Aluminium Dope Metal Color Set

The silvery tones of fabric covering and polished sheet metal

Before the war the fabric covering of aircraft was treated with a dope into which aluminum powder was mixed. The layer protected the fabric against sunlight and at the same time gave a machine the characteristic look that is neither white nor steel. That color cannot be captured with a single shade, because it changes with the angle of view and with the age of the finish.

That is exactly why this set of four makes sense. Side by side there is a very light tone with a cast toward white, a highly glossy chrome for polished parts, a medium semi-matte variant and finally a dulled version for areas nobody looked at for a long time. The differences between them are subtle, but it is precisely from them that the impression of real metal arises rather than of silver paint.

The line is intended for an airbrush and rests on an alcohol binder with a very fine pigment. Thinning it is usually not necessary; it is sprayed straight from the bottle at low pressure. The base is decisive: the smoother and glossier the layer under the finish, the more the metal look comes out. Modelers therefore choose a gloss black under these shades, which they smooth beforehand to a mirror surface.

Individual areas can be separated with masking tape after only a few minutes of drying, so one wing can be turned into a mosaic of differently shaded panels in a single afternoon.

The package consists of four bottles of thirty-two milliliters. An airbrush, base varnish and thinner are not part of it.