Guys, An update.
After airbrushing a thin coat of clear to each shell, I compared them to the Rivorossi shells that I did previously. The Metros were still slightly darker, so I went ahead and applied another coat of the Alclad Chrome. Since I was applying it on top of the clear, the chrome came out slightly duller, which in this case was good since the high shine was toned down. As before, I sealed it with one thin coat of Testors Model Master gloss clear to seal it. My next step is to paint the white section on the cabs.
For those of you doing this, it appears that 3 coats of the Alclad II metalizer is the way to go instead of two. Good news is that at 12 to 15 psi airbrush pressure, one bottle of Alclad still covers 2 to 3 HO 85ft passenger car shells.
Smitty.............I'm looking forward to seeing your Santa Fe work
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
Hi guys, something I want to share.
Keep your airbrush distance close to your surface (about 1 1/2" to 2" inches). Back in September I metalized six Rivorossi shells for a friend. The kicker? The results were that shells appeared much darker than I wished them to be. I was baffled! I kept trying to analyze what I had done wrong.
Well, after a 2 month hiatus I recently decided to metalize one shell and study every step that I take. This time I was relaxed and took my time. I followed the steps that I posted on this thread and Bingo! Good results!
I realize now that when I metalized those 5 shells, I was feeling pressured because this gentleman needed the shells for a train show within a 2 week period. So, during the painting process I sprayed rather quickly and inadvertently increased my airbrush stroke distance from my usual 2-3 inches to 4-5 inches!
Increasing the airbrush distance to the surface when spraying metalizer will result in a "fog" effect instead of a plating effect. I sure can be absent minded when my brain is in "spaz mode"!
I learned a valuable lesson. When doing work for someone else, don't let them put you on a timetable that may cause you a headache. YOU put THEM on a REASONABLE timetable. Pad extra hours or days in case problems occur. If there is no agreement.......then DON'T DO IT and still part as friends.
I'm now going to redo his shells and then get back to doing mine.
Peace
MP 53 on the BNSF Topeka Sub
Wow! Nice to see this thread again. Charlie thank you for the photos! This is exactly what I've been urging modelers experimenting with metalizing do. My primary concern, though, is that some modelers drive themselves nuts in trying to get an EXACT PERFECT match instead of going for a generalized appearance with variances in sheen and tone due to care/neglect, weathering, etc. Perfect matches rarely exist in the prototype world, except for when the cars come off of the assembly line.
The Walthers Pine series cars, imho, look good but it drives me nuts when I read of modelers lamenting that they can't get their hands on any. Some of these same modelers know how to use airbrushes quite well but are hesitant to try and metalize passenger cars for themselves.
With photos, of course, the lighting on the subject has to be taken into account. Jason Shron of Rapido pointed out that cloudy, overcast days are good time periods to photograph prototype cars to use as reference for metalizing as you did here.
Your Coach Yard unit is a beauty. Notice that the finish has a slight yellowish hue in comparison to the corrugated sections of the Grinstein (even taking into account that the window row appears to be painted gray). The smooth roof section of the Budd observation car coupled to the Grinstein appears slightly more yellow than the Grinstein as there is a small but noticeable amount of sunlight reflecting off of the observation car's roof.
Although in the past I've used gloss black as a base foundation for metalizing.....now, IMHO, to get scale passenger cars "very reasonably close" to exhibiting the hues of prototype stainless steel cars; gloss gray foundation colors work best under the Alclad #107. Dark grays for semi-new or very well maintained cars as in this photo:
Progressively medium to lighter grays for stainless steel finishes with worn, aged surfaces as in this shot:
The lightest gray hues (or even silver) for finishes that would barely reflect the light from a lit candle.
Very, VERY cool.
Seems I have a new project for all by Budd cars :-(
Van Hobbies H1b, K1a, T1c, D10g, F1a, F2a, G5a. Division Point: H24-66 Hammerhead, Alco covered wagons A-B-B-A, C-Liner A-B-B-A, EMD FP7A A-B-B.
H1b modified to replicate modern day 2816. All with Tsunamis.
One thing I've respectfully suggested to modelers metalizing. You don't have to use the gray base colors I use. I suggested NYC Dk gray and Lt gray so that modelers would have a solid reference for base colors to start from. These two base colors have worked for me so far, however, modelers can and should experiment with variations. As pointed out by some of you on other threads, depending on the prototype manufacturer, stainless steel passenger cars reflect their sheens and hues based on a variety of factors including the type of stainless steel used, the amount of chromium it contains, weathering, age, and even the type/style of corrugation. This is why the mind set of "All my stainless steel cars need to match up exactly" just doesn't fly in the prototype world. But so many of us have gotten spoiled by many of those "picture-perfect" heavily edited shots of classic streamliners.