Chrome, off or on?

[outrunner]

I have a 1.24 Ford pickup truck that I intend to practice weathering on, actually, it's still in the box. Question is, should I strip the chrome off the wheels, mirrors and grille and paint them silver or just try weathering over the chrome. Rookie question I know, but if you don't ask...........

Andy.

[Tim Marlow]

I would strip them, clean up the mould lines that will be on the part, prime the parts gloss block, then spray them with Alclad II chrome. However, I’m a bit obsessive and don’t like the appearance of plastic chrome....

[PaulTRose]

what sort of weathering?

you will find a lot of things will not 'take' to the chrome easily

[outrunner]

what sort of weathering?

you will find a lot of things will not 'take' to the chrome easily

I would like to make it look like it has travelled on a dirt road, dust, mud etc.

Andy.

[Mini Me]

I'm with Tim on the Alclad II. It will give a much more realistic appearance and would definitely take to weathering better than the tinny stuff the manufacturers splash on their sprues. Rick H.

[papa 695]

I would take the Chrome off

[Jim R]

Hi Andy
I would strip the chrome. It doesn't look right on models and as Tim says the part can be cleaned up and the fit checked.
Alclad 2 is lacquer based and so smells and needs handling carefully. If you intend to heavily weather the model you might consider a more user friendly chrome paint - perhaps Vallejo or Darkstar. Not as "chrome" like but may be ok under weathering.
Jim

[outrunner]

Thanks for all the tips guys, chrome off it is.


Andy.

[Mr Bowcat]

Like the other guys, I'm generally an advocate of strip the chrome with bleach and re-paint. Having said that, I recently built an F50 from Tamiya, the chrome on the wheels wasn't that bad so I just gave a light spray over with smoke and I think they came out OK, pic below has the original wheels on the left, and the smoked wheels on the right. I guess it depends on how bright you want the chromework.



I should add, I only did this with the wheels, the exhausts were stripped and repainted.

[outrunner]

After asking the question about chrome I decided to try removing it from the wheels, bumpers and mirrors on the pickup kit.
Chrome.
[ATTACH]371544[/ATTACH]
No chrome.
[ATTACH]371545[/ATTACH]
I could not believe how quickly the process took, from dipping them in the bleach to washing and drying them must have took all of 3 minutes, great result and a good lesson from you guys, thanks for all the advice.

Andy.