Silver paint to simulate bare metal

[Keith]

I have found that on quite a few collectables i've bought that are painted silver to simulate metal, that the silver paint is very hard wearing. I mean you can touch it without leaving marks and you couldnt even make a scratch mark with a finger nail even if you tried to.

Here are some items i have found with really hard wearing silver paint:

Sideshows aerial hunter killer
Sideshows 1/1 Endo rifle
Legends in 3-dimensions T2 hunter killers
21st century / Elite force 1/18 scale aircraft like the P-51 mustang, F-86 sabre and so on.

Does anyone know what type of paint these companies use on their products?

I want to paint a 1/48 B-29 silver and i want the finish to be hard wearing so i can clean the model when it gets dusty. I know a clear coat of varnish will work, but any sort of clear coat seems to dull the silver paint. The items i've listed above don't have a clear coat. While the silver finish is not really like bare metal, its nice and bright and very hard wearing.

Keith.

 

[gunnerk19]

Are you looking for New Bare Metal finish or Bare Metal finish in general?

If NMF, I found this at Walmart for about $4...

And an example on an old primed resin blaster emitter (not cleaned up)...

It dulls somewhat with a clear gloss top coat; I got it for my 1/32 P-47D kit... And it's comparable in price to Testors metallizer and Hella cheaper than alclad/alsachrome/whatever...

Working with a smaller, less than 1:1 scale may give you favorable reults; pick up a can and try it on an old piece for comparison, and if you don't like the results use it on other projects and go with a higher-end product...

 

[modeleers]

The reason the shine goes dulls is because the Clear coat being used - utilizes a carrier (solvent) similar to the paint. This carrier re-activates the metal particles (in this case, the pigment).
To avoid the dulling effect, spray several light (also called dusting) coats of Future brand floor-wax. Then a wet coat of same for the shine! Let dry for 24 hours to insure a durable coat.

 

[TridCloudwalker]

Should the Future be thinned, and if so, with what?

 

[Keith]

I really want to know what sort of silver paint is used on the items in my first post though.
The whole idea of this thread was to try and find a silver paint that is hard wearing without a clear coat.

Keith.

 

[TridCloudwalker]

Well I can't say with certainty, but generally products like that made in large numbers in an assembly line are generally either powder coated or sprayed with enamel and baked in huge ovens. If can manage to take a very detailed close up picture of one of the paint jobs in question, I might be able to tell you for sure.

 

[Davy Jones]

I would also like to hear more ideas on this. I have some resin parts that I want to be hard wearing but look like machined aluminum. I couldnt turn up much in my research.

 

[Gigatron]

Silver rub n'buff. Has a nice silver shine and because it's wax paste, doesn't ever come off. Once you put it on, buff the the daylights out of it. The heat from the friction will permanently set the wax. Just don't get it on peices you don't want to be silver.

-Fred