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AK Extreme Metal... what am I doing wrong?


cmatthewbacon

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I've stirred the little blighters for minutes, shaken them until my arm aches, and still, when I spray them, I'm getting very thin coverage... a vague hint of a coppery or brass tint, but no more. Lots of volume going through the brush, but it seems to be mostly carrier liquid, not metal pigment. They'd be great if what I was trying to do was tint a canopy "metallic gold", but as to laying down a good copper or brass colour for "metal" parts, they just aren't working for me. No problem with the True Metal waxes, which are working as advertised, but I'm disappointed with the results of Extreme Metal...

 

Any ideas?

best,

M.

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I initially had some issues with AKEM ... but not like this. I find the coverage is very good. The only thing I can think of is the paint drying up before it reaches the surface. I spray at 10-15psi quite close (2 or 3 inches) to the model. I think best results are got laying thin layers of paint just a bit wet. I found very wet coats led to masking problems later on

 

Cheers

 

Colin

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Possibly a bad batch.  They had massive problems when they launched them however many years ago it was - they basically replaced a batch free of charge for members of a certain private online model club I was a member of.

 

Contact AK and see what they say.

 

My (limited) experience, having only used their Polished Aluminium, is that they can be put down at whatever psi you like, and go down well, although you do have to avoid handling them for quite a while whilst they go off (I painted a Games Workshop model with it and rubbed through it due to handling).  It was far easier to put down than Vallejo Metal Color though.  Didn't have the problem you are describing.

Edited by RobL
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They're my go to metallics. Very forgiving, good pigment and coverage. Maybe you just have a bad batch, they were famous for that. You can sort of tell by how fast the pigment separates in the bottle after being mixed. The bad ones would separate really fast.

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I like the AK Extreme metal paints.  From time to time I brush paint using the aluminum, burnt metal, steel, and gunmetal colours BUT the copper and brass just do not cover whether I brush or spray them on. I don't know what is different with the copper and brass colours but I just can't get them to work the same as the others.

 

As an experiment I was going to give a bottle a good shake and put a bit in a small holding cup and let some of the solvents evaporate, keeping an eye on volume, to see if I get a thicker version which while cover better.

 

In the mean time, I have using the Tamiya or Mr. Color copper and brass.

 

cheers, Graham

 

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OK, I think there's something wrong with this batch:

 

ak-copper.jpg

 

I've got a jar of Stainless Steel that I've had on the shelf for a year or more: the pigment is still distributed through all the liquid, and although it's thicker at the bottom, there is metallic gloop a couple of centimetres deep in the bottom. All the copper in that jar above is in the layer at the bottom a couple of mm thick... it doesn't even reach the bottom of the label. The brass is not quite as bad, but still doesn't reach the label, and the bronze is hard to tell because the base liquid is dark oily green. I've contacted AK Support and we'll see what they say...

best,

M.

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I had a look at the bottles of copper and brass that I have on hand and my observations are much the same yours - there seems to be much less of the copper and brass pigment in suspension and only wee bit lying on the bottom of the bottle.  

 

I too suspect that something is amiss with these two.

 

cheers, Graham

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