peteski Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 (edited) 15 hours ago, Bainford said: Can scratchbuilt parts that include plastic + brass, or plastic + aluminium be plated by this process? Or for that matter, can brass and soldered brass parts be plated with this process? Yes, pretty much anything can be vaccum metalized. But you have to make sure the surfaces of your parts are as smooth as you want the final finish to look like. While the parts, before the metallic layer is deposited are first coated with a glossy clear coat, imperfections will show up (just like when trying to achieve a smooth glossy paint job on a car body). Also, if you are planing on plating hollow parts (like fuel tanks) which could possibly have sealed interior, make sure to drill a small hole to vent the interior. The vacuum metalizing process (as the name implies) places the parts in a vacuum, so if the sealed hollow parts are sealed, they might crack or explode. Edited March 13, 2020 by peteski
Bainford Posted March 14, 2020 Posted March 14, 2020 20 hours ago, peteski said: Yes, pretty much anything can be vaccum metalized. But you have to make sure the surfaces of your parts are as smooth as you want the final finish to look like. While the parts, before the metallic layer is deposited are first coated with a glossy clear coat, imperfections will show up (just like when trying to achieve a smooth glossy paint job on a car body). Also, if you are planing on plating hollow parts (like fuel tanks) which could possibly have sealed interior, make sure to drill a small hole to vent the interior. The vacuum metalizing process (as the name implies) places the parts in a vacuum, so if the sealed hollow parts are sealed, they might crack or explode. Thank you sir. Exactly what I needed to know.
89AKurt Posted March 15, 2020 Author Posted March 15, 2020 Since I started this thread, will drop this here. While searching for other stuff on MicoMark, saw this home kit for plating parts, anyone use this? https://www.micromark.com/Plug-N-Plate-Nickel-Plating-Kit
peteski Posted March 15, 2020 Posted March 15, 2020 (edited) 33 minutes ago, 89AKurt said: Since I started this thread, will drop this here. While searching for other stuff on MicoMark, saw this home kit for plating parts, anyone use this? https://www.micromark.com/Plug-N-Plate-Nickel-Plating-Kit Isn't that a form of elecroplating (for metal only)? Again, plastic "chrome" model parts are not plated in a conventional sense - they are vacuum metalized with aluminum. Edited March 15, 2020 by peteski
Luc Janssens Posted March 15, 2020 Posted March 15, 2020 1 hour ago, peteski said: Isn't that a form of elecroplating (for metal only)? Again, plastic "chrome" model parts are not plated in a conventional sense - they are vacuum metalized with aluminum. 1 hour ago, 89AKurt said: Since I started this thread, will drop this here. While searching for other stuff on MicoMark, saw this home kit for plating parts, anyone use this? https://www.micromark.com/Plug-N-Plate-Nickel-Plating-Kit https://www.micromark.com/Plug-N-Plate-Copy-Chrome-Plating-Kit?_ga=2.159246259.802722808.1584301731-296538312.1584301731
djflyer Posted April 14, 2020 Posted April 14, 2020 I would be very curious to know who does plating for Salvinos JR kits. Some of the smoothest, shiniest chrome I have seen in a long time. It supposedly has enough metal content to be magnetic.
peteski Posted April 14, 2020 Posted April 14, 2020 2 hours ago, djflyer said: I would be very curious to know who does plating for Salvinos JR kits. Some of the smoothest, shiniest chrome I have seen in a long time. It supposedly has enough metal content to be magnetic. I don't know about Salvinos JR kits. but plastic model kits with "chromed" parts are coated with a very thin layer of aluminum using a vacuum-deposition prpcess. Aluminum is non-magnetic. Chrome (chromium) is not used on plastic model kits. I also would not want any thick layer of metal coating the plastic parts. It would be difficult to remove (in order to glue plastic parts together. Trumpeter produced some kits where the "chrome" parts were actually electroplated with some metal (it was not as shiny as you woudl expect), and they were real pain do deal with.
djflyer Posted April 14, 2020 Posted April 14, 2020 10 hours ago, peteski said: I don't know about Salvinos JR kits. but plastic model kits with "chromed" parts are coated with a very thin layer of aluminum using a vacuum-deposition prpcess. Aluminum is non-magnetic. Chrome (chromium) is not used on plastic model kits. I also would not want any thick layer of metal coating the plastic parts. It would be difficult to remove (in order to glue plastic parts together. Trumpeter produced some kits where the "chrome" parts were actually electroplated with some metal (it was not as shiny as you woudl expect), and they were real pain do deal with. One reason I was curious to know what process they use. Salvinos themselves made the claim about being magnetic and was also shown in the YouTube feed for hpiguy building the Petty Grand Prix stock car.
peteski Posted April 14, 2020 Posted April 14, 2020 (edited) 5 minutes ago, djflyer said: One reason I was curious to know what process they use. Salvinos themselves made the claim about being magnetic and was also shown in the YouTube feed for hpiguy building the Petty Grand Prix stock car. Who knows? Maybe they are electroplating them with Chromium (with a layer of copper under it). I think Chromium is slightly ferromagnetic. Still, I would not like my models it be plated with Chromium - it is an extremely hard metal and resistant to chemicals we modelers use to strip the "plating' of of some parts. Bad choice, IMO. Like I said, Trumpeter's "chrome" parts were pain in the butt to work with. Edited April 14, 2020 by peteski
peteski Posted January 4, 2021 Posted January 4, 2021 Has anybody tried http://www.mmmetalizing.com/index.html ? They can do vacuum metalizing, and real chrome plating on plastic with no minimum order. But I have no idea about their prices (that could be a deal killer).
Deuces ll Posted January 4, 2021 Posted January 4, 2021 On 4/14/2020 at 3:24 PM, djflyer said: One reason I was curious to know what process they use. Salvinos themselves made the claim about being magnetic and was also shown in the YouTube feed for hpiguy building the Petty Grand Prix stock car. Yep, it's magnetic...
ChrisBcritter Posted January 4, 2021 Posted January 4, 2021 4 hours ago, peteski said: Has anybody tried http://www.mmmetalizing.com/index.html ? See their Yelp reviews... https://www.yelp.com/biz/m-and-m-metalizing-westminster
Draggon Posted January 4, 2021 Posted January 4, 2021 8 hours ago, ChrisBcritter said: See their Yelp reviews... https://www.yelp.com/biz/m-and-m-metalizing-westminster Wow ? So much for this guy.
peteski Posted January 4, 2021 Posted January 4, 2021 9 hours ago, ChrisBcritter said: See their Yelp reviews... https://www.yelp.com/biz/m-and-m-metalizing-westminster Well, that stinks! The info on their website looked very promising. How do companies like that stay in business?!
Chariots of Fire Posted January 8, 2021 Posted January 8, 2021 (edited) I've used the plating process for doing brass. All you need is the nickel sulphate solution and a couple of D batteries to form a current. Done plenty of small parts this way. I did the headlight bezels and the bumper on this rig. It does not work on plastic itself but I suppose it could if there was a way to coat it first with a non-ferrous metal. Edited January 8, 2021 by Chariots of Fire
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