Metallic paint observation and question.

[El Roberto]

I'm kinda obsessive about building correct scale items on my models...plug wires, hoses, etc. 

It seems to me that most metallic or metal flake paint jobs on 24th scale models come out looking like the metal flakes are about a half scale inch (or so) .  Just doesn't look realistic to me.  Or......am I just being difficult? 

[BubbaBrown]

No , you made a good observation. If you want smaller particles try mica size. The new regular paint today has to big of metalics verses from the old days in scale.

[BigTallDad]

I prefer using Pearl Ex [sp?] for the few metallic paint jobs I do.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Testors "metallics" look like bass-boat or dune-buggy flake that was embedded in the clear resin gelcoat on a fiberglass part...not very realistic in 1/25 scale unless you're doing kustom kars, wild dragsters, etc.

Many other "metallics" have flakes that are still well oversized for scale work too.

Duplicolor rattlecan touchup paints that many of us use also usually have flakes that are too large when the colors are labeled "metallic", but flakes tend to be smaller when the colors are called "mica" or "pearl" (which is what I believe Bubba may have been referring to).

Tamiya has colors with smaller flake as well, and some other manufacturers do too. Alclad has a couple of very fine metallic colors, for example.

The green below is an example of a Duplicolor "mica" color. It's still really too large flake to be scale-correct, but the flakes would pretty much disappear completely if they WERE scale-correct.

 

 

[Snake45]

You're right. Some brands and some lines and some colors are worse than others. I find a good scale metallic silver color to be particularly difficult to find. 

If you airbrush, you might try mixing a metallic paint with a similar solid color. For example, a metallic red with a solid red. The resulting color will still have some "metallic" to it, but not as much. 

[Snake45]

6 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

but the flakes would pretty much disappear completely if they WERE scale-correct.

 

And there you have the problem in a nutshell. Some things we just have to live with. 

[peteski]

Yes, some brands of metallic model paints have totally out-of-scale size of metallic particles.  Testors is one of the worse. Those paints look really bad on a model in photographs.  Like others said, there are paints with much finer metallic particles, but it is also a bit of a compromise of what looks good and what would be properly scaled.

Edited November 28, 2017 by peteski

[StevenGuthmiller]

Exactly why I use MCW paints almost exclusively.

All of their paints are formulated for model cars & use much smaller metallic particles in their paint.

No guess work involved as to which type of paint to buy, (metallic, mica, pearl) because no matter what color you decide to use, the metallic will be closer to scale.

I hate having limitations when it comes to paint colors, so it's nice to be able to pick any color that your heart desires without having to worry about things like this.

Even colors like the metallic silvers, as Snake mentioned, are no problem with MCW paint.

Yes, the darker gray on the '59 Pontiac is a metallic color,

Some of the metallic colors that they offer are so fine that it can be difficult to tell without very close inspection.

This '58 Chevy "Cay Coral" is also a metallic color.

 

Steve

 

[Tankman]

Steven, Beautiful cars ! Great job.