Yes! I’ve been experimenting with Alclad II. This stuff is Excellent! Both the ALCLAD II Chrome and Stainless steel finishes look beautiful and can fool the human eye. It is expensive at $7 plus a bottle, but it’s so easy to use and beats the hassle of buffing and foiling.
What got me hooked was an article in Model Railroader (not sure, June or July 2004) where a modeler took some RDCs, stripped them, repainted them glossy black, and shot them with Alclad II Chrome. Results were beautiful and realistic! To protect the fini***he modeler srayed a thin coat of clear so the models could be handled. The finish faded just slightly when the clear was appllied which winded up looking more realistic since the chrome finish is shiny. I’ve seen cheap spray can “toy like” chrome finishes on sine RC car models. Alclad II is nothing like that!
I’m currently preparing several of my older Rivorossi streamliner cars for the Alclad treatment. I have a feeling the finish will look better than what’s on the Walthers Budd cars, but I can live with it. The only change I’m making is that instead of Gloss Black, I’m going to make the base a Gloss Charcoal (very dark gray) as IMHO the finish would resember that of a Budd Car more closely.
I’m going to use Alclad II Stainless Steel on my Rivorossi cars. The Alclad II Chrome will be for on my Bachmann Metroliners (being painted to P
Kinda off topic but RedLeader… You said that your dad works with Aluminum, but you say that you can’t weld Aluminum. Sure you can. It’s harder because you have to do a full penetration weld. An Aluminum weld looks really nice too. Like coins stacked on top of each other.
The guys on American Hot Rod built an entirely Aluminum car. That was neat to watch.
Anyway back on topic, I’ve heard other people mention about how hard Stainless steel is to work with, unless it’s fairly thin (think kitchen knives, pots and pans). I think the pots and pans are actually pressed though.
Kevin
Properly welding aluminum takes skill and patience.
After mastering the welding of steels when I worked for the transit authority, I assumed that welding aluminum would be a cake walk…WAS I WRONG! Aluminum can be eaily damaged by the MIG Welder machine (holes burned through, or warpage) if not performed correctly. Heat transfer and dissapation rates are radically different when compared to mild, high strength, and stainless steels. Took me a long time before I could competently weld aluminum.
I resisted staying out of this one for a couple days but, I can’t any more. There are a lot of myths about stainless that are not true and I don’t have the time or space here to debunk them all. for clarification I work with stainless every day so I do know some of the properties of it and what you can and can’t do with it. As far as car sides go, there is absolutly no reason someone could not make car sides from stainless. The biggest hurdle would be to do the joining work. Yes, you can weld the stuff, it welds just like any other steel if you use the correct wire. The new epoxies that are out today are a good posibility. As far as forming it, it is similar to forming most steels. Some grades of stainless like to work harden when they are bent or formed which could cause some problems but, in the long run would be a benifit for strength. I would imagine the biggest reason brass is used is that it works easier than metals do, joins easy with solder and takes paint well (not needed for stainless looking car sides).
someone on here mentioned that their supplier wont touch it because all types of special equipment is needed. Not realy true. Stainless is, in it’s basic form, primarily made up from iron just like all other steel is. It is the additives that make it stainless. The primary additives that make it stainless are nickle and Chrome. Different grades of stainless have different amounts of these two additives. Also, stainless, inch for inch is not realy any stronger that regular steel unless some forms of heat treating are done to it. Of course 300 series stainless won’t heat treat like 400 series will. The carbon in 400 series is what allows it to harden and become stronger. I will leave this now as I could go on for pages and pages about the properties and technical info on stainless.
the kitchen sink would be too big, heavy, and awkward for most hobby layouts (and hard to bend into a tanker car) … might work as a gondola car for a garden railway though
wecome to the forum James’ dad - greetings from Canada[#welcome][#welcome]
