Satisfy a pudding's curiosity: How does Alclad work?

[puddingwrestler]

Morning whiffists.
I've been wondering about this Alclad stuff (mostly for purposes of repainting custom car chrome work) of late.
How does it work? The Alclad website gives me plenty of technical data, but what I am curious about it this: does iot have to be airbrushed? I do actually have an airbrush, but I tend not to use it.
Also, what kind of wash-up does it need?

[lancer]

The answer to your question PW is yes! Alclad HAS to be airbrushed it's something to do withthe formula but it will not brush paint what so ever, I tried to brush paint the inside of a burner can and it killed the brush I was using and would not coat or anything. Run it through an airbrush and the stuff goes on beautifully. But - ther's always a but isn't there!- never spray too much in one area or it will run and look really nasty - A mistake I've done on a couple of occasions. Hope this helps matey

[matrixone]

PW,
What lancer said is fact, Alclad II must be airbrushed. Be sure to use a good gloss primer on your model before you spray on your Alclad, you can spray Alclad on bare plastic but you won't get a very good metallic effect and it might eat the plastic. When I used Alclad II I primed my models with gloss black enamels and let the paint dry about a week before spraying on the Alclad and had no problems at all. When spraying the Alclad build up the coats slowly and slightly overlap them, you should keep the airbrush moving and don't let the Alclad pool up. I used 20 PSI and held the airbrush about 10 inches from the surface of the model.
For cleaning the airbrush I used the cleaner made by Alclad and had no problems.

Warning: I have read about some people having trouble with their Alclad II finish cracking on their models, these models were primed with enamel paints and some paint experts think the enamel paint is the problem. You might want to play it safe and use the gloss black primer made by Alclad.

HTH,

Matrixone

[noxioux]

I believe its just metal particles suspended in a lacquer base, but it seems like you've got to keep all those metal particles suspended in the lacquer, which is why brush painting won't work:  brushing is slow and doesn't keep the mixture stirred up while using it.

It is laquer-based, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it eat enamel paints (seems like lacquer thinner will eat just about anything).  I use a sandable automotive primer out of a rattle-can on all my stuff, which has never given me any heartache with Alclad.

SNJ is much the same, and brushing won't work with it, either.

[chrisonord]

I use alclad on quite a few of my jets, it is quite painless to use in an airbrush, and I use gloss black Tamiya acrylics as a base coat. it does need a few coats, but looks better the more you put on.
Chris.