Oh dear, I think I waited too long.

I cannot locate the GS Mr Metal white metals (Dark Iron, Stainless Steel and Chrome Silver).

They are no longer listed at Best1Hobby nor Michael Roberts.

Can anyone help? Any alternatives to Mr metal for a lorica?

Keith

Hey Keith,

Chris at CRM hobbies here in St Louis has them. Here is a link to his site but not sure if it is up and working but it has his email and phone number. http://crmhobbies.com/

Joe

Joe-

Thanks. I sent Chris an email.

Keith

Hi Keith, Alclad II, better finish than Mr. Metal (although you must airbrush them) and getting to be a lot easier to find too.

Einion

Einion-

Thanks for the post. Funny you should mention Alclad. I exhanged a couple of PM's with Jim Patrick on that very subject. I liked the plate work he did on his Pegaso Grand Master.

I am not much of an AB enthusiast. Not too mention masking all the non metal areas on the figure

Keith

Yeah, it can be a right pain I have to admit. But you get used to it!

What scale is the figure by the way? If it's a '54' and you want a darkish finish have you considered graphite?

Einion

Einion-

It's the more recent Pegaso 75MM Roman Legionaire... Tell me about the graphite

Keith

Hi Keith, two basic options here: graphite paint and using a pencil, very high tech that last one :lol:

In both cases I apply it over a black undercoat and this needs to be nice and matt to work well.

If I'm using paint I drybrush/scrub it over the entire surface using a small hog bristle brush (you'll probably want to dedicate a brush to this use only). Just like with traditional drybrushing on armour you apply more pressure as the paint is used up so you get a natural buffing action going, which gives a nice gloss concentrated on the high spots and edges which I think looks good - works particularly well for mail as you'd expect.

For the paint, there are a couple of acrylic makers that offer a graphite, mine is from Maimeri in their Brera range but you'll find Golden's version a lot easier to locate and it should work the same. There are also some graphite oil paints (Williamsburg for example) but I'm not sure that with the slow drying you could use them in quite the same way. Marijn tells me that some of Humbrol's Metalcote paints are made with graphite but IMO acrylic is easier to work with for this method since it dries instantly, so you can apply a second or third coat immediately, but try it if you have any.

If I'm using the pencil I sort of scribble the tip over the figure, concentrating on the high spots and upper surfaces, leaving black on the undersides and in tight corners around detail. I might scrub over this with a clean bristle brush if I think it's necessary, this softens the transitions a bit and buffs the finish. The pencil method gives a much more contrasty effect so I think it's one for small scales only; I also don't think it would work as well on flat plates as it does on something with a lot of convex curves so I'd go the other route for this model.

With the paint you can leave the finish as is but with the raw graphite the surface is weak and prone to marring if you handle the model so you might want to apply a very light coat of something to protect it, heavily-thinned Kleer maybe. You could also use Tamiya Smoke if you have some.

Last step I usually do (on smaller figs especially) is just to pick out details here and there with a very good silver paint, I use one of the Vallejo alcohol-based colours but silver printer's ink should do the same job.

Einion

Einion-

Thanks for the detailed explanation on the graphite. Sounds interesting and I'll give it some thought along with the Alclad.

I have a tube of the Daniel Smith Graphite Metal oil paint. I played with it a bit but found that it dried quite grainy (over a black acylic base). I was a bit disapponted as I think DS is some of the best oil paints out there.

Keith