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Airbrushing Alclad


beetcleaner

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Can anyone advise on best technique for airbrushing Alclad please. My last model was done in a NMF and I used Tamiya AS12 spray cans. The result was very good but my latest project has lots of nooks and crannies and I would probably get a lot of overspray on the model.

I use a Badger 200NH airbrush and usually spray Humbrol enamels at 20 psi. Any advice on what thinners to use and what I should clean the airbrush with would be most welcome as well.

 

Thankyou for any advice

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I've just (literally just!) started using Alclad and while I'm by no means an expert, obviously, I can pass on what I've found so far.

 

The first thing is a good, smooth, primed surface. Alclad is an incredibly unforgiving finish due to its thinness. Every seam will need to be taken care of and things that you might pass off as "it'll do" on a normal paint job won't here. On the Airfix Lightning I have just sprayed I wish I had primed and rubbed down the fuselage and wings separately, before joining them together, as there's a few, hard to reach areas that don't look quite as good as they could have. This brings me to getting the primed surface smooth. You'll probably need some Micromesh fine abrasive to get the primed surface smooth enough. I found that I had to do the prime/rub down sequence a few times before I was certain it was good enough but as the Alclad primer dries pretty quickly, it doesn't take as long as you might expect. I have to say, the Alclad primer has been a bit of a revelation for me and I'm now using it on everything. I suspect that you could use a heavily-thinned Mr Surfacer 1000 as an alternative, as I've achieved very smooth surfaces using that.

 

I sprayed the Alclad primer/microfiller at around 12 psi and didn't thin it at all. Just give it a damn good shake first! I used cellulose thinners to clean out the airbrush afterwards.

 

As for the Alclad metal finishes themselves, so far I've used three different aluminium shades, steel, pale burnt metal and jet exhaust. The underlying primer colour will most certainly affect the appearance of the Alclad metal coat and I found  that especially useful around the burner cans on the Lightning, using a black undercoat. I also used the black undercoat for the nose ring and this really made it stand out. You can of course mix the various primers together to create different shades for various panels.

 

I sprayed the metal finishes at 12 psi, using a shallow angle. Get in pretty close and mist the first coat on, overlapping the previous coat slightly. Don't put it on too wet. It'll dry enough to go over again quickly. Alclad recommend two coats but, possibly down to inexperience, I found that I had to apply more. You won't need to thin the Alclad, as it's very thin to start with. I found that I could mask over it after 30 minutes or so using "de-tacked" Tamiya tape without anything being lifted off at all. though for major areas, I decided to leave it overnight. I've seen video demonstrations where you can definitely see where the masking tape has been removed and I wonder whether this is due to not waiting long enough. Certainly, I haven't seen this at all. Just be patient!

 

Masking off various panels can break up the uniformity of the overall appearance. On my Lightning I used just two shades for the overall airframe (in my case, shades A and B- these are the old Alclad designations, BTW) and the effect was subtle, often only showing when the model was tilted to catch the light. I found it very effective. It's probably best to look at photos of the original subject to get a good idea of the kind of contrast you need to aim for. In my case, photographs of Lightnings showed a whole range of contrasting panels!

 

Clean out the airbrush with cellulose thinners and make sure you are thorough. Make sure you have some fume extraction and wear a mask. It's pretty stinky stuff!

 

Hopefully a few others will share their experiences.

 

Good luck!

 

Mark.

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Using it right now:

 

 

I'm using a slightly unorthodox "single wet coat" approach over Mr Surfacer 1500, feel free to ask any questions, BTW Alclad is pre-thinned, dont try and thin it any more but if you've let it dry out, use cellulose thinner or Mr Leveling/mr color thinner /tamiya lacquer thinner etc. to bring back to original very watery consistency. Essential to shake until no pigment is left on the bottom of the bottle. Spray at 15-25 PSI using 0.4-6mm nozzle at no more than 10 cm from the model (though for my wet coat application I used 10-12PSI as I was very close at about 5cm- dont try this till you get the basic, multiple light thin coats from 10 cm mastered!!)

 

I'm assuming you have an extractor of some sort and a VOC filter face mask? Cellulose thinner as used in Alclad is super toxic, carcinogenic etc etc, and will probably make  watching Morris dancing enjoyable...

 

Cheers

 

Anil

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  • 2 years later...
On 12/12/2018 at 9:53 AM, lasermonkey said:

I've just (literally just!) started using Alclad and while I'm by no means an expert, obviously, I can pass on what I've found so far.

 

The first thing is a good, smooth, primed surface. Alclad is an incredibly unforgiving finish due to its thinness. Every seam will need to be taken care of and things that you might pass off as "it'll do" on a normal paint job won't here. On the Airfix Lightning I have just sprayed I wish I had primed and rubbed down the fuselage and wings separately, before joining them together, as there's a few, hard to reach areas that don't look quite as good as they could have. This brings me to getting the primed surface smooth. You'll probably need some Micromesh fine abrasive to get the primed surface smooth enough. I found that I had to do the prime/rub down sequence a few times before I was certain it was good enough but as the Alclad primer dries pretty quickly, it doesn't take as long as you might expect. I have to say, the Alclad primer has been a bit of a revelation for me and I'm now using it on everything. I suspect that you could use a heavily-thinned Mr Surfacer 1000 as an alternative, as I've achieved very smooth surfaces using that.

 

I sprayed the Alclad primer/microfiller at around 12 psi and didn't thin it at all. Just give it a damn good shake first! I used cellulose thinners to clean out the airbrush afterwards.

 

As for the Alclad metal finishes themselves, so far I've used three different aluminium shades, steel, pale burnt metal and jet exhaust. The underlying primer colour will most certainly affect the appearance of the Alclad metal coat and I found  that especially useful around the burner cans on the Lightning, using a black undercoat. I also used the black undercoat for the nose ring and this really made it stand out. You can of course mix the various primers together to create different shades for various panels.

 

I sprayed the metal finishes at 12 psi, using a shallow angle. Get in pretty close and mist the first coat on, overlapping the previous coat slightly. Don't put it on too wet. It'll dry enough to go over again quickly. Alclad recommend two coats but, possibly down to inexperience, I found that I had to apply more. You won't need to thin the Alclad, as it's very thin to start with. I found that I could mask over it after 30 minutes or so using "de-tacked" Tamiya tape without anything being lifted off at all. though for major areas, I decided to leave it overnight. I've seen video demonstrations where you can definitely see where the masking tape has been removed and I wonder whether this is due to not waiting long enough. Certainly, I haven't seen this at all. Just be patient!

 

Masking off various panels can break up the uniformity of the overall appearance. On my Lightning I used just two shades for the overall airframe (in my case, shades A and B- these are the old Alclad designations, BTW) and the effect was subtle, often only showing when the model was tilted to catch the light. I found it very effective. It's probably best to look at photos of the original subject to get a good idea of the kind of contrast you need to aim for. In my case, photographs of Lightnings showed a whole range of contrasting panels!

 

Clean out the airbrush with cellulose thinners and make sure you are thorough. Make sure you have some fume extraction and wear a mask. It's pretty stinky stuff!

 

Hopefully a few others will share their experiences.

 

Good luck!

 

Mark.

Very useful, thanks to all who have contributed (saved me starting a new thread!). I have a can of Badger Airbrush Cleaner - is that any good for cleaning Alclad or should I stick to cellulose thinner? 

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