Grill detail advice on a big rig

[tractoraholic]

Good Evening All,

Just looking for advice or suggestions on chroming a grill on my big rig model.

I have a 1/25 scale Mack ultraliner where the grill is cast into the model. On a Mack ultraliner the only thing that is chrome is the outline of the grill, the horizontal bars across, and the word MACK in the center. I primed the truck and masked off the grill on the color coat. I then bare metal foiled the whole grill and tried a thinned black wash and I didn't liked how it turned out, it ended up dulling some of the chrome where I had to wipe paint off( Tamiya flat black acrylic) and didn't really cover well. I spent 2 hours tonight painstakingly removing the foil so I can start fresh. My next thought is to paint the whole grill black then apply bare metal foil to raised portions only and trim so I can have the black background. Any thoughts or suggestions? The first picture below is a 1:1 ultraliner and the second picture is my 1/25 cab for comparison.

[GLMFAA1]

I would try a Molotaw pen.

greg

[Dave G.]

Molotow is what I would use as well. The 1/1 looks more aluminum or stainless than chrome, the Molotow will be a bit brighter, just so you know. I actually have a silver craft paint that would match well, I've used it on trim like that before, brushed on. Molotow is considerably easier to do though.

[tractoraholic]

22 hours ago, GLMFAA1 said:

I would try a Molotaw pen.

greg

 

5 hours ago, Dave G. said:

Molotow is what I would use as well. The 1/1 looks more aluminum or stainless than chrome, the Molotow will be a bit brighter, just so you know. I actually have a silver craft paint that would match well, I've used it on trim like that before, brushed on. Molotow is considerably easier to do though.

Thanks for the replies. That's a great idea. I have a few of those Molotow pens, fine tip and a couple thicker tips. I'm going to try that route this weekend, seems like it would be easier than trimming out all that bare metal foil.  

[peteski]

I'm very surprised that a wash would discolor BMF (which is metal foil).  Some modelers actually foil the scripts on the bare plastic  body, then paint the model, then remove the paint over the scripts with lacquer thinner, then polish the exposed foil scripts.

Sounds  like you probably didn't clean the wash residue well enough from the foil. You should not only be able to clean off the wash residue, then polish the foil to a very bright finish.  To me BMF would be the best and cleanest way to accomplish what you want.

[GLMFAA1]

Another stab at this, Molotaw the outside and the bar above Mack and Mack logo then use silver magic marker on the other horizontal bars.

greg

[NOBLNG]

You could also use BMF on the MACK logo and Molotow or sharpie on the bars. The BMF might not stick real well to flat black paint though?

Edited July 12, 2023 by NOBLNG