l’usine Alpine de Dieppe

Rando Dude Autor
Finally found the time for a new small project. With this one I will try a new approach to the painting of the exterior. Using Revell 9 Anthracite as a primer/base coat, followed by 90 Silver and finally 52 Blue gloss as the finish, I want to see if that produces any noticable effect. I will also paint parts of the sprue in combinations of the above for comparison.

Robert Podkoński
Looks really good, Rando!

Rando Dude Autor
Thank you, Robert.

Daniel L
Rando, Looks great. Do you think that the silver coat on before the blue made a difference?

Rando Dude Autor
Daniel, I honestly can't tell. On the test strip I did there is a very very subtle difference, but I believe I only see it because I know it's there. Someone who does not know most likely would not notice anything and on the picture it's also not visible as far as I can tell. What the different layers of paint do for sure is to cover the slight translucency of the white plastic but that could be achieved in simpler ways.

Richard Cheals
Hi Rando, nice Alpine. Regarding your comments about the basecoats, I've been trying various techniques for bare metal finishes on aircraft builds & for my current YB-58 kit I tried a gloss black over the primer before the Metal Coat, as recommended by many. Can't say I notice the difference from earlier BMF builds, so I'm thinking it may depend on which paint you use.

For my 1/43 diecasts which I've repainted, I've been using Duplicolor cans - which I may also use on the Corvette & Cobra kits in the stash (with appropriate surface prep).

Rando Dude Autor
Thank you, Richard. I had a similar idea for a bare metal finish for a fututre project, with a black base coat and then the metal paint on top of it. I got that from a car show on YT where they painted a car in this way to get an all mirror/chrome surface to great success.
So it may really depend on the paints you use. I use primarily Revell and Humbrol enamels with the occasional Heller acrylic.

Richard Cheals
Definitely depends on the paint, Rondo, I'm thinking those hard-core car guys may be using translucent colours over that black base. OK, more experimenting is required 😎

Rando Dude Autor
Just found the video again Youtube Video
They are using a specially prepared polished black base and special chrome pigments. So not 1:1 applicable to modelling, but a starting point for experimentation, I would say.

Robert Podkoński
From my own experience I can assure you that using different primer/underlying colours for metalizers (AK Extreme Metal, for example) gives a subtle effect - depenting on the angle of the light one notices differences in depth or not (I do not intend to brag here, but you can take a look at my "Silverbird" model - photos #34 and #36 e.g: Silverbird | Album by podkon (1:72) )

Rando Dude Autor
Robert, that is very interesting indeed. The effect is quite noticable in your photos, yet it does not pop too much. Very nice.

Julian Herrero aka Yuri
Good work Rando …I'd suggest using clear blue as a top coat

Rando Dude Autor
Interesting idea Yuri, I will try that for the next one.

Rando Dude Autor
Long long time ago I made a short video of the building process. Time to share that masterpiece 😄
Youtube Video