Natural Aluminum Finish

[Gil]

Like a bad penny some ideas keep coming back to fill the empty and idle voids of the modelers mind. One of mine is the quest for Natural Aluminum Finish or NAF for paper models.

I've been off experimenting with this once again and have made some progress on the subject in this episode. One thing that is more true than ever is it is much better to buy a product ready made than to do it yourself from scratch.

Now for an interesting but contradicting point. Attempts at making NAF from scratch slowly revealed what the optimal solution was. The solution would never have been arrived at without it. More importantly having the ideal solution without the technique for handling and applying it would be fairly useless.

I am wondering whether there's anyone else that's been "messing around" with NAF?

+Gil

[Keds_Girl_Lala]

I buy that Red River shiney silver paper. It print nicely at least for black ink lines. But it is thin. I glue it to card stock and it is too thick then. I am told next time to glue it to more thin paper but I have not try this yet.

[Ron0909]

Gil, I have only played around with spraying different paints to simulate
aluminum and generally botched things up pretty good
If this is a hint at a possible 'Gil' thread, I can't wait!!

[RyanShort]

Originally Posted by Ron0909

Gil, I have only played around with spraying different paints to simulate
aluminum and generally botched things up pretty good
If this is a hint at a possible 'Gil' thread, I can't wait!!

Ditto. Now I've tried (only once) to "skin" a P-51 I was working on with aluminum duct tape, but I lost interest in cutting out each individual panel and finding that some still did not quite look right.

Ryan

[lee4752]

In the past, I used a product (I think it was called SNJ, or something like that) that consisted of a metallic paint and powdered aluminum that you rub onto the model, while the paint was still a little tacky, to get the precise amount of sheen. For paper, I'm sure you'd have to seal the model first with some kind of varnish to fill the pores.

[Keds_Girl_Lala]

I see at a model store self adhesive silver chrome and aluminum chrome foil papers. You can apply it over some thing else an it is aparently very thin.

[OldTroll]

This is probably the same thing LaLa is talking about:

Squadron

[eatcrow2]

Probably talking about something like this. Thought I had some lying about somewhere. Might try this out if I ever do a Fokker E-III with the metal cowling... it's quite thin.. sort of like a thick tissue paper.

[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.

[Peter Epps]

The Red River product is about the best way to go in my opinion. I use it with a laser or ink jet and both are ok.Black prints well, any other color needs a whit base coat and then the color. Usually all by hand. The silver paper also has to be laminated to a lihgt card stock. For that I use Xyron or hot melt sheets.
SNJ would be a mess and so would bare metal foil.Just a quick thought.