Alumaluster Paint Tips

[rdroid]

Hi does anyone here have tips for the best results using Alumaluster? I know the common practice is to use a black basecoat, 2k clear coat, alumaluster, then another 2k clear coat. However, I find 2k clear to be dulling the reflectiveness of the Aluma pretty significantly. Does anyone have some experience with clear coating to better effect?

 

[Irongladiator]

Hiya rdroid
I'm not sure about Alumaluster, other than I know it is pretty expensive - hahaha!

I'm presently working on a Boushh cosplay for my daughter and one of the items in this set is the Thermal Detonator. As you may or may not know it appears chrome onscreen....
(Return of the Jedi - Screen Pic)

I recently picked up a Disney Parks Hot Potato Thermal Detonator game and am in the process of doing a conversion. Here is what I started out with......

One of the things I had to do was unsolder the white LEDS and replace them with Yellow LED's, which wasn't too difficult. But, after looking at multiple options of chrome paint, that would give off that mirror finish - I landed on Alclad II's ALC-304 "Gloss Black Base" and Alclad II's ALC-107 "Chrome" I only landed on this after watching this 8 min YouTube video, which I found to be somewhat informative as it put Alumaluster vs Alcald II's Chrome paint to the test:

Further investigation led me to find the some of the same things you've found out in how to go about applying chrome. First I started off by applying the Alclad II ALC-304 "Gloss Black Base"...

After giving it 24 hours to dry/cure, I then applied the Alclad II ALC-107 "Chrome"...

I gotta say, I was actually pretty blown away by the results! For the clear coating I opt'd to go with another Alclad II product, the ALC-310 "Gloss Klear Kote". In my excitement I only let the Chrome cure for 6 hours, before trying the Klear Kote, which was bad on my part, because I guess you should wait about 2-3 days before applying it. But it muddled the chrome severely. I've reapplied the gloss black and chrome again to bring it back to life! Well....I've given it much longer than the recommended 2-3 days as I've still not applied it - My chrome went on February 15th, 2022. So here we are nearly a month later. I wanna get it done this weekend and will let you know how it goes.

Hope this information and my experience helps you in some small way.

Best,
-Iron

 

[rdroid]

Klear Kote will ruin that every time mate. You gotta use Alclad's Aqua Gloss. It was created for their chrome.

 

[Irongladiator]

Klear Kote will ruin that every time mate. You gotta use Alclad's Aqua Gloss. It was created for their chrome.

rdroid
Curious.....I was told that Klear Kote was the way to go. I haven't sprayed it, but I can easily get the Alclad Aqua Gloss too. I'll grab a bottle of that and try it this weekend. Thanks for the tip!

-Iron

 

[rdroid]

Sure thing. You should start a thread about Alclad and ask for tips and post your pics there. I'm trying to keep this thread about Alumaluster, which is it's own temperamental paint.

 

[Builder]

Having recently completed a S2 Mandelorian build I thought that my choice and process using Alumaluster may be
worth a comment or two. My own feeling is that his armor does not look like chrome. It should have a deeper heaver
metallic look. Any metal finish has to start with a flawless smooth base. You must work as dust free as you can at each
layer of the process. Let the layers dry a long time. One week minimum, I do two. This really helps the 2K clear set up.
When the 2K is hard you can remove minor dust specks using 2000 sand paper as close to the speck as possible and
then I polished each little spot with Meguiar's clear coat safe, polishing compound.
Keeping these tips in mind---1.- smooth base 2.- Dupli-Color flat black sandable auto primer #16987 3.- USC Spray Max
aerosol spray can 2K Clear Glamour #3680061 4.- Air brush Alumaluster ,around 70%-80% coverage for rich look 5.- 2K clear again.
It's my experience that any clear coat will refract light, and slightly soften metallic products.
Happy building

 

[Builder]

 

[Builder]

 

[Builder]

 

[rdroid]

Having recently completed a S2 Mandelorian build I thought that my choice and process using Alumaluster may be
worth a comment or two. My own feeling is that his armor does not look like chrome. It should have a deeper heaver
metallic look. Any metal finish has to start with a flawless smooth base. You must work as dust free as you can at each
layer of the process. Let the layers dry a long time. One week minimum, I do two. This really helps the 2K clear set up.
When the 2K is hard you can remove minor dust specks using 2000 sand paper as close to the speck as possible and
then I polished each little spot with Meguiar's clear coat safe, polishing compound.
Keeping these tips in mind---1.- smooth base 2.- Dupli-Color flat black sandable auto primer #16987 3.- USC Spray Max
aerosol spray can 2K Clear Glamour #3680061 4.- Air brush Alumaluster ,around 70%-80% coverage for rich look 5.- 2K clear again.
It's my experience that any clear coat will refract light, and slightly soften metallic products.
Happy building

Thanks Builder. I'll take all this into account. I've heard some folks say to that for the final top coat, so spray 1 or 2 mist coats of the 2k Clear Glamour before doing a wet coat. I'm going to give that a shot. I sprayed an Ironman faceplate last week as a practice project. I used Tamiya Fine Gray Primer then SMS Black lacquer, let it cure for a few days, then hit it with several coats of 2k Clear Glamour. I only let that cure for about two days, I hadn't known to give it a week or more, then I hit it (airbrushed .5 needle, 30psi) with Alumaluster at closer to 80%-90%, for a brighter look (since IM's faceplate is much brighter than Mando's bucket). In the next week or so I'm going to go over it with an SMS Clear mix of my own (Yellow + Red + Green) for a gold tint. Then I'll give it a week or so before hitting it with the 2k Clear Glamour final topcoat. I'm pretty happy with the results. Though I've noticed in the past day or so that some of the aluma has rubbed off of a few small areas, and I'm not sure why. I had thought this stuff was pretty durable. Maybe some residue from the tamiya sanding/polishing compound kept it from bonding perfectly? Not sure, but I'll have to do a little touch up before the clear gold coat.

 

[Builder]

I've had Alumaluster rub off and I try not to touch it at all. I think it has very little
to bond to on top of the smooth 2K layer so the delicate nature of it just shows that you
are doing a good smooth job. Any liquid has a hard time sticking to a smooth surface. In the end
that's why the job can look so impressive and metallic. I really have enjoyed working with it.

 

[Malkavian]

Hey All, 2K has a pot life of 48hrs. Does that mean I need two cans, one to apply before the silver and then one afterwards?
Seems such a waste and a lot of money

 

[Builder]

You're correct about the cost, around $30 a can. All you can do is prepare for as many costume pieces
as possible to be ready for each of the clear coat applications. You will use 2-3 cans for sure. I think the
Alumaluster cost was $150 -$200 for all of our armor, two helmets, part of his rifle, and the Armorers hammer
and I still have about a 1/4 of the pint left. Some of these extras used more 2K as well. All I can say is a good
costume is a lot of hard work and needs a good finish.