BUYER BEWARE!!! - Alclad II Candy Colours Review

[@dghezzo]

If you use an alclad chrome base for candy instead of the specific base; you 'must' first coat the chrome with aqua gloss, specifically to seal it. Otherwise the candy layer will dissolve the chrome as well as the black base, hence the disappearing of the reflective chrome and introduction of purple and muddy colours overall.

[@Hannah11876]

The Alclad Candy colors (including the Candy Silver Base) are enamel lacquers whereas the Alclad Gloss Black & Chrome are classic nitrocellulose lacquers. Applying a nitrocelullose lacquer on top of an enamel lacquer may damage the previous layer, spraying it the other way around 'should' be safe unless specified otherwise. However, chemical reactions may still be possible. Enamel lacquers are very prone to yellowing (a type of discolorization), some only days after application while others take years to yellow. Especially (but not exclusively) exposure to UV light causes these type of paints to degrade insanely quick, some fade and lose the vibrancy while others (white/off whites) turn yellow. Moreover, applying a clear coat on top of enamels may also cause a chemical reaction. Enamel clear coats are almost a 100% guarantee that they will yellow. Applying nitrocelullose lacquer clear coats on top of enamel coats may cause a massive reaction (melting/peeling). Not applying any clear coats makes the enamel lacquer a lot more prone to UV light and thus fading colors and/or yellowing is more likely. It is hard to say what happened in your case but the discolorization is too severe to be normal. There is one candy red color that is easily available and has very low toxicity and this paint is Tamiya X-27 Clear Red from the alcohol based acrylic clear colors. Due to them being acrylics, there is almost zero chance of yellowing. I wouldn't use enamel lacquers, heck I'd go even further and say Warhammer miniatures don't need any lacquers: with the improvement in the past 10-15 years the non-toxic acrylics are getting increasingly better in quality. For chrome paints I'd suggest Green Stuff World Chrome Airbrush or Molotow Chrome Refill, both alcohol based acrylics. For gloss black primer one can use Stynylrez Gloss Black Primer or simply spray Tamiya X1 Gloss Black on top of any primer. For a candy red you can use Tamiya X27 Clear Red, Citadel Air Angron Red Clear or Blood Angels Red Contrast (+ glossy top coat). Wall of text but hopefully this clears out a few things.

[@EnCoberturaScenery]

Awesome exposition, I'm starting using this Aclad paints and you teach a lot. I'm understand and I'm agree with several things you told. Could an UV filter resin prevent the yellowing effects (using it as a varnish)? Thank you!

[@jorey4565]

For candy Alclad colors normally needed Not a chrome base ,but the specific "ALC-701 Bright Silver Candy Base". You should make a try..

[@FauxHammer]

But why?

[@TheSonOfRyan]

​@@FauxHammer I imagine some form of chemical incompatibility

[@Fyrwulf]

No intercoat between the base and candy coat to prevent migration. No UV resistent topcoat to prevent fading in the candy layer. Assembling before painting preventing you from smooth and straight 50% overlap when applying your coats. There's a right way to do candy paint, brother, and you did none of it.

[@FauxHammer]

Interesting that after contacting Alclad several times, they said none of this. Was I supposed to just know this somehow?

[@Fyrwulf]

@@FauxHammer Perhaps not. On the other hand, there are lots of videos from a bunch of different companies telling you how to apply their candy paint and they all basically boil down to what I said.

[@FauxHammer]

@@Fyrwulf Ones which didn't exist before I recorded this video. All I;m saying is beware, this is what not to do. and at the time, nobody had any solutions. I'm thankful for you now providing them, but this is about 18 months too late.

[@tombrand236]

Tamiya clear are AMAZING if you want a good candy scheme. The blue mixed with a little green is my go to for Alpha Legion - but the whole range is fantastic and very easy to use, like all Tamiya products. They’re alcohol based though so you’ll need the Tamiya thinner though.

[@FauxHammer]

Yep, I have them, I was intending to do a “these are better video”

[@nobodyimportant5417]

Yes. I have a whole mini army of armigers painted in tamiaya clears over silver and gold in Marvel schemes. No fading, chipping, or clouding over however long the armigers have been out.

[@kamilkordas7103]

I use them with IPA and they work just as great.

[@ToxicAtom]

Any intention of coming back to this topic with different paints? I love the look and idea of these candy-chrome painted minis, and some comments have come up with some neat solutions to the issues with this technique, but I'd love to see it in action before I put down any money and ruin my brand new Custodes.

[@TheScubapez376]

Alclad was replaced by HR Hobbies, who sold out to MIG/AK to make a new paint range called A-Stand. Effectively the same paint but completely different brand now. Not sure if the formulation is different.

[@sprocket5526]

Thats the claim at least. Unless someone does a chemical analysis, we will never know. What I do know is, that the price jumped by a pretty big margin, MIG have always taken a +1 euro mark above the alclad branded bottles. now they added an additional euro on top of that, so it got 2 euro more expensive to buy a 30ml bottle. And the primer is even more expensive now, I was able to buy a 60ml black gloss for 7 euro, that is now a 30ml bottle, so double the price. So yea, I'll be looking around for a new supplier for sure.

[@paspinall42]

Alclad the trademark owners, ended their agreement with the Alclad lacquers company who made the product in the UK, and thus cant use their branding; yes theysell AK and Army pa8inter etc now instead, but if you get Alclad Paint its still the, its now just more annoying to get as I dont know that Alclad has a UK producer anymore

[@TheScubapez376]

@@paspinall42 the UK producer of Alclad became HR Hobbies, but they have seized production. The owner has entered into an agreement with MIG/AK to manufacture the A-Stand range. It was probably a legal agreement to end production of HR Hobbies, especially if it’s producing the same and competitive product.

[@FauxHammer]

Hmm interesting, was this the case a year ago? That’s when I bought them and originally printed the models

[@paspinall42]

@@TheScubapez376 none of which makes the blindest bit of difference to paint branded alclad, the paint under that name is still the same formulation, it's just now no longer produced in the UK anymore that's what I am saying, as long as the paint is that name the change of the uk company should have zero influence on it

[@kerr_b]

Have you tried putting a gloss varnish on the chrome before applying the candy colour on? I feel like the lacquer pigment in the candy coat has slowly stained and seeped into the chrome over time, which has resulted in the two layers mixing. This would be why they have all become dull and shifted towards that neutral washed-out hue.

[@FauxHammer]

I didn't. In my other video I did tests with clear coat finishes and all of them dulled the chrome. Whilst I'm not against the idea of the candy mixing with the chrome, I would have thought this would happen in the first few weeks, not months later. And the chrome layer is still shiny underneath.

[@lemon-le5lb]

Doubt this will get attention but some people have mentioned the issues and ill help elaborate. Alclad II paints cane make some AMAZING colors even the ones as advertised BUT they take a bit of finesse to work with because there are some things to consider. The first is cure time and mid layers. The paid says 8 hours to cure, but thats a lie, it takes several days to FULLY cure. The next is a mid layer, if you are spraying alclad over another enmal paint its going to reactivate it, and run in order to get it to work you have to seal the chrome or enamal metalic is a acrylic layer of clear coat, either gloss or matte to create a barrier between the two. Acrylic metalics dont ahve this issue. The other issue with alclad II paints is they have their own kind of trick to them, if you dust it on to light, you will get a very powdery finish, because its drying mid air and results in a brushed metal look. You have to lay on the trigger pretty heavy to get that JUICY result.

[@chrismiller5940]

A good candy paint is Candy2o from Createx Colors. They are a acrylic base with a dye coloring that is clear. It gets mixed with their clear coats so a final clear coat is not needed. Also something I found with Alclad chrome is you can use any color as a base and still get a chrome finish as long as it is a gloss finish. The chrome can change in brightness depensing on how light or dark the base coat is and how heavy the chrome is put on.

[@BrendanPace]

How much daylight were these exposed to? The pigments in the candy coats could not be very lightfast and ended up fading if there was any sun light getting to them. Especially if they were sat for a year and a bit.

[@FauxHammer]

Good point, but almost none, they're are in my hobby bunker which is basically a half converted garage, no windows. the only sunlight that gets in will have bounced off several walls in my house. first

[@BrendanPace]

@FauxHammer apparently it is that poor on lightfastness. That little bit of light may have been enough to fade the paints. Truly a shame. Edit. I did some googling. Very fragile pigments are a big issue with the alclads.

[@jimc7022]

I did some candy coating on Aeldari and Blood angels. I had to varnish after the metallic coat but before the candy coat. Also, pre-shading the metallic coat looks really good. After the black coat I did a black metal, then sprayed top down with a mid grade steel, then did some highlights with the chrome. Gave a really nice contrast gradient when you spray the candy over it.

[@FauxHammer]

smart approach, would love to see pics

[@GarryWButler]

Did you clear-coat them? Reach out to the KZbinr BarbatosRex, the chrome, and candy "expert".

[@FauxHammer]

I wonder if i can use this new username feature on KZbin. Dear @barbatosrex9473, do you know what I did wrong here?

[@Agraviadore]

Expert my ass. All the guy does is paint spoons endlessly. He never shows a single car, gunpla or minature model he has painted. Its very common for paint to fail on a model kit that went down perfectly on a spoon. Very. Common. He has fallen into the trap of only testing products instead of using them.

[@legionact1]

just perfect love black gloss. And those Necrons !

[@FauxHammer]

Appreciated, glad you liked this.

[@ronenlesser6431]

Chrome sprays sometimes need a sealing layer of varnish before you spray color on, maybe its reacting weird here?

[@FauxHammer]

a few people are saying this and it;s certainly possible, I would ahve just expected an immediate reaction rather than several months later

[@Stevothesausage]

Hi mate, Ive been so interested in this mini series, specifically the chrome holomatic one from the previous video. My idea is to paint my necrons with the holomatic chrome colour but wondered how its held up for you. I understand the plain chrome is still brilliant so just wondered about the holomatic one? Liked and subbed!

[@tsmole68]

Paint Candies are dies rather than pigments and should be reasonably light-fast, don't imagine you had them in sunlight this whole time? Back in the day when I used to airbrush bike tanks and helmets etc, I would always seal it in with a UV Clear for this very reason.

[@FauxHammer]

nope, no sunlight, sat in my garage for a year.

[@tsmole68]

@@FauxHammer if you did everything asked of you in the paint, and post paint process, looks like a product issue! Just perused interweb and others have reported fading issues. So maybe would need a UV topcoat to lock in the colour.

[@guillemsaldo]

​@@FauxHammer No chemical leaks or fires in the garage either I assume

[@FauxHammer]

@@guillemsaldo lol, I'd have mentioned in the video. ;)

[@guillemsaldo]

@@FauxHammer You need to rule out all outlandish variables until you reach whatever it was that actually caused the hue shift. Very unlikely but recently we traced a varnish malfunction in a hobby discord to -20°C temperratures the rattlecan went through. The hue shift seems to be a degradation of a complex pigment. If not light based, maybe an oxidizing/acidic/basic atmosphere did it. So if they were housed in the same drawer as a not quite closed weedkiller or drain cleaner that could have done it.

[@TonyGrant.]

Given the lack of reply I'd be almost certain that it's not you who is at fault. They are dodging the issue.

[@FauxHammer]

Which was my main bug-bear to be honest. If I did it wrong - tell me.

[@TonyGrant.]

​@@FauxHammer I have always interpreted a lack of response to a reasonable question enquiry in the negative. I think if they, were aware of what you did, and saw your error they'd let you know. The other possibility is that they just don't give a shit! Either way, it's not good.

[@jonthanechols6410]

Alclad II is bad. However the original Alclad is actually really good. I'm not sure if you have much access to it since the old Alclad paints were made in Tennessee. But I heard the Alclad II used different formulas.

[@FauxHammer]

glad it's not just me who's had a bad experience, Appreciate the validation.

[@nicamarvin]

What you need is Real Metal there, Electroless Nickel or Silver will do the trick. Except noone seems to be doing them. I guess I will have to do it myself first.

[@MrFraknak]

From just a few comments it seems like you didn't research this paint much and didn't understand how it would react with other products.

[@ghostparty2062]

I currently trying to do a metallic leaf green and I just can't seem to get it right, it's frying my brain 😭

[@flindude2681]

The crome looks best plain. Army painter speedpaint or whatever you call easypaint would be great to test.

[@FauxHammer]

Yeah, the chrome looks ace. i have tried with translucent paints before, but the effect is not the same as true candy

[@JorgeLColon-oq8dm]

Thank you for the video I appreciate the honest reviews. Love your channel.

[@FauxHammer]

Thanks for watching!

[@robertfousch2703]

Next time use the correct base...you assumed wrong and blaming Alcad for it is not being genuine. I like this channel, but this is definitely a strike on you.

[@FauxHammer]

If a company refuses to respond to you despite chasing several times, It's 3 Strikes on them. This is how I am. sorry if that bothers you. At least it's gone down as showcase of what not to do. I still haven't seen anyone prove the case for the counter argument though...

[@kyleh9411]

I use their paint all the time and love it. Just checked my candy coated ones and they still look great after a year. Additionally done multiple colors, the only thing i can think of is did you put the aqua gloss on after you did the transparent colors. That was crucial for me

[@kyleh9411]

and for reference, Gloss Black base (2-3) light coats, dry 2 days, than chrome (2-3) coats, dry 1 day, than (make sure to dust them before), transparent paint (3 light coats) this is preference, 1 day dry and the final was 2 coats of Aqua gloss. The whole thing was time consuming but the product was amazing. I have done Gundams, Zoids, and Pokemon with this process.

[@FauxHammer]

So i did exactly what you just said hgere with identical layers and wait times. like, IDENTICAL!, except I have no idea what Aqua Gloss is....

[@kyleh9411]

@@FauxHammer its basically a top gloss coat that really makes the color pop, I am thinking its also a sealer. Product number ALC 600 I believe.

[@FauxHammer]

@@kyleh9411 I wonder if it is also a UV filter as I’ve had some suggestions that UV light can cause the fade

[@kyleh9411]

@@FauxHammer that very much could be. the two models that I had showcased was a gundam and a candy coated Mewtwo. I lived in AZ and they were on my bar so they got plenty of sun. I am so curious on this. Let me see if I can track down some test models and give this a go

[@NickMK]

Just get Tamiya clear paints for this

[@FauxHammer]

yep, I agree, but my job here is to test stuff and tell you all about it. But for anyone who makes the claim in the future that Alclad II are better, here's a perfect reference to show people they aren't

[@antongunther3977]

Honestly you might want to try army painter speed paints. I've found that when they are painted over metallics give a very similar effect. Reactivation for the 1.0 paints is an issue, but it can also be a good thing if you want to do some blending. It might be worth checking out when they release 2.0 speed paints. My main recommendation for this method though is to thin the speed paint down with some speed paint medium 1:1 or 1:2 paint to medium works best and work in about 1-2 coats

[@NightfallTH]

Army Painter produces the worst paints out there. They are one of those brands who need to deliver 5 years good news before I ever buy anything from them again. Reactivation cluck-up on their Speed Paints is obviously not establishing any kind of trust tbh.

[@antongunther3977]

@@NightfallTH I don't like the reactivation either, but if you do one coat over metallics they are not too bad. Reactivation can come in handy if you do a ton of blending. But the set should not have been marketed to beginners who WILL get paint where it shouldn't be and than have a perm stain. But their acrylics aren't that bad tbh, they just require more thinning than other brands. They can't hold a candle to Vallejo, proacryl, or even citadel but they are cheap and usable.

[@FauxHammer]

I agree it’s a similar approach, not quite the same final effect as the translucent paint dulls the shine of the metal. But so much easier to apply. I have the 2.0 paints, they are very very good

[@godforge8338]

"I used this product wrong so now you shouldn't buy it"

[@FauxHammer]

But how did I use it wrong? Please explain?

[@godforge8338]

@@FauxHammer all candy paints have no pigment, they are basically a dye, you need to coat over them with a couple light coats of clear or they degrade pretty rapidly. They will still slowly fade over time as the dye degrades, but we're talking 5+ years

[@FauxHammer]

@@godforge8338 Well it would ahve bbeen useful to have been informed about this, or even when I checked with Alclad, for them to ask simple questions like "how did you apply it", then we could have avoided this whole thing. I suppose my biggest issue, is their ignorance to their customers.