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Hey guys,

So i really like gold trim, being a ultra and a chaos collector (i say collector, i mean i have dark vengeance haha) and i want to do this right.

I used to thin them with water but it seemed to separate the mix obscenely.

I should note that i meant acrylic metallic, not the alcohol based kind.

Any tips on this? and what are your favourite golds to use?

Thanks guys

Testors acrylic thinner, tall thin green labelled bottle from your local Hobbycraft, around £4-5 I think. Multiple thin layers followed by highlights and wash for the win.

Which brand of colors you use. Old range of GW metallics used to have excellent quality.

Vallejo acrylic metallics have quite thick pigment so thinning them a lot isn't such a great idea. They require a lot of patient to get the consistency right and not cover detail on the miniature. If you like rich vibrant gold then vallejo alcohol based metallics are your best bet.

I noticed that the current GW mithril silver isn't as bright as it used to be. It's too dark. Anybody knows of another brand that makes a brighter silver?

P3 metals don't seem to have a problem with seperation when i thin them, but then i don't use more than one drop of water to thin...
Vallejo Air metals are pretty thin right out of the bottle...

for dark, solid basecoats i use P3 Pig Iron and Rhulic Gold...
for midtones i use GW Boltgun Metal and Burnished Gold, but when those pots are gone i'll replace them with P3 Cold Steel and Solid Gold...
for the bright gold, and highlights, i use Vallejo Air Gold and Aluminium...

with three tones, there is a lot of mixing that can be done to progress from dark to light, or the other way around if that's your style...
the VA colors are pretty strong, and a bit trickier to shade down than highlight up...
the trick is to use matte blues, reds, or purples to shade, so your shadows are less reflective than the highlights...
also laying down basecoats of gold is a lot smoother if you mix some brown into the base color...

cheers
jah

ahh thanks guys, I've been wondering about p3 paints as I've just found a local stockist.
yeah Vallejo has some serious separation issues (haha).
so I should thin a tiny bit, and base coat brown, then layer the gold?
i'm not planning on hi lights as these are just table top standard (got about 50 marines so yeaaah), but i'll try them out just to get the hang.
thanks again. this is why I love dakka. (well that an awesome minis and terrain.)
Peace!

no worries, BrotherTitus...
i hope you enjoy the P3 paints...
i find they have great coverage, and go on smooth...
i still use 2-3 coats of each color, just so i don't have to lay it on too thick...

for gold, i start over black...
the first layer is pure Battlefield Brown...
the second is a 1-1 mix of BB and Rhulic gold...
this mix covers well, without streaks or struggles...
the next layer, of pure Rhulic, goes on easily afterwards...

this concept will work for any brand of mini paints, it just saves you a lot of stress...
a straight gold basecoat can be a pain to lay down...

here is my latest bit of gold paintwork:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/508227-Commander%20Dante.html?m=2

have fun experimenting...

cheers
jah

ahh thanks very much, i'll give this a try. Plus your dante looks sweet.
T

I love P3 paints but I found the Vallejo metallics a dream to work with. I did a huge gold/blog experiment a while back, check it out: http://atticwars40k.blogspot.com/2011/10/great-gold-rush-quest-for-best-gold.html

You could try not using pure metallic paints for your base-coat. So for your gold you would add (at about 1:1 ratio) a brown, yellow, or orange that looks like the gold you have. It probably will be some light brown but it doesn't matter because if you want modulate the gold a bit with the other colour that's okay too. Now you have two parts paint but only one part metallic flakes/pigments (the sparkly bits) and you can thin it a bit easier.

Another positive point would be that you now also have a very nice base-coat that you can change a bit easier by adding the original metallic paint and a bit of silver for the highlights. So you end up with metallics where the highlights are more sparkly than the mid-tones and shadows.

Winsor and Newton iridescent medium, mixed 50:50 with water, then add colour of your choice . I posted a product test a few days ago. Add to metallics for a brighter shine.
Or add to flat colours to give a metallic effect.