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Help painting a Mustang in aluminium, please


keiron99

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I'm going to paint my Airfix 1/72 P51-D Mustang using Vallejo Metal Colour Aluminium. I know there are (cheaper) alternatives but other Vallejo model air paints work well in my modest airbrush, so I am hopeful this should run through it OK too.

 

But I'm wondering whether I also need to get gloss black primer (or at least apply a gloss black undercoat) and a special varnish. I don't want to end up spending three times as much on the paint - which I will likely never use again - than on the kit itself!

 

What is the purpose of the gloss black undercoat? Can I not use matt black (which I already have)?

 

Regarding the varnish, can I not use the Pledge gloss that I have? Or would that somehow react with the metal paint?

 

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

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I have used these paints and they are great. Follow the instructions on the bottle and you'll be fine. I strongly recommend that you don't use matt black. The reason for gloss black is that it gives a smooth surface for the metallic paint. Metallics are unforgiving and will show all the blemishes underneath so give the plastic a good clean and if you don't have a gloss black then use a primer and give that a gentle polish. You don't need to use a varnish afterwards as decals can go straight on to the aluminium paint.

 

Good luck

Mark

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Yes that'll work fine. It is really worth putting effort into cleaning and polishing before applying the metallic paint. Get the plastic as shiny as you can first.

 

And then post it of course 😉

Mark

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Could I also use just regular Vallejo Model Air Glossy Black on top of the Tamiya primer to get the same benefit as the glossy primer? (Only because it's cheaper than the primer and I can see I might get more use from it in the future.)

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16 minutes ago, keiron99 said:

Could I also use just regular Vallejo Model Air Glossy Black

 

I may be out of date (usually am) but I didn't know there was a Glossy Black in the regular Model Air. 

 

I am a great fan of Vallejo Metal Colors. I recommend using them with the Gloss Black primer as per instructions. The primer will last for years and if you do a few metal finishes you will get good use out of it.

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On 4/8/2021 at 5:40 AM, keiron99 said:

But I'm wondering whether I also need to get gloss black primer (or at least apply a gloss black undercoat) and a special varnish. I don't want to end up spending three times as much on the paint - which I will likely never use again - than on the kit itself!

 

If you're asking about the specific Metal Varnish Vallejo sells in their Metal Color line, I'll just chime in and say I bought it when I got my first few bottles of Metal Color and regretted it. It didn't spray too well and did not improve the finish at all in my eyes. I do not varnish my metallic paints anymore. I mainly use Mission Model and Vallejo Metal Colors, and have not had any problems with using no varnish. 

 

The primer (both color and smoothness) will determine the shade and sheen of your metallic paint job. You can use this to great effect - grey primer vs gloss black primer for making subtle variance using the same metallic paint. Gloss black is often recommended for the shiniest and smoothest metallic paint job, which seems to be what most people are going for. 

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Thanks, Shin,

 

I have ordered some gloss black primer and aluminium from the metal range. Impatiently waiting for it to arrive! I imagine I will end up not varnishing it.

 

One thing that's concerning me, having watched youtube videos, is how easy the metal finish paints come away with the masking tape. I will need to do some masking so will have to keep my fingers crossed I don't get in a pickle.

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I hope the primer works out, I have heard middling reviews of Vallejo primer. But yes, this paint line is fantastic, many hold it as the finest acrylic metallic series - sprays great (did my Mustang wings with this line), and brush paints fantastically as well, lots of miniature painters use it for their metals. 

 

Regarding lifting, best practice would be to use high quality modelling tape (Tamiya for example), and before you apply it, detack it heavily. I usually stick it across the back of my hand or arm a few times before applying to the model. I may be overly cautious (or a slow builder) but generally don't try and mask anything for a few days after paint application to allow the paint a chance to cure. 

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On 15/04/2021 at 08:30, keiron99 said:

One thing that's concerning me, having watched youtube videos, is how easy the metal finish paints come away with the masking tape. I will need to do some masking so will have to keep my fingers crossed I don't get in a pickle.

 

My experience with Vallejo Metal Color is that I've not had any problems with the paint lifting with masking tape. Let the primer cure overnight and then the same with the Metal Color. Take some of the tack off the masking tape before applying it as @Shin has said and you should be fine.

 

A small point is that I found the Metal Color Aluminium rather bright. I much prefer their Dark Aluminium and Duraluminium - but that's a very personal thing. Having said that I use all three to give some variation on different panels. 

 

This is a 1:48 Mustang to illustrate. I used gloss black primer and then the three Metal Colors.  The invasion stripes, the black stripes on the tail and nose and the olive drab anti-glare were all on top of the metalic paint and that needed quite a lot of masking. None of the metallic paint lifted.

 

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The aluminium on the wings has had a varnish applied to tone down the metallic look as Mustangs had something like an aluminium paste on the wings after the panel lines were filled. But that's just me being a bit ocd. 

Have fun.

Mark

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My Vallejo paints finally turned up and to be honest I'm a bit disappointed.

 

The black "gloss" primer has a sort of rubbery, grainy, satin texture. Nothing like a shiny gloss to be honest.

 

And the 'metal' aluminium paint is almost indistinguishable from regular silver. In fact, I think the regular aluminium is probably more realistic.

 

I recall many, many years ago I used a Humbrol aluminium, which I applied with a brush, which you then burnished with a cloth. It was really quite effective.

 

All round, not overly convinced by this unfortunately.

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I remember seeing something from  @Chuck540Z3 over on Large Scale Planes where he said that for metallic finishes he now uses Tamiya LP1 gloss black lacquer paint as the base coat. He said that it adheres that well that he doesn't need to use primer. Not sure if it was in a build thread he did or a tutorial.

 

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Which gloss primer did you buy ? I use this one under the Metal Colours and it's IMHO a very good primer

 

https://www.amazon.it/Vallejo-Polyurethane-Primer-Black-VAL74602/dp/B004BMZVMK

 

Regarding the metal colour themselves, personally I find them very good and I've completed several models using them. The paints are also very robust and I've only had a very small speckle of paint lifting on a model, model on which I had to mask around a dozen times to add variations to some pretty small panels.

Couple of examples from this same forum: a WIP of a 1/72 F-104, with fuselage and tail in natural metal.

 

 

And a completed P-51D. On this one I used both the metal colours and the Model Air Aluminum for the wings, this one later coated with a semigloss varnish.

 

 

Regarding the use of the Model Air series for metallic finishes, these are quite nice themselves and anyone not wanting to deal with the Metal Colour series can get some pretty good result with the Model Air paints... however in my experience the Metal Colour are just better and result in a more realistic finish. I've also found them very easy to spray and dry very quickly, allowing to complete finishes with different shades very quickly. However they must be stirred very well ! It can also be useful to use a cocktail stick to spread the pigments within the carrier fluid before pouring the paint into the airbrush cup.

 

 

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Hi. The primer I got is 73.660 "gloss black".

 

After spraying the model with the metal aluminium, I masked off a panel and sprayed with regular model air aluminium, and the difference is very subtle.

 

I did a test though and sprayed the metal aluminium straight onto bare plastic and the finish is better. It's shinier and smoother.

 

 

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By the way, that rather cool look you've created, as I see others do, where you have odd panels on the aircraft done in a slightly darker or lighter shade, do you think I'd be able to achieve a darker finish by mixing some regular Vallejo black in with the metal aluminium? Or are they such different formulas that it might screw things up?

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1 hour ago, keiron99 said:

Hi. The primer I got is 73.660 "gloss black".

 

After spraying the model with the metal aluminium, I masked off a panel and sprayed with regular model air aluminium, and the difference is very subtle.

 

I did a test though and sprayed the metal aluminium straight onto bare plastic and the finish is better. It's shinier and smoother.

 

 

 

Ok, i'ts a different primer but from the same family, in theory should work the same. I wonder if the problem is in how smooth you can get the primer coat. This may explain why the same paint sprayed on bare plastic is shinier. Mind, the Metal Colours can also be sprayed on bare plastic, so this could be an option... however if you are building a kit that requires filler, then any area covered in filler will show badly.

I would try to polish the primed surface using a cloth or a very fine sanding sponge, may improve things considerably.

 

 

1 hour ago, keiron99 said:

By the way, that rather cool look you've created, as I see others do, where you have odd panels on the aircraft done in a slightly darker or lighter shade, do you think I'd be able to achieve a darker finish by mixing some regular Vallejo black in with the metal aluminium? Or are they such different formulas that it might screw things up?

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You could but it would be tricky to get the mix right, as black will darken the colour considerably even in small quantities. Personally I have several paints from the same Metal Colour range, some panels on those models were sprayed with these straight from the bottle and others were sprayed with mixes of these colours. On the F-104 for example the tail area was all painted with mixes made from these paints. By changing the mix ratio accordingly, you can get very small variations in the tones, resulting in a very realistic effect. In any case whenever I choose to add variations, I follow the patterns I can see in pictures of the real aircraft. Tonal variations are usually due to the use of different alloys, different surface finishes of certain elements or the presence of a mix of painted and unpainted surfaces, so the patterns are generally the same on the same type.

The same effect can be achieved with other paints of course: this F-84G was painted using a range of Vallejo Model Air paints, Aluminum, Chrome and Silver.

 

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When spraying metallics, I use Ultimate Modelling Products Black gloss primer, which I leave to cure for about 12 hours, then a light coat of Tamiya X-1 Gloss Black. This is left to cure, then a heavier wetter coat, and then usually a 3rd wetter coat. This usually gives me a very glossy, mirror like black finish ready for the metallic coat. Sometimes, but not always, I them varnish this with Tamiya X-22 gloss varnish to protect the black paint.

 

I'm still learning how to spray the metallics, and sometimes get brilliant results, and sometime crappy results. Just bought a new airbrush, UMP Apex (which I believe is a rebranded Badger airbrush) but have not yet tried any metal paints with this.

 

I use Vallejo Acrylic Metal Colour, and also K-Color metallic paints (this is an imported brand but I understand that it's been discontinued by the manufacturer now though 😞)

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