Bare Metal Finish

As a lover of post-war jets and late war fighters, I find the prospect of a bare metal finish a little disconcerting. One year, at the IPMS Nationals, the overall champion was a C119 Packet, in bare metal. It looked incredible! Especially when I found out later he'd done it with KitKat wrappers.
More recently I'd built an F-86 using SNJ metal and rubbing powder. A long, messy, tedious job that yielded great results, but I had to be careful not to let greasy mitts damage the appearance I'd spent all night trying to achieve. There had to be a better method of applying a metal finish that didn't drive you into a straitjacket.


The answer arrived one day, in a bottle of Alclad II. This wonderful airbrush lotion applies a metal finish at the touch of a button. Well perhaps it's not that easy! The instructions call for a gloss black finish prior to applying it, but I think you can use any colour providing it's gloss. It does affect the metal finish you end up with.


Adding coloured metal panels is a breeze if you gloss up first. Alclad say you can mask over the bare finish. You can, if you use post-it notes. There's more flexibility if you have a coat of dry varnish between you!