Preshading with Alclad II Lacquer By Dave Manter

After completing basic assembly, fill all seams with Gunze Mr. Surfacer Primer 500. Brushing a thick coat or two into the seam does this. After drying for an hour or so, use a cotton swab dipped into Gunze Mr. Color Thinner and rub it across the seam removing the excess primer. This results in a filled seam that does not remove any surface detail due to sanding. This is the quickest and cleanest seam filling technique that I have found.

Once the seams are filled the model was primed with a Tamiya XF-19 Sky Gray paint. Two light coats were applied. After drying for about 20 minutes I sprayed all of the panel lines with Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black.

After drying overnight, the model was polished with a soft cloth to remove any rough areas. The Tamiya paint goes on very smooth and this step could probably be removed if you are in a hurry. Just a note: the model needs an acrylic primer coat to protect the plastic from the lacquer solvents in the Alclad.

Once the model is wiped down one last time the first of 2 very thin coats of Alclad Aluminum was applied. I started with my air pressure set at 15 lbs., but found that the paint was drying before it hit the model thus leaving a very rough coat. I then dropped my air pressure down to 10 lbs. and the second coat went on beautifully. This paint dries very fast (about 15 minutes) and is incredibly hard. I tried to scuff it but could not. I waited about an hour and applied a very thin wash of Lamp Back to the entire model to accent the panel lines even more. I used oil paint for this and the paint thinner did not affect the Alclad at all.

Once the wash had dried I polished the model with a soft cloth and applied the decals. The surface was so smooth no clear coat was needed. The decals responded well to Microscale's Micro Sol and snuggled down into all of the panel lines.

All in all, this technique works very well for weathered natural metal aircraft. A couple of points that I discovered that you might want to keep in mind:

• This stuff stinks to high heaven! Make sure you have adequate ventilation.

• It is very aggressive and will eat into the plastic. Make sure your primer coat is adequate.

• It is very easy to do touch up work as it blends into itself very well.

If you have been putting off trying a natural metal finish, give this stuff a try. It is easy to use and very forgiving.