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I'm adding some sections of chain to hang from the shoulders of my imperial knight and I'm not sure if I should paint them or just leave them bare metal. They are a little shiny and I think I'd like to dirty them up but should I add them before I paint and then just paint them with the rest of the model or should I add them after and just weather them? Thanks!

I found that simply washing them works really well to dirty them up, additionally you don't have problems of scratched or missing paint, as it just looks like grime that would naturally be scratched and missing.

Paint them. Real metal (and real wood, dirt, etc) looks weird next to painted metal.

+1 to paint it

I second the washing suggestion. Nice dark glaze or a brownish glaze works nicely enough to make it blend with the model =)

Yeah, leaving them bare metal will look weird. But all you have to do is give it a wash and you're golden.

I would paint them because a natural metal is going to look strange next to a painted metal... but then I don't have experience with chains.... my concern would be if you paint them and then the links shift it's going to screw up your paint job, especially any washes you might have used. My thought would be maybe you want to lock the links in place with superglue but then they'll be very delicate. I would be tempted to either leave them bare metal because of that OR paint them with a dark metal but not wash them to avoid them getting damaged.

Wash it and then just lightly drybrush it, I suppose. Should be good enough.

My suggestion is that you paint the real metal first with acrylic gesso, which will stick well to metal, and give you a good surface for your metallic chain. Then paint it, wash it, and drybrush it. Do it separate from the model, and it will be easy and quick.

I'm with Peregrine -- I've seen real metal chain (unpainted) attached to things like Imperial Knights and it looks funky (strange).