My personal tests with Vallejo Metal Air paint

[1to1scale]

In preparation for the NMF finish on my Revell P-51D, I decided to make a test spray, plus I wanted some paint chips too, so I proceeded to waste half an afternoon on learning something.

 

To be honest, I have sprayed whole planes one color, and used these under the green I chipped on my Ki84, but I have not done a multi-toned NMF aircraft before. So here is what I did, I got a 3†x 6†.040 styrene stock and prepped it by spraying it in white, gray, black, and gloss black primer. I used Stynylrez for the first three, then Vallejo gloss black for the last base.

 

 

 

Here are the spray outs (below pictures, not above), the closest is gloss black, then semi-matte black, then gray, and finally white at the farthest from the camera. Overall impressions, gloss black gave the highest “mirror†reflectivity, with gray 2nd, then white, and lastly is matte black. The matte black is appropriate for a very dirty and weathered aircraft. The gray was a nice compromise as not too shiny for a wartime aircraft with a little wear on it. All paints reacted the same to the primers except for the Vallejo Air and Mecha colors, they tended to cover evenly. I should also add that they are incredibly thin, they will show the smallest flaw and dust.

 

 

 

 

 

77.701 Aluminum. Very nice overall color for aircraft, looks the part, you could do the whole aircraft in this one color, just varying primers and sheen underneath.

 

77.717 Dull Aluminum. Nice complimentary color to 701, has slightly less tone to it, cooler color.

 

77.702 Duraluminum. Nice darker shade, very slight brown tint to it, I like this one in wheelwells and cockpits.

 

77.706 White Aluminum. Replicates silver dope as well as soft clean aluminum.

 

77.704 Pale Burnt Metal. Has more gold tone, looks like heated stainless, perfect for panels around exhaust.

 

 

 

77.724 Silver. Looks like a fine silver/gray paint, using this for P-51 wings and painted landing gear.

 

77.703 Dark Aluminum. I can't see any difference between this and 702 Duraluminum, they look the same side by side.

 

77.707 Chrome. Not chrome, maybe polished aluminum, very sensitive to primer sheen, I accidentally got some very thin overspray on my sharpie cap, looked like highly polished aluminum. However, not useful for a wartime aircraft, maybe a polished and restored bird.

 

77.713 Jet exhaust. Incredible color, this belongs on the back end of an F-4 Phantom, or like it says, jet exhaust. Also very dependent on primer sheen. Very matte look. Brushes nice.

 

77.726 Gold. Not gold, but clean brass, very dependent on color of primer as well as sheen, more of a matte finish, not polished look. Brushes very nice. Every Wingnut kit has this color in it.

 

69.062 Bronze. This again is a failure for bronze, has more of a painted look than metal, would be cool as a 60's metalflake custom Barris car.

 

71.068 Copper. Great copper color, strangely, sprays like a metal flake paint, but brushes like real copper, every Wingnut kit gets this!

 

Edited March 4, 2018 by 1to1scale

[dmthamade]

Great tests for the Vallejo Metal colors!! Can't really add anything as what you found is spot on to my experiences. I can add they are great to work with, drying very fast and allowing masking 10-15 minutes after airbrushing. Water clean-up and eye drop bottles make it a pleasure to work with. They do mix well with each other to add more variation to your finish. 

 

Don

[Bstarr3]

Nice. Thanks for documenting your test. I have had great experiences with metal color aluminum and exhaust manifold colors, but have never done a whole nmf plane. I got a bottle of duraluminum for my Revell Mustang, good to know it will work well. I'm definitely going to try your idea of using different primers under the same color for differences in shade and finish.

[1to1scale]

Here are my results, I still fight random lint, but this is 5 colors of metal on this, plus white aluminum on the rudder and elevators.

 

[Bomber_County]

I have used the ModelAir and ModelColour but not the MetalAir, thanks for the demonstration, where's that credit card.......

[ssculptor]

Thank you for  running these tests and then posting yoiur findings on LSP. They will be valuable to modelers making , or trying to make Natural Metal Finishes on their models. 

 

We should have all posts like this relocated into a reference section so anyone can find it when they need it. Sort of like cutting out special articles in magazines and then putting them in a separate file drawer.

Waddya think?

 

[1to1scale]

LOL, I will gladly accept your credit card.

[1to1scale]

If I were to say one possible drawback, they are expensive, about $10 online, about $13 at the LHS. It hurts when you buy 4 bottles and they give you a total over $56! But the good news is, the white aluminum I originally bought a year ago and used on many projects is still half full.  

 

I last bought alclad it was $7, i'm not sure what it cost now. From others, I hear that you almost need a whole bottle for a LSP.

[MikeC]

I use these, I think they're great.  Not impressed with their black primer, but I find Tamiya X-1 gloss black is fine.

[themongoose]

Could i ask what you did to keep them from pulling up with the tape? I've only had success when i misted them on slowly, and even then i stuck the tamiya tape to my arm several times before applying to keep from pulling the paint off the tail of my Phantom. I think we'd definitely benefit from your experience

[1to1scale]

Could i ask what you did to keep them from pulling up with the tape? I've only had success when i misted them on slowly, and even then i stuck the tamiya tape to my arm several times before applying to keep from pulling the paint off the tail of my Phantom. I think we'd definitely benefit from your experience

Good primer, plus sufficient dry time, and de-tacked, stuck to arm tape. I tried postits once before, but fond that their glue reacts with acrylic paints and causes glue residue that is hard to clean off.

[Gigant]

Thank you for  running these tests and then posting yoiur findings on LSP. They will be valuable to modelers making , or trying to make Natural Metal Finishes on their models. 

 

We should have all posts like this relocated into a reference section so anyone can find it when they need it. Sort of like cutting out special articles in magazines and then putting them in a separate file drawer.

Waddya think?

 

 

I agree.

 

IMHO, the moguls here should archive a copy of the first post with its' exhaustive list of results as a product review.

[themongoose]

I agree.

 

IMHO, the moguls here should archive a copy of the first post with its' exhaustive list of results as a product review.

 

For sure. I was able to extract it as a pdf to iBooks so I have a permanent record of it now myself. Going to try my metal colors again, on a practice piece I have using these techniques to see if I ca  get it to stick.

[dmthamade]

For sure. I was able to extract it as a pdf to iBooks so I have a permanent record of it now myself. Going to try my metal colors again, on a practice piece I have using these techniques to see if I ca  get it to stick.

 

I found with the metal colors a primer is a must on bare plastic. Having said that I've had no problems when airbrushed onto another paint, so if doing a NMF finish, prime the build, airbrush on the first coat, and you're ready to go. As a test, I've sprayed Tamiya XF-2 flat white, and XF-19 grey as primers and they also worked great.

 

Don