Hi-ho silver!!!
Well natural metal to be honest but I couldn’t find a catchy title!
Having given the beast its coat of Alclad Gloss Black undercoat (I have tried everything else and this is bar far the best base for Alclad metallic’s). Once dry and before applying my chosen metallic I give the subject a polish with a soft dry cloth. This takes off any dust particles they may be lingering and prepares the surface for the fun bit.
Choosing the right metallic shade is always an area I know many ponder about trying hard to match the tone that works for them. Many use the patchwork quilt effect and in some cases this looks great but for me after close study of B-17G’s in NMF and most especially ‘The Lace’ I get a single polished aluminium feel with a light ripple effect from the stressed skin. Add to this the photograph earlier in this review of ‘The Lace’ and it’s clear that the metal was tarnished and stained but that much of that base ‘colour’ is still showing through. I wanted to replicate this and for me it was to be my biggest NMF challenge to date.
Alclad do beautiful Polished Aluminium and it goes on probably the best of their entire range. It is particularly effective against the gloss black undercoat. For me though, tempting as it was I elected to go one shade down which is White Aluminium. This to me looked exactly right to replicate the original finish on the B-17G but in 1:32nd scale. It also responds wonderfully to weathering too so my decision was made and on it went at medium pressure and only two thin coats keeping the airbrush moving all the time to avoid ponding.
Now as you know my photography will never win prizes (I get warned by Geoff so many times and even get homework and detention). Photographing NMF is even harder and challenges even the experts. I have taken a close-up photo of the first stage of the scheme. What I hope that you can see are two very light passes of the Alclad which done with care uses the black as a pre-shade giving that light weathered look from the off. The rivets are still in light shadow and by using the airbrush in downward strokes on the second pass you can see that this has caused the impression of stressed skin.
Alclad ‘dries’ in minutes but cures in hours: Before masking and any real handling, I leave it to cure thoroughly for 24 hours to be sure I don’t mark the base coats.
A touch of drabness
There are a multitude of photographs of ‘The Lace’ with just about every one showing a different tone of ‘olive drab’ on the anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit. This is the beauty of reality and gives us modeller’s choice. The photo in the excellent Haynes manual shows a distinct yellow tinge that is a close match of the tail fin. This may be the case but I have also seen a photo of it is Olive Drab and a very faded Olive Drab. All of them may be right but simply for contrast I chose to take the faded olive drab route, with a twist.
After carefully masking off the antiglare panel I mixed 5 parts Tamiya Olive Drab, 4 Parts Zinc Chromate and one part Thinners and gave the panel two thin coats. I then added a little more thinner and some more Zinc Chromate and gave it one squiggly pass. The result is a yellowy faded Olive Drab which for me captures the panel at some time in ‘The Lace’s’ wonderful history.