Weathering Metal finish paints

I am using AK Interactives metal finish paints on the fusilage of a P52 Mustang.

I asolutely love the polished aluminium finish but cannot seem to be able to progress the finish from here.

I would normally apply a gloss over paint, add decals, gloss over those, clay wash etc but nothing appears to work with this paint.

I masked off the upper part for a green paint finish but even Tamiya masking tape leaves a residue that doesn’t remove.
I applied clay wash to the surface but it won’t adhere, like water on a highly polished car.

I have no idea how to progress to give the surface some age and wear.

Any help would be gratefully recieved as the finish is amazing but absolutely of no use to me unless I can “post process” it.

Thanks

Hi, have you thought of doing some post shading also maybe an enamel panel line wash and see if it will flow in lines. Cheers.

which AK metal? xtreme metal? true metal?

I’ve used AK xtreme metal exactly the way you’ve described: paint, gloss, decal, gloss, wash (although I’ve not used the clay based washes, but with oils and enamels it works fine).

I have but have not yet used the true metals.

I didn’t get that far.
I applied the paint and left it over night to set.

The upper part of the model was a dark green that required masking to get the profiled edge, but once I had sprayed the green I removed the masking tape and there was surface damage to the metal paint from the tape.

At that stage, I thought I would do some experimantation before I stripped the model back and was very disapointed with the results.

Clay wash didn’t want to dry on the surface and when it finally did, a tissue took the wash out of the panel lines completely negating the process.

I then applies Klear to one half (my go to sealer) and Tamiya Clear to the other half.
Both completely changed the appearance of the metal paint and the finish was nowhere near as convincing, so I didn’t see the point of the metal paint unless you forego any realism effects.

I am sure that panel lines could be sorted with an oil pin wash, but that doesn’t help with any weathering effects.

I haven’t got as far as seeing what chemicals such as decal fixes do to the finish