Natural Aluminum Finish

[Willja67]

Well while Gil holds us in suspense waiting to see what masterful technique he has come up with I have a question.

As some of you know I'm currently designing the XP-72 and it was mostly bare aluminum save for the antiglare panel which may or may not print well on Red river paper and the like. But forgetting that it might and assuming it won't would it be best to design it with the antiglare panels as seperate pieces? I ask because if the fictitous paint scheme I apply to the model includes large portions of bare aluminum I am thinking that the skins should be optimized so as to print colored sections on regular paper. Maybe totally impractical but worth discussion I think.

[Texman]

Well, when I did the beta for Rob's F-100, I did the Tbird scheme using a mix of RR silver and regular cardstock and paper for portions of the red/white/blue markings.

Worked in that instance

Ray

[Keds_Girl_Lala]

When I experiment with RR silver paper to make a Fidders Green Sabre Jet. I did this...

I print the black and white line model on silver paper. I print the full color model on regular stock, and also one on thin bond paper. Then, things such as the window glass I make from regular card. Things like insignia and the black panel for the nose I cut from the bond paper and glue in place.

[DrLaser]

I've used RR Silver paper and sprayed a Dullcoat on it after it was printed with pretty good results. Here is a picture of a Fiddler's Green Ryan STA in 1/72 scale using this technique.

[pmbirner]

Gil,
I've sprayed an entire A4 sized piece of cardstock with chrome colored spray paint. While the chrome spray might actually be a more shiney chrome color on a smoother surface, on paper the chrome color spray paint actually looks more aluminum. In fact, it looks far more aluminum than the Red River paper which I think looks more chrome like.

Once the sprayed painted card stock has dried well, I've run it through my inkjet printer and printed it with the panel lines.

A while back someone in one the paper modeling forums (perhaps even this one) had pictures of a model plane made in this manner. What ever colors on the original scan of the plane had been removed via Photoshop with only the panel lines remaining. Then silver spray painted cardstock was run through the printer and the model built up from that. It looked very impressive as I recall.
Phil

[Texman]

You know Phil, I tried that technique several (5 or 6) years back, and the
spray painting of card stock did work pretty good. The beauty of this,
is that you can buy different shades of metal sprays, and using sticky notes,
mask off individual panels for a different color variations.

Ray

[lee4752]

Originally Posted by redhorse

I used to use Bare-Metal foil a lot doing plastic airliners. It works really well and I'd imagine it would for paper too. The main drawback I see is panel lines. With plastic, it sinks into the molded lines perfectly, but with paper it would have to be cut for each individual panel. Not difficult with a sharp blade as you cut it once it's on the model, but it would be tedious.

Couldn't you use an engraving stylus?

[cdavenport]

If you don't mind using an airbrush, the most realistic metallic colors available come from a company called Alclad. I know the owner. These are aviation grade paints in a vast array of shades. The chrome is really chrome!

But, it seems to me one of the reasons we are drawn to paper modeling is because it obviates the need to paint models.

That Ryan Pt-22 is a real beauty!

[Leif Ohlsson]

It would be kind of nice if it was possible to simulate shiny surfaces in a paint programme. The challenge is to achieve an effect which will sort of make a photo of what an aircraft actually looks like in an environment - reflecting trees & tarmac on the ground, reflecting sky & clouds when airborne. Difficult choices.

Gil once made a tutorial, which I duly saved & studied. It's too big to upload in a post; just mentioning the existence of it. If there's a demand it could be uploaded to the downloads section, but that's up to Gil, of course. Myself, I never got much further than this preliminary exercise:



Needless to say, I'm therefore looking forward very much to the sequel of Gil's efforts.

[mbauer]

Hi Gil,

Yes, I've been experimenting with NAF.

I use AutoCAD to do my models. One idea I have had is to take photos of different shiny items. Import them into the drawing and scale them such that I can use them as a background under the model pieces.

I have a folder with a library of different NAF colors I hope to use. From the shiny side of a toaster to the aluminum tape [polished and un-polished], to the gold/metal flake paint of my prior Prosche "grey linen" paint color.

I have several photos of all of these as well as pots and pans, aluminum sprinkler pipe and everything else I could think of. One problem is the reflection of the really shiny stuff, so I took photos at different angles to get different colors from just one shiny item.

I haven't tried to bring them in yet, but since you asked, I'll try to see what happens! Here are some photos of the ones I'm considering.

What is your answer to NAF?

Best regards,
Mike