Chrome paint for polycarbonate

[alvinlwh 5895]

12 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

If you were painting outside or in a big open outbuilding, would you still worry about fumes? I'm in a biggish outbuilding. My extractor doesn't vent to the outside but it's a long hose and I figure the fumes should get slowed in the bag of sawdust for long enough to have a decent effect. 

I never worry about fumes, even when I used to spray indoors. Now I spray outdoors in a 6 by 4 shed, door closed if it is blowing a gale in the wrong direction. The reason I spray outdoors now has nothing to do with fumes.

This is totally personal, however unlike some that say lipos are safe while dismissing the risks, I acknowledge them  My risk assessment is, we modellers spray so infrequently that the risk is far lower than spraying a whole car on a daily basis. Also the volume used in a go, especially with airbrush, is rather little. So overall risk score is not too bad.

HOWEVER, there are some paint where mask and/or vent is highly recommended, one that I know of is Alclad 2.

Do be careful about the bag, having a concentration of explosive gas is never a good idea and sawdust is also explosive. While normal spray painting (at the amount we use) was never a problem, I even smoke when spraying in doors, I will not say the same when they are concentrated in a bag.

[foz75 93]

22 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Personally, I will never apply chrome paint on the inside as it will not look right through the PC. 

So, do chrome paints for polycarbonate still look shiny and chrome when painted on the outside? Because most other colours look shinier when painted on the inside, don't they? If that's the case, then I might try the silver on the insde with chrome on the outside, I could get away with standard silver which would be much more useful to me in general than a can of expensive chrome, and use my molotow chrome pen on the outside...

 

[BuggyDad 4474]

16 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

I never worry about fumes, even when I used to spray indoors. Now I spray outdoors in a 6 by 4 shed, door closed if it is blowing a gale in the wrong direction. The reason I spray outdoors now has nothing to do with fumes.

This is totally personal, however unlike some that say lipos are safe while dismissing the risks, I acknowledge them  My risk assessment is, we modellers spray so infrequently that the risk is far lower than spraying a whole car on a daily basis. Also the volume used in a go, especially with airbrush, is rather little. So overall risk score is not too bad.

HOWEVER, there are some paint where mask and/or vent is highly recommended, one that I know of is Alclad 2.

Do be careful about the bag, having a concentration of explosive gas is never a good idea and sawdust is also explosive. While normal spray painting (at the amount we use) was never a problem, I even smoke when spraying in doors, I will not say the same when they are concentrated in a bag.

Dust extractor should have empty bag then for dispersal of fumes if used, but is of limited use if not piped to outside. I think your adjustment of risk for time and paint quantity is in principle valid. And I do less than you. So I guess a pragmatic compromise is - good ventilation always and short times, mask for the worst paints, maybe try out extraction but don't expect much from it.

3 hours ago, foz75 said:

So, do chrome paints for polycarbonate still look shiny and chrome when painted on the outside? Because most other colours look shinier when painted on the inside, don't they? If that's the case, then I might try the silver on the insde with chrome on the outside, I could get away with standard silver which would be much more useful to me in general than a can of expensive chrome, and use my molotow chrome pen on the outside...

 

My take is that a genuine chrome paint on the outside should make a shiny chrome finish, but it is both very vulnerable on the outside and also as a paint intended for a hard surface won't respond well to the bending of lexan. 

A PS Silver on the inside will look more like a silver/grey bodywork paint, not chrome. Very unconvincing I think, but durable. 

A chrome paint made for lexan I am assuming should be applied to the inside and achieve some approximation to a chrome finish when viewed from the outside. But it's risky - finish could still be unconvincing, it could be hard to apply, it might not be very durable. 

Another hypothesis I am considering is a silver inside (known quantity) and attempt chrome on the outside. This way, I accept the chrome will scratch and flake off where hit but hope that you'll still see mostly good chrome and, where it is damaged, a duller but similar colour in its place. 

[foz75 93]

The silver inside and chrome outside makes sense. Googling "Tamiya PS48" gives a few results, all full body shells but I think used just for bumpers with a contrasting colour for bodywork would work quite well (well enough for me, at least). 

[BuggyDad 4474]

4 hours ago, foz75 said:

The silver inside and chrome outside makes sense. Googling "Tamiya PS48" gives a few results, all full body shells but I think used just for bumpers with a contrasting colour for bodywork would work quite well (well enough for me, at least). 

Yes that does look decently near to a chrome finish doesn't it. If we're certain that PS-48 is the closest to chrome of the Tamiya PS paints then I will order a can, at least for a test. There is a lot to be said for sticking with Tamiya PS. 

Perhaps I'll do this test before deciding whether to buy some of that mig ammo lexan stuff. 

[foz75 93]

Actually on second look, the last of those 3 pics shows a can of "RC car paint", and two cans of tamiya black, so I'm not sure that one is actually tamiya chrome? It is shinier than the other two shells, so might be something different.

[BuggyDad 4474]

10 hours ago, foz75 said:

Actually on second look, the last of those 3 pics shows a can of "RC car paint", and two cans of tamiya black, so I'm not sure that one is actually tamiya chrome? It is shinier than the other two shells, so might be something different.

There are quite a few other images come up on a Google search anyway that suggest PS-48 is worth a try at least. 

Another that comes up is Fastrax:

https://www.fastrax-rc.com/body-shop/paint/fastrax-fast-finish-chrome-spray-paint-150ml

And being actually described as "chrome" it may be more suitable. Anyone got any experience of that product?

I have ordered an airbrush now. So will shortly be into that learning curve. 

[BuggyDad 4474]

It's been a while but I have returned to try chrome bumper painting. I have this crawler shell that I never intended to be one to really focus on for the finishes, although I would of course want to do a decent job. It'll be a day to day runner. Then I thought the one thing it really does need is a chrome bumper, being a 1978 truck. So it serves as a test bed for the runner compromise of chrome paint on the inside only. 

And I think the Fastrax paint has come out OK. It can only be as smooth a finish as the inside of the lexan, so it's not as high gloss as real chrome, but the colour is good. There's a sort of grain to it:

This is in the lexan. It's interesting that you can see it so clearly here, as you can on the unpainted windows, but the coloured paints just look like a full gloss. 

The Tamiya Cobalt Green doesn't come through in these pictures, it's much more green and less blue than it appears. 

[foz75 93]

That doesn't look too bad! Have you tried it on the outside too? Or can you take a pic of the inside of the shell?

[BuggyDad 4474]

27 minutes ago, foz75 said:

That doesn't look too bad! Have you tried it on the outside too? Or can you take a pic of the inside of the shell?

I didn't do the outside this time but I think I will next time. Sorry, backed it with black so can't photograph thr inside finish. It's fairly promising though. Maybe I'll give it some coats then a very fine sand before a final coat or two to give it the glossiest finish I can. 

[DavidJH 24]

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[joeling 1649]

PS48 + PS12 + PS5 seems closest for me