Acrylic N M Finishes

[coachman]

Hi all,I'm looking for advice on which is the best acrylic metal finishes.

I would love to try the alclad range,unfortunately most of my day

is spent in a wheelchair, making it difficult to dispose of any nasty

smelling leftovers etc. I have a good mask and the portable spray booth

is fine for acrylics and no smells. Before I lost my leg I would have gone into the garage to do cellulose spraying and such,afraid those days have

gone so I have to find alternatives, Hope you can help. Thanks John

[stona]

I've not used them but I've heard good things about the Talon acrylics.

Buy Talon Acrylic NMF Paints

I believe they will ship to the U.K.

Cheers

Steve

[coachman]

Thanks once again Steve,I will make enquiries next week and let you know the outcome. John

[Guest]

Must be thick (wife nods, up & down) but what does NM stand for.

Laurie

[stona]

Must be thick (wife nods, up & down) but what does NM stand for.Laurie

Natural Metal.The term gets used for any metallic finish,including things like aluminium doped fabric.

Cheers

Steve

[yak face]

Laurie, N M or N M F = natural metal (finish) , ie an unpainted and sometimes polished alloy finish on an aircraft, notoriously difficult to do well on a model . General concencus of opinion is that alclad paints are the best to use for this , although various other methods are used (bare metal foil, humbrol metalcote) tony

[coachman]

Hi Tony,I've seen Humbrol Metalcote mentioned before,I don't know why but I assumed it was enamel therefore smelly.

I've sent an email to Talon paints as Steve mentioned, waiting for reply to see if there are any problems posting paint

to UK. It looks a good product but I wouldn't want to double the price with postage.I'll wait and see Thanks John

[yak face]

Hi john , yes the metalcotes are enamel so not much good if youre wanting to spray them indoors , they are buffable when thoroughly dry though and i think at least one member has brushed them on a kit ,thinned a little, and got great results after buffing up. Another option if youre wanting to spray acrylics is the games workshop paints, their metallics are very nice ,i use them myself for brushing small areas and they spray just as well im told.Most of the silver finishes ive done are where the actual aircraft itself was a painted silver (as opposed to being bare alloy,polished or otherwise) so ive always used acrylic aerosols. cheers tony

[coachman]

Hi Tony,Thanks a lot for the info,gives one or two options which is what I hoped for. I'll wait for reply

from Talon and do a bit of checking around.Thanks again John

[AlanG]

yes the metalcotes are enamel so not much good if youre wanting to spray them indoors , they are buffable when thoroughly dry though and i think at least one member has brushed them on a kit

That was me with my P-47D kit. I brush painted the metalcote on, buffed it and you can see the results for yourself. I personally liked it and although i think i'd get a better finish if i sprayed it on and also prepared the surface better. I'm more than chuffed with this finish. Here is the link to the build.

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/planes-helicopters/11140-1-72-revell-p-47d-thunderbolt.html

[yak face]

Of course, sorry allyne i couldnt remember who posted it up , cheers tony

[coachman]

Hi Allyne,your entitled to be chuffed it's a lovely model. Doubt if my limited but hopefully improving talents

could equal that,never was much use with a paint brush, but getting to grips with airbrush. Thanks John

[AlanG]

John. It's very easy to paint on, honestly. It buffs up well with cotton wool. I was really impressed with it. I only brushed two coats on it and it looked/looks good. Yes it would look better sprayed but to be honest you may as well use alclads if you're going down the spraying route. One thing i will say though is prepare your surface properly. I was just experimenting with the metalcote but it really did pick out the imperfections in the surface.

[coachman]

Allyne,I have just received email from Talon paints,have to say it looks a good product

after seeing their video. As I stated in original post my problem is disposing of the stuff

after cleaning air brush etc.,I do use enamel for painting bits & pieces in the cockpit

and such. Anyway my next move is to try Talon I believe it shows postage rates before

you actually commit to buying. I'll have to try them tomorrow as my daughter has my

cards to go shopping,for me I hasten to add,at least I hope thats the case. Will keep you

informed in case anyone else is interested. Thanks John

[Guest]

Have you considered Rub-N-Buff, see my E.E. Lightning. Cheers Derek