Best Translucent Paint Over Silver Base Coat?

[Cenebar]

A Gundam modeler in Asia painted some great models using Tamiya translucent paints (Stoplight red, Amber Orange, Clear Blue, etc.) over a chrome silver base coat. The results look dazzling...like a candy-shell Lowrider car.

Has anyone tried this, and if so, what are the best paints to use? I want to spray the silver with a rattlecan also the translucent paint too, if they sell it in a spraycan. I do have an airbrush though.

Has anyone tried Testors Window Tint in a spraycan over a silver base coat?

Thanks in advance.

[photoguy]

The automotive guys do this all the time. It's called "Candy" colors. Silver base coat, followed by a translucent color, really gives a nice effect. Check out any automotive paint - I use a lot of the Createx AutoAir for models and illustration work, as well as the automotive work that they are designed for.

[eeun]

Do a lot of testing first. Trust me on this.

I'm on my third attempt at painting a Bandai 1/144 Gerbera Tetra a transparent red over silver and gold, and I'm likely going to have to strip it again.

The first attempt used humbrol aluminum as the base coat, and Testors metallic red, and in attempt #2, Tamiya transparent red and Future over humbrol, and both reds flaked off at the slightest friction. Reassembling the parts after painting removed a huge amount of paint. So that was all stripped off.

Now I've tried using a thinly applied lacquer silver and gold over alkyd black. Testors metallic red overtop, and it's flaking off as badly as before.

My last attempt will be a Tamiya silver and gold acrylic as the base, with Tamiya clear red overtop, in the hope that both of them being acrylics, they might actually stick to each other.

I would have given up, but my wife is building her first model, the Moebius Iron Man, and I want to figure out the best paints for her to use to make sure the experience is a good one.

[Cenebar]

I think the problem may be the solvents from one spray can eating away at the enamel silver base coat. I can understand spraying enamel silver as a basecoat and then using Tamiya acrylic as the translucent color with an airbrush.

I tested long ago and found that the Tamiya acrylic works, but is so sticky when wet that a lot of dust settled on the coat so while it did look candyshell, the finish was marred with ugly dust. Good thing it was a scrap piece.

[Kylwell]

I've done Tamiya clear over Alclad Chrome, Polished Aluminum & Stainless Steel. Looks stunning. No issues of any kind. Alclad is just plain beautiful paint.

[seam-filler]

Try Future tinted with food color over your favorite silver. Fantastic results.

[dizzyfugu]

Tricky. I am doing this in small scale on mecha kits (visors and the like, not complete bodywork), and the best tip I can give is to use different coats, based on different materials - when you use a nitrous clear paint, better use a water-based silver underneath. If both are nitrous, chances are huge that the clear cover will losen up pigments, if not dissolve the basic color coat, and results are way ugly, even at small scale. Best results I have so far is acryllic, water based paint (silver, most of the time). If its dried thoroughly, little will harm it.

[Lt. Z0mBe]

Try Future tinted with food color over your favorite silver. Fantastic results.

I can second that. Also, Winsor and Newton inks, as they have no pigments in them and are strictly dyes. I use them to tint canopies and for tinting heat stressed metal areas.

Kenny

[Valdore]

Getting slightly off topic. Instead of the enamel black as a base coat for Alclad chrome, which to me makes the chrome too dark. I use Tamiya, or Gunze silver, then shoot Smoke/clear black ( Comes off like a shiny gun metal. ) then Alclad over that. This tends to match better the original chrome on 1/24-1/25 car bumpers.

So far I haven't had any issues with it wearing.

Valdore