Alclad II Steel?

[Adrian "Marvel" Reynolds]

Hi,

I'm about to start painting my LA-5FN and it calls for a steel base on the paint job, so I figure its time to use the Alclad stash I bought and never used.

So firstly do I need to do a black under coat as people suggest when doing aluminium colours, and secondly what can I use as a power flush to clean my airbrush afterward, I have some of the correct cleaner but thought if I could use something first to clear the majority of the left over paint then use the cleaner.

Thanks

Adrian

[stona]

I only use a gloss black undercoat for the highly polished finishes like polished aluminium or chrome. For the rest I use my regular grey primer and they look fine to me.

Cellulose thinners will clean Alclad out of the airbrush.

Cheers

Steve

[michaelm]

I Adrian, I'm a big fan of Alcad had some great results with it.

The gloss undercoat give a fantastic finish with polished metal paints, the slick surface of the gloss provides the perfect surface for the Alclad to flow properly.

If your looking for a unpolished finish then the gloss is not so important.

Do you have something to do a trial on, this would be a good idea as I certainly had a bit of a learning curve with this product. It needs a low pressure and careful application.

There's some good info on their website. Alclad2.com

Good luck, its great stuff. M

[yak face]

Im a bit confused adrian , what colour scheme is it youre doing? , i dont recall any la5fn's with silver on them ,apart from the aluminium ring round the cowl and the exhaust shields , tony

[Adrian "Marvel" Reynolds]

Im a bit confused adrian , what colour scheme is it youre doing? , i dont recall any la5fn's with silver on them ,apart from the aluminium ring round the cowl and the exhaust shields , tony

Well according to the paint guide it has steel on the fusalage, its for captian Vitaliy Popkov, 5th Guard fighter regiment

Adrian

[Adrian "Marvel" Reynolds]

oh missed it, the numbers 30's call for steel to be used

[yak face]

I think it probably should say steel grey or similar. This aircraft was finished in the standard AMT 12 dark grey /AMT 11 grey blue over AMT 7 light blue. The areas on the instruction sheet seem to relate to the areas that would be AMT 11 Grey blue . The only areas that should be steel colour are the ones marked '*7' , the exhaust shields and the 2 aluminium bands round the cowling . Although marked as the same colour as the upper grey blue on the instructions , the wheel hubs were often a greenish grey (very similar to british aircraft interior grey green ) , with the u/c legs and bays a colour similar to Tamiya XF 12 IJN grey. Heres a link to a tip i posted a good while back for a good way to achieve the cowl bands http://www.scale-models.co.uk/quick-tips/7842-unconventional-modelling-materials-list.html its post No 6 , as an alternative to the christmas tape you could use adhesive aluminium tape too , cheers tony

[Adrian "Marvel" Reynolds]

Thats great, what colour would you suggest is closest in the Tamiya range to do the steel grey?

Adrian

[yak face]

I usually use Tamiya acrylics for most of my builds ,and ive done a few in the 2 greys over blue late war scheme. I use XF 19 for the lighter grey, XF 54 for the dark one and XF 23 for the underside blue. Like all colour schemes there will be people who disagree but it looks about right to me and the soviets were quite lax in their following of standards when it came to paint schemes , often using what was available locally or mixing something close in the field. Heres a pic of one or two done in these colours , cheers tony

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[Adrian "Marvel" Reynolds]

Brilliant thanks

Adrian