Hi all... I've gotten myself into a frustrating situation! I'm currently assembling a Hangar9 Sopwith Camel and have gone through the process of de-glossing the film and airbrushing the film work and sealing with polyurethane. I didn't think much of the silver finish Hangar9 have tried to pass off as the metal work so I wanted to do something to make it look more like real metal.

My first thought was to try and use some .15 litho printing plates (I work for a printing company so easy to access) but it would take considerable work which I don't think I'm capable of to get all of the compound curves for the Camel.

Next thought was to try chrome sprays. I brought a cheapy can from local hardware shop and tried that. After 4 days drying the finish is really nasty... looks perfect, but as soon as you touch it it leaves fingerprints and any chemical that hits it disolves it, i.e. metho, oil, nitro etc...

I then brought a decent brand can of Chrome paint - VHT Chrome Plate Finish (http://www.vhtpaint.com/products/sfI.../productID/140) to try out. Being an epoxy resin with metallic flakes I figured it ought to do the job fine considering epoxy is glow fuel proof. After some test runs with this stuff and seems to behave the same as the cheap chrome spray. Albeit, it looks much better but doesn't hold up well, even touching it leaves smears and marks 3 days after spraying it. Glow fuel just disolves it right off.

Has anyone had any experience with these sorts of products? Or perhaps someone could shed some light on different techniques of obtaining a metallic looking finish that's durable and glow fuel proof?

Thanks for any help.
Carl.

Plasticote make a chrome spray available from craft shops, whatever paint used , put epoxy finishing resin on it, type used for wing skinning. The metalcote stuff from humbrol is good and you can burnish it and i put water based clear acrylic sprayed on top to 'fix' it before coating with the resin.

Maggie.

Hi Maggie... Plasti-kote is the brand of first can I tried. It's called 'Brilliant Chrome'. It's not the acrylic version though. I noticed they had Gold chrome which was acrylic but not chrome one.

I tried coating both chrome brands with Clear polyurethane and it just melted the chrome paint. I didn't try putting epoxy over it though. We're pretty limited to what's available out here in the country (no LHS for 250km). I wonder if thinned out 2 part epoxy sprayed through an airbrush would work?

I was reading another post where someone mentioned using ordinary silver spray then overcoating with gloss urathane. It wouldn't have the lustre of the chrome paint but worse comes to worse it would have to be better than the dull silver the H9 ARF has.

Originally Posted by Michnet76

Hi Maggie... Plasti-kote is the brand of first can I tried. It's called 'Brilliant Chrome'. It's not the acrylic version though. I noticed they had Gold chrome which was acrylic but not chrome one.

I tried coating both chrome brands with Clear polyurethane and it just melted the chrome paint. I didn't try putting epoxy over it though. We're pretty limited to what's available out here in the country (no LHS for 250km). I wonder if thinned out 2 part epoxy sprayed through an airbrush would work?

I was reading another post where someone mentioned using ordinary silver spray then overcoating with gloss urathane. It wouldn't have the lustre of the chrome paint but worse comes to worse it would have to be better than the dull silver the H9 ARF has.

Try some experiments with household diy waterbased varnish sprayed on the metal paint, then just brush some slow setting, but nice and warm to help it flow, epoxy on the top. As you say main hassle is the particles coming out of suspension.

Another idea is the silver stuff sold in craft/art shops like gold which is rubbed on things like picture frames. To get that look you really ought to bash some ally with the soap and blowlamp and then polish it up with the finishing little swirls the camel had, done with a dremel.

There is also the car wheelpaint sprays? Or there are quite a few heatshrink films in the model world that can get a metal such as ally or chrome look with no real hassle?

Maggie.

Originally Posted by margaret.roberts

Try some experiments with household diy waterbased varnish sprayed on the metal paint, then just brush some slow setting, but nice and warm to help it flow, epoxy on the top. As you say main hassle is the particles coming out of suspension.

I did try water based and oil/solvent based varnishes, both from aerosol can and brushed on and they either dissolved the chrome finish (solvent) or beaded off of it (water based).

Originally Posted by margaret.roberts

Another idea is the silver stuff sold in craft/art shops like gold which is rubbed on things like picture frames. To get that look you really ought to bash some ally with the soap and blowlamp and then polish it up with the finishing little swirls the camel had, done with a dremel.

I also read about that one and rang around the local art/craft/scrapbooking shops and none of them had any real idea of what I was talking about. Would look really good though.

Originally Posted by margaret.roberts

There is also the car wheelpaint sprays? Or there are quite a few heatshrink films in the model world that can get a metal such as ally or chrome look with no real hassle?

I think that's what this VHT can is meant to be, wheel paint and for other auto parts under the bonnet. Chrome films could be an option, but covering the f/glass cowl and upper fuzz hatch would be difficult.

Looks like I've found the method I'll use anyway... I tried running some 30 minute epoxy watered down with metho 50:50 through the airbrush onto a test sheet sprayed with the Plasti-Kote Brilliant Chrome and it didn't tarnish or damage chrome finish and put a nice even slight glossy coat over it. After letting it dry over night it hardened up nicely and has put a nice clear coating over it and seems to hold well and doesn't scratch or crack (yet).
So with that result, I proceeded to airbrush some epoxy onto the cowl as a test, did a fairly heavy coating due to the abuse cowls are normally subject too and it looks nice. It's lost some of the initial lustre quality of the dull finish but it's still leagues better then the original H9 silver/grey finish.

Original H9 silver: http://www.hangar-9.com/ProdInfo/Gal...t-and-guns.jpg

Plasti-Kote Brillian Chrome finish (minus epoxy coating):
http://aztec.riverland.net.au/boehm/...rbrushed01.jpg
http://aztec.riverland.net.au/boehm/...rbrushed02.jpg
http://aztec.riverland.net.au/boehm/...rbrushed03.jpg

Thanks again for all your help Maggie. It has been much appreciated.

Carl.

That looks well good Carl, i like using airbrushes and have quite a few from paasche turbo's to badgers and old industrial types that were used in the ceramics trade as i am, in the bourgeois term, an 'artist'

I love fiddling with different carriers and solvents and paints as you get unique effects, i think your Camel has a realistic scale effect, as, if you viewed the full size from a distance it would grey out, which is why many models, even though the exact colour is used, look wrong.

Now you have the base metal fixed, you can go to work on it with subtle stuff, like stone chips, tool scrapes and bird droppings

Maggie.

I tried Pactra and Testor's tries at chrome in a can.

The testor's black label came out best, but not perfect, but not as low as Good either. Both had a silver, layered look to them. I had to apply a dust, then a color coat, and then a third caked on coat. The last being most scary, for the paint tends to run a bit, even in our Palm Springs heat of the summer. I knew it to be subject to scratches, so oversprayed two days later on with some Urethane obtained from an auto paint store. Scary here too, for I feared it would dull, but no.

Wm.