Alclad primer alternative?

Hi,

Are there any good alternatives to the Alclad primer? Tonight I would like to paint the tail section of my Mudhen with Alclad, but I can't find any Alclad primer in this town. I have a good selection of Humbrol and Revell enamels, and some Tamya and Gunze acrylics at hand. Do any of these qualify?

TIA

Cave Putorem Thunderchief

Reply to
ikke
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It depends. Which shade of Alclad are you going to use?

Reply to
Al Superczynski

I've had good results using an ordinary cellulose car primer from a rattle can as the base coat. I then use a gloss light grey acrylic over the primer, but this is simply to give the primer a smooth texture so that you won't need too many coats of Alclad to get a decent finish. After that, apply the Alclad as normal.

Reply to
Enzo Matrix

Al,

Primarily aluminum and titanium. I've heard that black acrylic paint will do, other sources state that it will craze when Alclad is sprayed over it. And black also prevents preshading the panellines....

Thunderchief

Reply to
ikke

Enzo, If I read you correctly, basicly Tamiya grey acrylic would do as an undercoat for Alclad? Could I also use black for preshading panellines? I must admit I'm a bit new to Alclad. I noticed that my badger 150 gets clogged very fast when spraying Alclad. The metal particles seem to form flakes around the needle, clogging up the nozzle. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong or forgetting something. I don't thin it. Just shake the bottle thoroughly, pour into the paintcup and spray at a very low pressure, say 0.5 kg/cm² or 7 psi.

Thunderchief

Reply to
ikke

I use Xtracrylix, but I see no reason why Tamiya wouldn't work just as well. I've never had Alclad craze over acrylic. However, I do tend to dust a very thin coat of Alclad on first.

I'm sure that would work. Just build up very thin coats of Alcald until you get the desired coverage.

I've never had that problem, but then I tend to spray at a higher pressure than that.

Reply to
Enzo Matrix

Alclad recommends acrylic *lacquer* as a primer - gray auto primer is perfect for everything except the shiny shades (polished aluminum and chrome), which should be sprayed over gloss black enamel.

I'm not in the least bit surprised that water-based acrylics would craze under Alclad since it's lacquer...

Reply to
Al Superczynski

in article FE%sh.303754$ snipped-for-privacy@phobos.telenet-ops.be, ikke at snipped-for-privacy@ikke.com wrote on 1/22/07 4:40 AM:

I use Mr. Surfacer 1000, thinned with their thinner. It works very well, and you can spray it over the Alclad for any spots that need retouching. I set my airbrush to about 15 psi and don't notice any glogging at all.

Pip Moss

Reply to
Pip Moss

My server is showing this as Al's last post to RMS yesterday. Typical Al, he was helpful to the very end.

Fair winds and fallowing seas, mate.

WmB

Reply to
WmB

WHAT?? I heard nothing about Al; he passed on? What?

-- Stephen

Reply to
Stephen Tontoni

Hi again,

Thanks for all your input.

Well, I gave it a try... Tamiya gloss white was used as primer and left to cure for a day. Panellines and rivets were washed with black ink (the kind used for drafting technical dwgs), and wiped with a wet cloth. Allowing two hours to dry, I shot a mix of Alclad pale and dark jet exhaust. Looked fine when still wet, but during drying the alclad got repelled from the pannellines and rivets, probably due to the wash. The result looks very messy. Today or tomorrow I'll spray on a coat of Tamiya clear varnish and redo the Alclad. If that won't work I'll chuck the alclad out of the window, and continue with Testors Metallizers. A bit more grainy perhaps, but the results are more predictable...

Cheers,

Thunderchief.

Reply to
ikke

in article YiEth.307000$ snipped-for-privacy@phobos.telenet-ops.be, ikke at snipped-for-privacy@ikke.com wrote on 1/24/07 2:56 AM:

I hope you don't give up on Alclad -- it's really a great product. If you ever want to do a NM finish with slightly different tints for different panels, using various Alclad shades, you'll really appreciate how tough it is -- you can mask over it within a half hour of applying it.

From your description, it sounds as if the Alclad didn't like the ink. Can you apply the wash AFTER the Alclad is down?

Pip Moss

Reply to
Pip Moss

You could always try SnJ Spray Metal...it even works as a primer base for the competitions products.

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SnJ Spray Metal-No Priming, No Mixing, No Sealing and Masking friendly...Six Colors!

Reply to
Hawkeye

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