In quite a lot of model kits you have to deal with a metal finish of one sort or the other. Now, what options are there for the finishes?
- Paining with enamel
- Painting with acrylic
- Foiling
You most probably have done the first and maybe the second as well, but did you try the third yet? The advantage of foiling is that you can achieve loads of different finishes with the same material (e.g. aluminium wrap) just by sourcing it from different manufacturers and treating it differently. But be cautious, foiling is not for the beginner.
There are a couple of nice articles about this topic, for me notably:
- Metal Foil Tips and Tricks by Mike McLeod
- Foiling Plastic and Resin Model Kits for Realism by Ken Friend
I wanted some model with less detail to start with so for my first experiment I ordered the “Naboo Royal Cruiser” from Fantastic Plastic for this experiment.
Royal Naboo Cruiser by Fantastic Plastic
I am not sure yet what foil to use, but the shiny side of a simple household wrapper foil seems the right material for this. As alternative I have set my eyes on some specialised chrome foil for modeling purposes, but as you can imagine the price is comparably higher than for simple household alu foil. So, watch out for the model comming up.
Tags: foiling, How-To, metal finish, painting