P-47 Thunderbolt

Comments

1 28 April 2019, 11:31

Bren Sheehan
Hi, that metal finish is beautiful and I'm very keen to try it on my p47. I'd love to know your method for applying the foil. Do you precut the individual panels and how is it stuck to the plastic? Does the model need to be treated with anything before and after the foil?

17 November 2019, 17:58

Sy Bar
Hi sorry for the delay.
I didn't treat the plastic and I used micro scale industries metal foil adhesive. It looks like pva but not sure what it is but it works. I used cheap foil as it tends to be thinner and that's a good thing. I tend to do each panel separately or two to three in an area just to enable some variation. I cut the foil roughly to required size with a new blade on a piece of glass, cutting mats are too soft. I then apply the glue to the foil, leave it to dry a little (as per the instructions) then place it on the model. Gently smoothing from the centre of the panel to the edges and use a cocktail stick to define the panel edges. Finally using the nice sharp blade I run along the panel lines to remove the excess.
I would then choose a different area of the model to do the next set of panels giving each area more time to fully cure. Doing different areas allows for variation, foil has a grain and you can rotate the foil to give contrast also each side of the foil is very different so mix it up a bit and see what you like. You can also darken the foil by boiling some with egg shells in a pan of water ( wouldn't recommend using your best pots for this) this can give nice engine metal look.
Once you have the glue it's quite cheap but a little time consuming, although I found it relaxing.
Oh you can paint over the foil too, for anti glare etc and it chips very easy for real effects.
Have fun

22 November 2019, 05:42