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I had some metallic spray paint lying around, so I decided to basecoat a AOBR marine as a test. Paint looked fine, but... yeah... washes and other paints don't want to stick to it. That's pretty much the exact opposite of how you want your basecoat to behave.

So, are there silver spray paints out there that actually can work as a basecoat? If so, which brands?

What you could do is spray a sealant/varnish on it and then paint over that. I seal my IG with Testores dull coat at specific points in my painting process and I'm able to paint and wash over that without any problems.

Hmm, I should have thought of that.

Surely though, there must be moderately priced metallic spray paints out there that can be painted on / washed over, without the varnish step?

I know Army Painter has a "Plate Mail" metal spray paint that supposedly works but at $15 it is damn expensive.

Be careful about sealing metallic paints. It can really change the nature and appearance of the metallic by giving it a weird dull look. Many silver paints that I have sealed end up looking like a strange shiney grey. This is one of the original reasons the NMM style was developed so the figure can be sealed without having the metallic effect changed.

Some folks have had much better luck than I have though.

A good metallic I would recommend would be a Createx auto-air water-based acrylic. Of course it is an airbrush paint, but might be worth the investment in an airbrush if you don't have one. it is a very durable paint that sticks very well. It cures with a little heat...a hairdryer will do. They have a huge gamut of color. just Google Createx and check it out.

Sarpedon_702 wrote:A good metallic I would recommend would be a Createx auto-air water-based acrylic. Of course it is an airbrush paint, but might be worth the investment in an airbrush if you don't have one. it is a very durable paint that sticks very well. It cures with a little heat...a hairdryer will do. They have a huge gamut of color. just Google Createx and check it out.

Hmm, interesting. Thing is I am cheap. LOL. I figured either a generic spray paint (Krylon, Rustoleum or other common Home Depot / Lowe's brands) or one of the various hobby spray paints (Testator's, Tamiya etc; ) would work out ok straight from the can. Thing is, I have no idea which of these would work.

Testor's can be airbrushed right out of the bottle. It has some decent coverage and they do have metallics, gloss, and matte colors.


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Tamiya can be airbrushed too but it needs to be reduced, and will need several coats to build up some of the brighter colors.


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If you have a harbor freight store near you they have some very cheap A/B systems that you just plug in. If you wanna stay on the cheap these guys are like a mecca.