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Alclad II - Continued Hot Metal Colors and More!!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Reviewed By Ed Kinney, #2989 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Shortly after one of my
previous articles on either the Alclad products themselves or the application thereof, I received a call from Tony Hipp, Mr.
Alclad himself! For those of you who don’t know this, Tony is a transplant from the U.K., formerly employed by Hannants and has
a most charming Brit accent. He informed me that his “mum” had seen the articles and had made several copies for “distribution to those deserving”…?!? Oh well, way to go, mum! He also ask if he might send me a care package of new stuff he’d been working on for purposes of review, to which I replied “ Bang on” or something like that. Within 3 days, a box of goodies arrived from Tony and are shown in the images attached. First, included was a clear base coat which I’ve tried with success. Dries to the touch in about an hour and if applied at 12/15 psi, will dry to a very smooth gloss finish. Also included were a gloss black undercoat and a new color, Air Frame Aluminum, which I plan to use as the base coat for the topside of natural metal finish aircraft, using a slightly darker shade for the underside. Then to be followed by paneling in the normal manner. The test shots of the Airframe aluminum are very shiny, even more so than the polished aluminum, but still not the same type of finish as chrome or stainless steel. The clear tinted colors are spectacular! Also worth mentioning is a “clear medium” used to tone down the tinted colors. As shown by the images, there are many applications for this line of products. Think of the afterburner section on an F-100. A fine line of transparent red, partially over sprayed with the transparent blue gives a “blue to purple” cast to the metal that I don’t think could be produced any other way. When building jet engines, the metal colors and tints are incredible and make a very convincing duplicate of the various types of metal. Yet another application for the tinted blues and reds – when modeling Japanese aircraft, the machines produced by Mitsubishi factories had a blue/black finish on the cowlings that I’ve never been able to duplicate to my satisfaction until now. Also, the primers used in some Japanese aircraft were a “clear blue tinted varnish”. With a judicious application of this with the valleys heavier than the rest and followed by dry brushing the high spots with steel, looks as real as anything I’ve seen. In addition Tony included a set of micro mesh polishing cloths, which are of outstanding quality and last seemingly forever when used wet, a must for natural metal finish modelers! It seems there is no end for the possibilities of these products, although to continue this diatribe would become akin to drinking from a fire hose. Following is a list of products currently available from Alclad:
In conclusion, let me restate that this is, in my opinion, the best new technology product released for our hobby in years. Please, try it…it is truly amazing! Highly recommended. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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