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Ellu, painting with stormhost silver (trying to do alpha legion recipe from GW) but whenever I use my base brush to make a layer the colour is a bit bubbly and shrink. Have barely thinned it. Anyone know how to fix this?

It may need to be thinned a bit but the immediate fix is "Flow aid" to reduce surface tension and kill those bubbles.
Was trying to find a substitute but not coming to mind.
Use very little though it has a slight impact on adhesion of the paint.

What is flow aid? From what I read it is simple as adding some lahmian medium to the paint and mix?

 The Green one wrote:
Ellu, painting with stormhost silver (trying to do alpha legion recipe from GW) but whenever I use my base brush to make a layer the colour is a bit bubbly and shrink. Have barely thinned it. Anyone know how to fix this?

Is the problem that the paint is forming bubbles, or that the paint is forming beads and not covering?

In the event that the paint is forming bubbles, I find that this happens when the paint is too watery. I find that blowing on it sometimes helps to pop the bubbles. The coverage will be uneven as the paint is too thin. The only way to recover is multiple coats to build up the density of pigments.

In the event that the paint is beading up and not covering, this is probably due to something on the model stopping the paint from adhering. It is more common on unprimed models. Sometimes, I have to just bite the bullet and resurface the part where this is happening, to get rid of the surface residue and also to add tooth to the model so paint will stick. This often occurs on resin models not properly cleaned. I recently had a resin bust flake off a 3mm x 5mm chunk of primer because I missed a spot of mold release. I had to use the sanding stick method to fix it. :(

You might also want to close the paint can and give it a good shake... If the paint feels too thin it might have sunk to the bottom.

If I understand what paint beads I would say that my paint is beading. But I have given it a undercoat of Leadbelcher that I thought were good (quite even and covered everything). Is it something that I have done with my primer then?

I think we need photos to better help us help you friend. I'm along the lines of the first reply..I'm imagining the paint slicking off the surface, but I may be wrong.

The brush may also introduce bubbles if it's too big and the paint is over thinned, and also multiple brush strokes over a textured surface will do it.

I have iron breaker air paint that I sometimes use as a base layer for metal and this can bubble up too

Have technically "solved" the issue now. Apperently metallic (should have said this) have a tendency to do this when not used for some time. That is the pigments separating and being really difficult to fix. Best tip I so far have is to shake it for about 5minuts and hope that works.

I use glass ball bearings as paint agitators, so shakes like a spray can

Can you use any kind of small ball as a paint agitator?