletter which includes an in-depth article on Alclad II from a guy that knows his stuff:

http://www.austinsms.org/news/2013/June2013.pdf

Thanks for that, I read some of it and it confirms my thoughts of using a Tamiya silver spray as a base for Alclad Aluminum. Precious informations there.

[John18d]

keveuh - I just want to make a comment - take it for what it's worth - when spaying with an airbrush the size of the needle and jet is selected based on the viscocity of the media to be sprayed. You mentioned using an Iwata with a 0.5 needle/jet - When I use Alclad it has always been pre-thinned and is very thin so I usually use a 0.18 or 0.3 needle/jet - never a 0.5 - it is too large and allows too much Alclad to flow through the airbrush and onto what you are trying to paint - when Alclad is applied in thick coats it loses its metalic luster and become dull and blushed.
this is what Vric means by too wet
Just something to consider
maybe look for a smaller needle/jet set for your airbrush or pick up another airbrush used cheap. I have 5 different airbrushed one for primer and 3 with different needle/jest 0.5 - 0.3 - 0.18 - and then one airbrush dedicated for spraying 2K clears that is a trigger pull type so I can control and set the amount of material and pattern to spray while pulling the trigger all the way back for consistent air volume and pressure
Hope this helps you
John