Alclad - using various colours

[Graham T]

Just a quick question that's been bothering me for a while:  I lay down a gloss back base coat before the over all "main" shade but, when attempting to produce different shades of alclad on various panels do others mask around the panel concerned & then reapply the black primer or do they simply spray the subsequent alclad shade(s) directly onto the first?

[janneman36]

There are several ways to do it ...

The one you described is a way to do it or you can spray different gloss basecoat colors and apply one metal color as this also gives you a different shade😉

 

cheers, Jan

[Mark Harmsworth]

The second option. No need to re-apply the primer.

Mark

[Duncan B]

So many ways to skin a cat! To answer your original question first, spray your base colour and then carefully mask around the other panels to spray your other shades, no need to re-prime.

Now the suggestion to spray various base colours and then one coat of your NMF paint of choice is also a good technique which obviously takes the risky masking over NMF out of the equation and can produce some very subtle changes of tone which spraying various the different metal colours sometimes can't achieve as it's more likely to produce a patchwork quilt effect that is too pronounced without going back over with the base colour. Another way to get tonal variation on your metallic finish is to use a single metal colour and then mask off carefully again but this time spray various thicknesses and/or types of clear coat to get the variation.

I'd suggest having a go at a few different techniques to see what the various effects turn out like as you can mix and match them for the final effect you are looking for. I am currently painting 2 P-51Ds using the techniques above, one to look newish and the other to look faded and worn, or that's the plan at least.

 

Duncan B

[scautomoton]

further to the techniques described above, what is the best way to create the buffed/swirlmark finish seen from footfall and polishing on an aircraft?