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Old 10-18-2012, 10:38 AM
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Swampfox Swampfox is offline
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Location: Central Colorado
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What Metallic paper to use?

I generally try to gather as much info about the aircraft I'm going to build. Photos are most important, articles in magazines, papers, and now the internet. I also try to study an example of the actual aircraft if possible, and talk with former or present crew members....although this is mostly fun and in general doesn't really do much for creating a better looking model.

WB-57F Oddball-1:48 build-some-my-wb-57f-reference-collection-600.jpg
This is a small example of my collection (~30%) of reference material that I have on the R/W B-57F. I've been gathering and collection these items since ~1968.

I had to make a decision about how I wanted to represent this aircraft. Since I'd decided to do the USAF variant that meant doing a natural metal finish aircraft, since all the U.S. Air Force planes were some variation of fairly bright, unpainted, varying amounts of shininess from one ac to the next, I had to find/use a metal finish, shiny metallic paper for this project.

I'd learned enough on these forums that metallic paper could be difficult to handle and a pain to print on....

My brother has worked for Xerox for nearly 30 years and I got some advice from him....That for the most part, NO printer made for home use was going to work as well as I'd hope and I'd probably have to deal with the big box print shops. He did advise me as to a brand of metallic paper that he suggests to his customers....it's available at Office Max stores, for in store use or they will sell you as many sheets as you can afford to buy at 0.17 cents(US) each.

It's Wausau Creative Collection 65# Royal Metallics Card stock and comes in a brushed, silver, gold and copper. It does not have the super shiny finish that I've seen used on some card models.

I think this finish more closely represents what I recall the WB-57F's at Kirtland looking like. After a year or two in the New Mexico sun the bright, the factory finish of the new planes had started to become dull and faded.

WB-57F Oddball-1:48 build-wausau-metallic-paper-cover.jpg
Cover sheet used on packages of the kind of metallic paper I ended up using..

I have an Epson 1400 Photo Stylus at home, and as nice a printer as it is, it would not put down a heavy enough layer of black toner to make black look black. So, I had Office Max print 2 complete sets of all the parts pages of the kit at $3.50/set.

WB-57F Oddball-1:48 build-printed-different-papers.jpg
I rarely print all the pages of a kit on one kind of paper, using white, colored plain bond and now metallic card stock for my kits.

I use thin bond paper for very small, delicate parts all the way to 110# or heavier for internal structures that hold most of the models stress and weight.

Hopefully will make another post this afternoon....
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