Is there somewhere you can buy liquid chrome. Chrome paints don’t work. I want to be able to chrome some of my HO vehicle parts.(i.e. wheels,bumpers,mirrors,etc.)
The best I’ve found is Testors Model Master Chrome paint. Most others just look like painted silver, this stuff is better.
There is a great product called Alclad II for representing metalic colors. Chrome is one of them. Earlier this year there was a very detailed thread on the subject with directions by a list member.
Here’s another ‘How To’ article: http://www.swannysmodels.com/Alclad.html
If you follow the directions Alclad II is almost easier to airbrush than regular paints with much more convincing results. You can pick it up from Squadron.
Lance
Layout construction, design, and track plan books: http://www.lancemindheim.com/bookstore.htm
Alclad is the way to go. You won’t beleive the results.
Willy,
As long as you can operate an airbrush, Alclad 2 Chrome (ALC #107) will work very well for you, hands down.
Check this out:
I’ve been using it for several years now on passenger cars and, ironically, I tone it down with gloss and/or semi gloss clears to give the passenger car surfaces a “high polished stainless steel” appearance, like the prototypes.
But in straight form, the Alclad 2 Chrome is very mirror like on top of a black base. For passenger cars, gray is the way to go.
Here’s a thread I posted a while back.
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/177174/1946340.aspx#1946340
Noted N scale modeler Keith Kohlmann had an article about using Alclad in MR a few years ago – sure wish we had that index up and running again right now! – and i will try to look up the citation for you tonight. As I recall Keith’s secret is to paint the model black beforehand and add the Alclad on top – gives it a richer luster.
Dave Nelson
Read Antinio’s directions in the referenced link; the results are great! One thing he mentioned in prior Alclad discussions, and did not mention here was DO NOT touch the Alclad painted surface until after applying the clearcoat topcoat. If you touch it before then, your fingerprints will etch into the paint surface.
[banghead] [banghead] [banghead] [banghead] [banghead] [banghead]
ALCLAD II is YES. I use it to paint up my Silverliner and Arrow MUs, no other metal paint comes close to it. You just need to make sure you have a Dead Smoot finish (aka as glossy as humanly possibe). Gloss Black is the smoothest of glosses.
Either alclad’s base coat, or Tamiya gloss black seems to do the trick in terms of getting everything chromed out.
Once the alclad is done though, it should be safe to handle (carefully). Here is one of my IHP Silverliner III models. I still have to paint the frame and install the ladder on the face of the car, but you can see the body shell looks perfect. Alclad chrome matches these kinds of finishes nearly exactly. Even better, it looks very similar to the Polly Scale Stainless Steel (used on the number boards of this car), so it works for situations where a none-steel part is painted over (such as the case on the protoype silverliner III).
+1. I spray this stuff on my Betty’s Art Deco dinner, and I can almost see myself in the reflection. It’s pretty good stuff.
Careful w/ the Testor’s Chrome spray-bomb, it can go on a bit thick and then dry w/ kind of a ripple texture which is NOT what you want (at least I didn’t, had to go strip and repaint).
If the OP is talking about small detail parts (such as mirrors and grills and such) where spray-painting/air-brushing would be too much hassle, Testors MM bottle chrome works fairly well - again, be careful not to put it on too thick.
Now, if you have very small molded-in detail parts (e.g. vehicle door handles, hood ornaments, badges, and so on), Sharpie silver markers are very good for such detail parts - do a nice, neat job and it looks like chrome. These are easy to find in office supply stores (there are also Gold color metallic Sharpies, but Gold is not as common a detail color in the real world as Silver/Chrome is).
Finally, there is Bare Metal Foil (sheets of foil designed to adhere to models, and be trimmed to represent trim pieces on the model). While this can be done, it can be fussy on HO & N scale vehicles (I’ve used it on a Jordan Model A grill, and a Spare Wheel cover on a ‘custom’ 70s van model - but it can be a bit fiddy).
Keith has verified for me that his article was in Model Railroader, July 2003, page 94 – painting RDCs. As he said the trick was to apply a shiny base coat of black paint before using the Al-Clad. Because he found the Al-Clad not really durable, he top coated it with Crystal-Cote.
Dave Nelson
Yep, that’s the article that got me started on metalizing! [Y][8D]
The primary change I strongly recommend, if one is metalizing passenger cars is NOT to use a black base, but a shiny dark gray base (see my metalizer thread) as it will more closely resemble the finishes on the prototypes. As you can see on my Avatar, it pays off.
As mentioned, however, for a straight chrome look the shiny black base is the way to go. [;)]