Fellow FineScale Modeler forum member DoogsATX has been participating in that forum’s NMF Group Build. Here is a segment from his own Damned If You Doogs blog where he discusses his experiences with using Talon. He also has a follow on project in the wings, no pun intended, a P-47 which he says he’s going to use Talon again this time combining it with a little of our Polishing Powders.

Natural Metal Finish

One of the more challenging finishes to pull off on model aircraft is the natural metal finish. Silver paint tends to look like, well, silver paint. When I was building models as a kid, there were basically two options for achieving that metal finish. One was foiling – literally covering the plane in adhesive-backed foil. I didn’t have the patience for it then, and I don’t have the patience for it now. The other option was the Testors Model Master Metalizer line, which does the job but suffers from some major durability issues.

Today there are a few more options, and I decided to use these Wildcats as a contest of sorts between two of them – Alclad II metallic lacquers and Talon acrylic metalizers. Since the Wildcats weren’t actually left in bare metal, but rather painted with an aluminum lacquer, I opted for more of a semi-matte finish. With Alclad II, this meant Semi-Matte Aluminum. With Talon, this meant straight-up Aluminum without any polishing powders.

Both paints call for a similar application of light, misting coats to build up coverage in layers.

The Alclad went down without a problem and built up well in consecutive layers. But…for semi-matte…it went down very flat. I have to admit it has me wondering what their Dull Aluminum looks like. Is it just grey?

The Talon gave me a few problems coming out of the airbrush. It seemed to get hung up in the nozzle until I had the trigger pulled back to about 75% throttle, when it would just come gushing out. I suspect user error is probably to blame. Maybe I didn’t mix the paint thoroughly enough. Maybe I didn’t clean the airbrush as thoroughly as I thought after spraying the Alclad. Maybe the Iwata’s 0.3mm nozzle is just too fickle. Whatever the case, it made the light, misting coats somewhat of a challenge, but I managed to get the paint down well enough, and with the exception of a small area aft of the cockpit on the starboard side, everything came out looking uniform and clean.

In terms of the final verdict…it’s tough to tell. I think the Talon (applied to Lola’s pink-tail) looks closer to metal, but then I wasn’t playing with one of Alclad’s “proper” metallic finishes like Duraluminum. Of course, I didn’t bring polishing powder or a buffing wheel to bear on the Talon, either. And I haven’t been able to test how well either hold up under masking. So at this point I guess I’d have to say it’s a tie, with maybe a slight edge to the Talon.

Either way, I’m looking forward to playing with both again, and considering the number of aircraft I’ve got on deck with either partial or full bare metal finishes (at least six!), I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunities.

Thanks Doog for sharing your experiencesand your awesome Wildcat! I’m confident that with a bit more experience using our Talon Series NMF paints you’ll be using them more and more for your future NMF subjects!