Testing Alclad II Paints

It's been a while since my last post. It's because I have been busy doing my project for our training program in our office. Now that I'm done with that...it's back to business now with my passion. lol

I usually use Tamiya acrylic paints in painting my gundams. But I guess they lack some shades of color when it comes to metals. If I'm not mistaken the only color they have is gun metal. I often use Tamiya gun metal color in painting the inner frame of the gundam kit. Actually I prefer Gunze Sangyo acquaeous steel than Tamiya gun metal, but sad to say it's supply here in the Philippines is really limited and really hard to purchase. I would really love to try other shades of metal colors like steel, aluminum, and stainless.

Good thing I have a friend who has other brand of paints..and I'm talking about Alclad II. That's what he usually use in painting his transformers toys, and I find the result really amazing and realistic! Alclad is not available in our country. Good thing he has stocks of it with variety of colors. My friend (Xavier) offered me if I want to buy some of it so that I could try it. At first I was hesitating because it's really expensive compare to Tamiya..almost four times the price. Eventhough it's also about four times its quantity, I have a feeling that it will be consumed fast because its a lacquer and no need to add thinner. However, I still bought two colors from him...magnesium and stainless steel.

Alclad magnesium & stainless steel

I'm planning to use both of them on my MG Heavyarms but I don't know the real outcome of it when painted and I also don't want to waste every single drop of it. So I decided to try it first on Heavyarms's army knife. I wanna test the approach that Xavier taught me in using the said paints. I'm planning to use the magnesium on the army knife's attachment to the arm, and stainless steel on the blade.

unpainted army knife of MG Heavyarms

For the arm attachment, I just simply sprayed the Alclad magnesium on it. No primary paint at all. The result was awesome! I could say that it's the best paint that I've tried so far. No mess..no hassle..and the output was so fine.

painted with Aclad magnesium

On the other hand, I used Tamiya gloss black for the army knife's blade as its primary paint. I sprayed several thin coats on it to have a glossy effect.

painted with Tamiya glossy black

Once totally dried, I sprayed it with thin coats of Alclad stainless steel. I just made some mists on it until I got my desired color. Below is the result.

 

However it is not advisable to touch often the painted part with Alclad stainless steel because it will cause the paint to fade. little by little and thus the black base coat will be exposed. That is really a big problem to me since I have sweaty hands, so I need to wear gloves to avoid such accident.

I could conclude that Alclad paints are awesome especially when you see for yourself it's outputs. It is quite expensive compare to other paints but in terms of the quality, you'll definitely be satisfied. As for me, I might just used it on selected parts...like the gray parts to make it more metallic and realistic. I would also love to explore its high shine paints like chrome (as well as with stainless steel) but it would be hard for me I guess since I have sweaty hands. So maybe as for now, I'll just go with it's regular paints. Maybe I will try steel next time. By the way, pictures of my finished work for MG Heavyarms' army knife are below.