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I recently got curious about the new wave of chrome effect paints that came out with real mirror finish results , previously I'd been looking at electro plating but it involves gallons of chemicals and some quite accurate control of voltages requiring an expensive power supply and really was looking quite involved so these paints looked like a good option .
The paints are made by Alclad and I purchased a polished aluminium for exterior painting and a chrome Lexan paint both to be used with an airbrush . Now these paints are acetone based and previously all my airbrush paints were water based so I had to get the correct cleaners etc and an extractor spray booth .
Firstly I tried the aluminium paint on a small 3d print scanned off my head , this is where my first mistake became apparent , these paints need a high gloss black micro filler primer for best results and I ordered some but I ordered wrong and ended up with a matt primer . Anyway here is the pictures , firstly the unpainted grey head , then the black primer ,then the aluminium paint, and finally buffed and clear coated in the required water based lacquer.






Not bad but could have been better with the correct primer.

After the head I moved on to some testers for Lexan , these are just cut up plastic bottles for me to practice on .
This first one is again the aluminium and is the point that I discovered my mistake with the primer , the primer is on the outside and the alloy paint over it and buffed , I could get a metal like finish but no clear reflection .

This is the same paint but I put the black under the clear plastic and the paint over the outside and its a night and day difference .

really hard to get pictures but you can clearly see my phone taking the picture and my bald head poking over the top .

Now I moved on to the Lexan chrome painted from behind , now this still needs backing in black but the matt primer makes no difference to the finish .

this really is like a mirrored finish .
Further playing and I was curious what effect I could get with clear candy colours , thinking maybe I could get a gold look .

This was a learning curve , I laid down too thick a coat of clear candy yellow and it was not what I was looking for so I tried again with blue and pink clear candy's with a much thinner coat and this time using the aluminium paint behind and tis looks quite nice .

very hard to capture in pictures how this really looks .

I finally summoned the nerve to try the new paints on a body , I've had this Mini Mustang body waiting for 6+ months , these are candy colours faded in with chrome on the sides and aircraft fuselage aluminium through the centre section then all backed with black , the chrome colours show every little defect in the body mould , and every little paint defect too.

Dadio wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 11:52 am the chrome colours show every little defect in the body mould , and every little paint defect too.

Yep that is the worst thing about chrome paint. I use the Spaz Stix chrome paint when I airbrush chrome on a body and if you even have a simple speck of dust, or a fingerprint, or even look at it cross eyed it will show up

Dadio wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 11:52 am the chrome colours show every little defect in the body mould , and every little paint defect too.

Real chrome is the same, magnifying dents and such.

Instead of chrome, I use metallic silver. It has more of a bright aluminum color.

The above two comments are spot on , the reflection shows absolutely every tiny defect , I can see the roughness of the buck used to form the body , little chips in the buck , I get that the buck is probably as old as the hills but I've never seen this effect before .