Chrome. How? School me please.

[dromia]

Forgot to say I undercoat my chromes with a smooth and glossy black finish with Mr Colour GX2 Ueno black being my undercoat of choice

[keefr22]

Recently noticed that Spotmodel have started to stock the Hasegawa foils. They have the 'silver' finish in stock;

 

https://www.spotmodel.com/product_info.php?products_id=55710#image2

 

and the 'chrome' available for pre-order 'soon'....

 

I've watched a few videos of Japanese modellers using this stuff and it seems a bit easier and more adhesive than BMF. I have a similar sheet of foil from Gunze (unfortunately in a matt aluminium finish) that I can't even remember when or where I bought, but that still sticks far better than the brand new sheet of BMF I bought last year which is basically useless without using some sort of adhesive. Which defeats the object really.....

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

[thommo]

OK, the learning continues.

 

As Malc2 says above, rolling a curved blade around the area you want to trim works much, much better than dragging a straight blade across it (which has a tendency to make the BMF lift).

 

Cleaning the area first with a little isopropyl alcohol and wiping dry before applying BMF gives better adhesion.  This stuff seems very sensitive to even the slightest oil from your hands.

 

Handling areas already BMFed while applying more is problematic as the applied stuff has a tendency to shift & lift.  I hold it with a cloth now to try and avoid that.

 

BMFing complex old vehicle bumper shapes is basically a trial & error job.  Sometimes you can get one large piece to bend around complex curves ok, and get all/most of the wrinkles out with a cotton bud and toothpick.  Other times is will be a complete debacle.  Sometimes, it works better to apply several strips along complex curves, but then you have an overlapping line, which you really can't see with the naked eye, but you can with the Optivisor on.

 

As one BMF video I watched stresses, you need the patience of Jobe to work with this stuff on complex shapes.  On larger flat areas, it is pretty easy.

[thommo]

Here's my BMFing results so far.

 

Not great, but ok with the naked eye.  Takes ages applying and trimming numerous small pieces to these complex shapes.

 

Hoping the relatively flat body and window trims will be much easier.

 

 

[keefr22]

They look good from here - probably some of the trickiest shapes you could have chosen for a first go at BMF! 👍

 

Keith

[thommo]

10 hours ago, keefr22 said:

They look good from here - probably some of the trickiest shapes you could have chosen for a first go at BMF! 👍

 

Keith

 

I'm a sucker for punishment!

 

My next trick is trying to turn the matt blue body colour more glossy.  Of course, if I'd been I'd have bought a gloss blue in the SMS range instead of flat aggressor blue, but the flat colour was the closest to what I was after.  Have gloss coated it with SMS gloss, but not really shiny enough.  Might try polishing it with something?

[keefr22]

14 hours ago, thommo said:

Might try polishing it with something?

 

I usually flat the gloss coat down with 4 to 12 thousand micromesh and then use all three Tamiya polishing compounds in sequence. But I don't know if the SMS paint is water based or....?? If it's water based I'd skip the micromesh stage and go straight to the compounds. If you can't find (or don't want to buy) the Tamiya stuff a lot of full size car polishes will also work but they tend to be a bit harsher so go easier with them! 

 

I'm finding these work quite nicely on model paint so may use hem instead of Tamiya in future as they're easier to get hold of;

 

Meguiars Ultimate Compound Colour & Clarity Restorer 450ml

 

Meguiar's G10307EU ScratchX 2.0 Car Paint Scratch Remover 207ml, Fine scratch and paint blemish remover

 

(didn't post it as a link as it's a UK supplier)

 

Keith

[thommo]

10 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

I usually flat the gloss coat down with 4 to 12 thousand micromesh and then use all three Tamiya polishing compounds in sequence. But I don't know if the SMS paint is water based or....?? If it's water based I'd skip the micromesh stage and go straight to the compounds. If you can't find (or don't want to buy) the Tamiya stuff a lot of full size car polishes will also work but they tend to be a bit harsher so go easier with them! 

 

I'm finding these work quite nicely on model paint so may use hem instead of Tamiya in future as they're easier to get hold of;

 

Meguiars Ultimate Compound Colour & Clarity Restorer 450ml

 

Meguiar's G10307EU ScratchX 2.0 Car Paint Scratch Remover 207ml, Fine scratch and paint blemish remover

 

(didn't post it as a link as it's a UK supplier)

 

Keith

 

Thanks Keith

 

SMS is like Tamiya acrylics - an acrylic lacquer.  I've discovered some bottles say flat, some say gloss & some say nothing!  Aggressor Blue is definitely a flat though.  The white I used is actually a gloss.

 

I ended up glossing it with Future (Pledge One Go), then polishing it with the Tamiya Polishing Compound.  I think this largely removed the Future!, but still left it quite shiny.  I'm after a moderate shine, not a modern car shine as apparently these older cars did not have clear coats applied over the paint.

 

However, I'm not entirely happy with it, not to mention applying the glosses darkened the Aggressor Blue somewhat (I'll have to live with that).  So might try polishing again with my 6000-12000 micromesh, then another type of polish, perhaps a car polish as you suggest?  I've read Novus #2 fine scratch remover also works well.  Meguiars - I actually had some but it went off.  Can get it here in Oz though.

 

The pic in the photo below shows it in exactly the colour I was after, but my phone camera has played some trickery & lightened it, as it is actually quite a bit darker than that by eye.

 

Edited October 6, 2021 by thommo

[thommo]

Also, I tried the Alclad Chrome over a Tamiya Gloss Black base on some smaller parts I couldn't use BMF on and that works much better than over a flat black base.

[keefr22]

13 hours ago, thommo said:

apparently these older cars did not have clear coats applied over the paint.

 

 

Indeed, that's right - mostly they were painted in cellulose which was then (sometimes!) polished out. Metallics did often have a clear coat back then, but that wasn't the miles deep super shiny 2K they use today! 

 

The body is looking good now, if you were to go tor the Meguiars on Future, I'd be tempted to stick with the Scratch x as it's less abrasive than the Ultimate Compound.

 

That's a nice looking car!

 

Keith

[thommo]

I think I've taken BMF to places it's not supposed to go, but discovered if I cut it in curves using my Cricut Maker, I could make it go around corners and edges a bit better with fewer creases.  Not perfect by any means, but better than trying with straight cut strips.

 

And of course, as I've handled the body for other tasks, some of the BMF has moved (despite applying Future to help seal it down) so needs re-doing.