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So, I have been into the hobby for a year now and I have been hitting some problems. Any advice would be much appreciated.

1.) Brush Globbing at Heel: With my first few paint brushes - which I haphazardly massacred due to noobness - I noticed globbing and drying of paint occuring at the base of the bristles where they meet the metal connection. (In painter terms - where the heel meets the ferrule.) Now, with my older brushes I can admit that it was because I dipped them too deeply into the pot, but this is a new brush I purchased last week and it has not been dipped to this extent. I wash the brush by swirling it in a glass of cool water every 4-6 dips into the pot and dry it on a paper towel (gently) before going back for more. Much of the paint stuck in the bristles is mettalic. Is this just a side-effect of that type of paint?

2.) Mettalic Pots Drying Up: I am painting a Black Legion force, so I require a lot of Chainmail and Shining Gold. I notice that after a good shaking, I open these pots to find ammassed globs of dried paint sitting in the top cap of the pot. Also, the paint inside is gobby at best and goes on like slime vs. crisp clean paint.

What am I doing wrong? All products I am using are GW, so I am not cheaping out with some hack-hobby paint. Help would be greatly appreciated!

Have you been thinning your paints at all? This will help reduce buildup in the brush strands. It will also help reduce the quantity of dried kak in the paint pot.

You could try adding some lead shot/buckshot to the pots to act as an agitator.

There are plenty of cleaning solutions you can use to clean your brushes too - check out your local painting aisle.

unfortunately some GW metalic paints will seperate and glob up over time ( i have a few pots of Brass, tin and bronze that had to go due to this) the best advice i can give you is watch and water your paint pots regularly. check the paint see if its drying up and add water if you need to, then shake the heck out of it, adding a agitator like silvermk2 said helps.
unfortunately GW sometimes has a problem with all of its newer paint ranges, (the old pots seam to last forever and the newer ones seam to go in a year)

as for brushes, you might need to simply wash it out, (now wheres that link?!?!)

OH! here:
http://www.rosemaryandco.com/tipsandadvice-i-10.html

1.) Dip only the tip into the paint. When I wash my brush I hit from side to side quickly. The water rushing next to and in between the bristles should get all of the paint out.

2.) If your paints are too gloppy, just add water and shake until they're the right consistency.

SilverMK2 wrote:Have you been thinning your paints at all? This will help reduce buildup in the brush strands. It will also help reduce the quantity of dried kak in the paint pot.

You could try adding some lead shot/buckshot to the pots to act as an agitator.

There are plenty of cleaning solutions you can use to clean your brushes too - check out your local painting aisle.

I have done nothing to them with the exception of adding water occassionally to mix them up. I don't know if this is considered "thinning." But even adding water - like I did yesterday - the pot's Shining Gold comes off the brush in watery liquid including tiny chunks. Maybe this pot is just contaminated. I will try the agitator as I have noticed my reaper paints from back in the day (which supposedly have agitators added) still work great.

Thank you all for the advice. I will try more of these techniques.

You can use water to thin the mix, or paint thinner.

And the best thing to mix paints really is to put some agitators in them. Metallics are always terrible for separating out; just need to keep mixing them and they should be better.

metallic paints have one problem - they contain metal.

simply put: the problem is that metal doesn't always come off with a swish of water.

thinning paints is :

1. add a small amount of water
2. shake vigourously.
3. check to see if the painmt is liquid enough.
4. if necesary, repeat.

Metalic paints:

1. add !NO MORE! 10ml of paint thinner.
2. swish the paint as above.
3. attempt to mix using a !PLASTIC! stick.
4. if all else fails: get a new one, you can't always solve it with metallic paints.

End note:
DO NOT LICK METALLIC BRUSHES' TIPS. this is a great way to get alchzimers. as a general rule, it's advisable that if a paint seems to be thickening, make sure to use crapped-out brushes. (such as for drybrushing.)

thats my thoughts and opinions.

Also, don't put too much paint on the brush. If you do, the paint gets pushed up to the metal gradually.

I've also noticed that, even with thinned paints applied only with the tip, a damp brush seems to pull paint towards the ferrule by what I assume is capillary action. Even thorough swishing in water can only do so much. I just rinse my brushes as best I can and, once buildup occurs, give them a good cleaning with some Master's Brush Soap. Takes pigment off of the bristles you didn't even notice was there and helps loosen up those chunks that like to hide out near the ferrule (especially on the brush I use for my GW metallics, which, even when new, are like shiny tar without significant thinning).

SilverMK2 wrote:You could try adding some lead shot/buckshot to the pots to act as an agitator.

Don't do that, unless you tend to go through your paints very quickly.

Your paint will eventually rust and become completely worthless.

Glass beads work equally well, and come with no ill side effects.

@ Chrysaor - Lead doesn't rust.

You can also use stainless steel ball bearings, although glass beads will be the least reactive material, I don't know if they have enough mass to be a good agitator of a viscous paint; although I will bow to experience on that one, as I have not used them.

As an agitator you can use laval beads a la this great legoburner thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/240098.page#716133

I've put all my GW paints into Vallejo dropper bottles with one of these added and they work very well.

SilverMK2 wrote:@ Chrysaor - Lead doesn't rust.

You can also use stainless steel ball bearings, although glass beads will be the least reactive material, I don't know if they have enough mass to be a good agitator of a viscous paint; although I will bow to experience on that one, as I have not used them.

I just know that I was once recommended BB's (which are equivalent to singular pieces of buckshot), and had to replace about $80.00 worth of paints because they all ended up with globs of chunky, viscous brown throughout the paint after about a month. Lead might not rust, but I'm fairly sure that it would darken your paints after a while, though it may or may not be noticeable.

Stainless steel ball bearings would work very well, if you know where to get your hands on some that aren't already heavily lubricated (the lubrication added to most bearings might have a negative reaction with your paints, though I'm not completely sure on that one, and it's very hard to completely remove oils from anything). I stick with glass after that nice little experience; it has about the same weight as most metal does, and it's very hard to crack small pieces of it through agitation, especially against plastic paint pots.