Tutorial: Candy Finishes

This will be a quick walkthrough on how to paint super vibrant candy coats using Alclad Chrome and any type of clear color. For this demonstration I'll be using Mr. Color Clear Red for a "candy apple" paint job.

Materials

• Gloss Black Enamel, I use Alclad Gloss Black Base
• Alclad Chrome
• Clear Color of your choice

The first step is to lay down a super glossy black base. I've used Alclad gloss black base because it's extremely glossy and it dries quickly, not to mention it's pre-thinned and can be applied directly to the plastic.

Once your gloss black has cured (I usually leave it overnight just to be safe), go ahead with the Alclad Chrome per the usual method. Air pressure at 12-15 psi, smooth strokes of the airbrush like you're hand painting the chrome onto the plastic.

Once the Alclad has cured you can start to spray your clear color. When painting a candy finish such as this, it's all about building the color using light coats. I painted around 3-4 light coats before my paint job looked red instead of pink. It's also important to remember the number of coats you are using on each piece and try to regulate your airbrush paint flow. If you don't, you could end up with some of your pieces pink, while others are deep red. Of course the end result doesn't need to be red either. Using less coats of paint you could get a really nice metallic pink finish, perfect for the Unicorn Gundam's psycho frame.