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So I don't know if it's the age of the paints or the fact that I haven't been seriously painting for a while but my P3 metals don't seem to be cutting it anymore. I'm getting either bad coverage or rough patches on most minis.
Any recommendations on a good quality steel/silver colored paint?
I prefer to buy from miniature manufacturers that *don't* support the overthrow of democracy.
Odds are what's happened to yours is that the pigment and aluminum flakes are mostly settled in a mass at the bottom. A good stir is needed to scrape all that up off the bottom, then a good shake - ideally with a BB or two in there to help - to re-integrate the pigment and flake with the medium.
By and large hobby grade metallics are good. P3, GW. Vallejo... brand doesn't really seem to matter much in my experience. Just don't try to use craft grade metallic paints (folk art, apple barrel, etc.); the pigment density is low and the aluminum flakes are noticeably larger giving generally poor results.
It's their airbrush line for model aircraft so its a narrow range (and the distance between some of them is also very small), but it's a supremely fine grain metallic paint that flows well and has extremely good coverage. It gives a lovely smooth finish by brush too. I have several and they're my go-to for anything from blackened steel up to polished silver. Definitely a step above normal metallics, and you only need 2 or 3. They also make a great base for a colour filter over the top when done over a gloss black primer, such as doing a red metallic for word bearers. If they did a bigger range, they'd probably be my only metallics!
The newest GW metallics are better than they used to be, and are actually fairly decent now (ones like iron hands steel, stormhost silver and retributor armour) as they seem to be a different formulation and finer grain; but they still sell the old mediocre ones so you kinda have to look when they were released.
P3 is still fairly well rated as a standard hobby metal, so it may well be yours just need a couple of mixer balls and shaking to death to remix better. A little extra lahmian or matt medium can be added to the pot if they've gone a bit gloopy.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/06/12 07:27:08
I second the recommendation for the Vallejo model air metalics. Been using them exclusively since a friend suggested them a couple of years ago. Very smooth and even finish using a brush.
Skyven wrote: I second the recommendation for the Vallejo model air metalics. Been using them exclusively since a friend suggested them a couple of years ago. Very smooth and even finish using a brush.
Just to clarify, "vallejo model air metallic" is different to "vallejo metal colour". The model air range does have metallics in it, but they're not the same as the metal colour range. The model air is the one in the tall screw top bottle, the metal colour is in the fatter pop top bottle.
They're both designed to be used through an airbrush, but the metal colour range was specifically made to create realistic looking metals on things like scale aircraft models... it's just people discovered they also work well with a hairy brush on miniatures also.
Green stuff world have a good range of metallic paints with lots of different colours. They do need a lot of shaking though as they are often made of 2 colours of pigments
But to be fair I always liked leadbelcher and stormhost silver by GW aswell
Which Tamiya metallics do you like? I had a bad experience with Tamiya's acrylic Chrome Silver in the past and never went back to them again. It looked nice but the paint would just wipe off and nothing would stick to it (even other Tamiya paints) so I had to strip a few things that I'd painted with it.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/06/13 06:43:35
ScarletRose wrote: So I don't know if it's the age of the paints or the fact that I haven't been seriously painting for a while but my P3 metals don't seem to be cutting it anymore. I'm getting either bad coverage or rough patches on most minis.
Any recommendations on a good quality steel/silver colored paint?
That is a very very hard moving target to give a correct answer to because asking that is like asking "Whats the best paint."
Really depends. personally i over the years have found that different brands do different types of metallic better.
For example, scale 75, i LOVE their black gold, viking gold, black metal, and thrash metal, along with their alchemy metalics. However their yellow gold and light silver color suck
I also LOVE Vallajo gun metal and burnt metal for air brush.
I love reapers burnt metal but hate their other metalics
GW has got some good silvers that i use but hate their gold.
So its not something you can just nail down with 1 paint.
That said the one i stuggle the most with is a good yellow gold for brushing on, one of the biggest things to help is to make sure you have a good brown undercoat before applying the gold.
GW has got some good silvers that i use but hate their gold.
*snip*
That said the one i stuggle the most with is a good yellow gold for brushing on, one of the biggest things to help is to make sure you have a good brown undercoat before applying the gold.
Have you tried specifically GW's retributor armour gold? It's been my go-to in recent times. It's quite a gold looking gold and covers really well so you don't really need to do the whole "paint it brown first" thing.
But yeah, in general there's a lot of properties that can make a metallic "good" and it depends which aspects are most important to you as to which one you'll want the most.
Personally I like metallics that have small flakes, so they don't look so much like paint and rather look more like true metals, so the vallejo metal colour range if good for that. Some of them have terrible coverage when applied with a hairy brush though, so it does matter which one you pick.
GW has got some good silvers that i use but hate their gold.
*snip*
That said the one i stuggle the most with is a good yellow gold for brushing on, one of the biggest things to help is to make sure you have a good brown undercoat before applying the gold.
Have you tried specifically GW's retributor armour gold? It's been my go-to in recent times. It's quite a gold looking gold and covers really well so you don't really need to do the whole "paint it brown first" thing.
But yeah, in general there's a lot of properties that can make a metallic "good" and it depends which aspects are most important to you as to which one you'll want the most.
Personally I like metallics that have small flakes, so they don't look so much like paint and rather look more like true metals, so the vallejo metal colour range if good for that. Some of them have terrible coverage when applied with a hairy brush though, so it does matter which one you pick.
I do use it now and then, i love the spray, the one thing i have wanted to try though because everyone that uses it swears by it like its Christ himself returned. Is the Greenstuff world, gold pigment mix.
This is a video of a guy making some of the mixes and it just gives you CRAZY control espeically when you start doing wild stuff like mixing the pigments with ink to get wild metalic colors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzMntYW6VdQ
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/06/13 16:22:27
Backspacehacker wrote: That is a very very hard moving target to give a correct answer to because asking that is like asking "Whats the best paint."
Really depends. personally i over the years have found that different brands do different types of metallic better.
For example, scale 75, i LOVE their black gold, viking gold, black metal, and thrash metal, along with their alchemy metalics. However their yellow gold and light silver color suck
I also LOVE Vallajo gun metal and burnt metal for air brush. I love reapers burnt metal but hate their other metalics GW has got some good silvers that i use but hate their gold. So its not something you can just nail down with 1 paint.
That said the one i stuggle the most with is a good yellow gold for brushing on, one of the biggest things to help is to make sure you have a good brown undercoat before applying the gold.
Fair point that different paint lines do different good colours. I do like some of the scale 75 dark metallics when I want less lustre, or an oddball highlight, but vallejo metal colour has replaced it for silvers for me. Dark star metallics do some really nice unusual shades too - they're my goto for brass, copper and bronze. (bar runelord brass, which is a fairly unique shade I find very useful)
For golds, my latest love is greenstuff world metallic gold pigments mixed into gloss varnish - really high quality results and insane coverage. I've mixed some up in dropper bottles with some teeny tiny measuring spoons.
edit: lol, just realised Backspacehacker also recommended them for the same reason from Vince Venturella.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2022/06/14 01:47:27
Which Tamiya metallics do you like? I had a bad experience with Tamiya's acrylic Chrome Silver in the past and never went back to them again. It looked nice but the paint would just wipe off and nothing would stick to it (even other Tamiya paints) so I had to strip a few things that I'd painted with it.
I probably use Chrome silver more than any other metallic. Looks good over; white, black, brown. Hilights other Metalics. Contrast looks amazing on it. The only time I've had problems is if it's not completely stirred.
Which Tamiya metallics do you like? I had a bad experience with Tamiya's acrylic Chrome Silver in the past and never went back to them again. It looked nice but the paint would just wipe off and nothing would stick to it (even other Tamiya paints) so I had to strip a few things that I'd painted with it.
I probably use Chrome silver more than any other metallic. Looks good over; white, black, brown. Hilights other Metalics. Contrast looks amazing on it. The only time I've had problems is if it's not completely stirred.
Hmmm, maybe it's because I was airbrushing it. For me it just didn't stick to the model. Or maybe a bad pot, or as you say maybe I didn't mix it properly (I feel like I probably would have mixed it properly, but it was 5 or so years ago I last used it so maybe not, lol). Other Tamiya paints have always worked fine for me.
For example, scale 75, i LOVE their black gold, viking gold, black metal, and thrash metal, along with their alchemy metalics. However their yellow gold and light silver color suck
Are you talking about Scale's Citrine Alchemy? Because I Iove it as a gold highlight. I love all of Scale's metalics really.
Personally I like metallics that have small flakes, so they don't look so much like paint and rather look more like true metals, so the vallejo metal colour range if good for that. Some of them have terrible coverage when applied with a hairy brush though, so it does matter which one you pick.
I'm looking to pick up some Vallejo metal colour, I've heard great things and would like to try them out. Can you let me know which ones have good/bad coverage? They are pretty expensive so I'd prefer not to have to go trial and error! I only paint with hairy brushes.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/06/14 16:24:45
Some of the vallajo has great coverage, and a good smell :^)
But like their metalic air line? DAMN it covers great and you can use it with a brush as well, the only thing about it, that sucks, is it does not adhear well to a model if you paint it on with a brush, like i did some treds in it, and when i washed it you could see the mica flakes coming up.
