Chrome Plating

I've got a Terminator Endoskeleton arm that I'm looking to get chrome plated. Is it possible to do this if it is made from resin?

Anyone had something similar done before?


Thanks in advance

Hmm no, I cant say I have. The only thing I have ever had chromed was metal. And it couldnt have any plastic or rubber on it, which made me believe the chrom was very hot.

Have you looked at rub and buff? If your survace is extremely shiny, i have heard of peopel getting almost mirror finish on them.

Im interested to see what you end up doing though.

Originally Posted by Stormrider

And it couldnt have any plastic or rubber on it, which made me believe the chrom was very hot.

From what little I understand, you normally chrome a piece of metal by putting it in a bath of acid with with the chromium bound up in liquid form. Then electricity is used to electroplate it onto the metal surface.

If you are electroplating metal, you probably don't want plastic or rubber in the acid too!

So for plastic, one of the things they do is called Vacuum Metalizing. They put the plastic (or Resin) in a chamber, pump all the air out, then you vaporize some aluminum in the chamber (yeah, aluminum gas, don't breath it!) and it deposits (with the help of a small static charge on the plastic/resin) evenly. You end up with a nice shiny coat of aluminum (not chromium), but it looks about the same.


Some guys do this with C-3PO armor afaik. Might check with some of them?
(Also I think you can use gold instead of aluminum.)

(I am not a material process engineer. I'm sure there are other ways to do it, but thought this might give you a start. )

My friend recently painted the same item, he bought a can of silver from 'Wilkinsons'... It's incredible. I believe that TK409 had some of the gold version shipped to the States for his C3-P0. Not sure of the make of the paint but the lid is a reflective silver (like a mirror).

Let me know if you need any more info.

DAZ

If you google search what you need, email the company with what you want, and they cant do it, if not, they will actually give you a list of every company thats out there that will meet your needs to do what you want as electro plating plastic and resin is done more then anything else there is.

I find the krylon spray paints for chrome and gold aren't the same as the real deal, the cap color is very deceiving, but you can get away with it if you distress it.

best of luck.