Modeling question: Applying 'foil'?

Factual Questions
1

In the mid-'70s a friend of my dad’s was building a model of a '50s Air Force jet. To make it look like it was made of polished metal, he was applying polished metal. That is, he was applying foil to the plastic and burnishing it with a small tool.

  1. Is or was this a common modeling technique?

  2. Was the guy using a special foil; or regular old aluminum foil? (He was a Norwegian native, probably born in the late-'20s/early-'30s, and was very frugal. So I’m guessing it was just Reynolds Wrap.)

  3. I don’t remember him using an adhesive. But then I saw him doing this already in progress. How’d he make it stick?

  4. I never saw the finished model. How much detail can be preserved when using this technique?

2

I haven’t used it, but I found this page for Bare-Metal foil.

I’ve seen a documentary showing art restorers applying gold leaf to recreate the gilding in some Russian palace. The leaf is much thinner than regular aluminum foil, and very small details are preserved.

3

In the 1970s he was probably using aluminum foil; BareMetal foil hadn’t gotten big yet. You’d apply an adhesive to the surface, then burnish aluminum foil on. Cheaper brands of foil worked better, because they were thinner.

Nowadays you’d use Bare-Metal foil or a metallic paint like Al-Clad.

4

Thanks for the answers. I’m not building any models, and I don’t know why I thought of this. But I’ve wondered about it every time it’s popped into my head.