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So I'm planning to start painting a Leviathan Crusader soon and I'm wanting to go with a bright silver look. It seems to me that a shiny model should have strong highlighting, and I'm not sure about how to do this with metallic paints, since I don't think mixing them with pigments would work so well. My current plan is as follows:

1. Prime the model with a gray spray
2. Apply rounded white highlights with blending at the edges
3. Apply black lowlights with blended edges, but smaller in area than the highlights
4. Add colored parts where I want the look of a reflected color (blue patches around plasma coils, for example).
5. Cover the entire model with a thin coat of silver
6. Add colored details wherever necessary

I'm using Reaper paints if it's relevant.

5. Cover the entire model with a thin coat of silver
This part could be tricky because the pigment in metallic paints tends to separate if you add too much water.

My tip would be to prime with grey and then as a base-colour mix a metallic paint of your choice with a medium grey (for the silver variant); use one or two parts grey to one part metal. That way you could get a bright silver that is not too sparkly. For shading add a darker colour of your choice to this mix (try purple mixed with green for variations of a dark colour that is not exactly black but has a bit more visual flavour to it). For the highlights increase the amount of the metallic paint and shift to a brighter metallic paint (also a brighter grey) over time.

The result should be a metallic look that has more sparkle where you paint the highlights but is not too flat on the darker areas.

I wouldn't recommend glazing on metallics. I've tried it it and find thinning metallic paint a great amount gives an uneven sparkle instead of the metallic sheen you want.

Thank you for the help. I actually only have one silver paint (Reaper Honed Steel, which is their medium silver), so would shifting the grey to white while keeping the metal the same work? Also, when I said thin coat, I wasn't referring to thinning the paint more than about 1:1, (is that a lot? I'm really pretty new at painting in any way other than straight out of the bottle) I just meant that I'd be doing a single coat rather than layering. But anyway, metals and pigments are fully miscible? I was worried that they might streak due to different densities. Also, if I'm mixing the silver with other colors for the lighting, should I still do the black and white undercoat spots, or is that unnecessary?

I think that your trying to create pre-shading with metallic paints. Ie creating a darker and lighter area over which you will paint silver to give highlights and shadows. Tbh with metallic paints this is really hard without using a airbrush as you need a certain density of paint for it to appear metallic.
Im assuming that your using a brush
Personally I'd use a black base coat which helps the metallics to shine.
For the shaded areas a metallic paint mixed with black will work, but for highlights I'd invest in a brighter silver I think the reaper paint is polished silver as adding white to the silver will make it duller due to the decrease in density of metallic particles.
For more ideas I'd check out tutorials for grey knight dredknights.
For my grey knights I under coated with Vallejo air black metal, mid tone was gun metal and the highlight was steel, then varnished with satin varnish and given a wash of blue/black in to add more depth to rivets and joining lines

 Bludbaff wrote:
Thank you for the help. I actually only have one silver paint (Reaper Honed Steel, which is their medium silver), so would shifting the grey to white while keeping the metal the same work?

Not exactly. The aim is to have pure metallic paint for the highlights so the metallic pigment sparkles more in these places. With only one metallic colour I would mix that one with a dark grey (instead of medium grey) for the base-coat. That should give you enough range to work with (first go to metallic paint + medium grey and then pure metallic paint). the whole mixing metallic paints with normal acrylic paints is for two reasons: First you can matte the metallics a bit for the areas where you don't need the full sparkle and second you get many more variations because there are some many more non-metallic paints than metallic paints.

Also, when I said thin coat, I wasn't referring to thinning the paint more than about 1:1, (is that a lot? I'm really pretty new at painting in any way other than straight out of the bottle) I just meant that I'd be doing a single coat rather than layering.

Your idea for the process was sound it's just that metallics can't be thinned enough to work like that reliably (you end up with a watery soup that has some metallic pigments swimming in it). I don't use Reaper paints so I can't give you exact directions about thinning them but a 1:1 thinning ratio is roughly what I would use (at least if not even a bit more water) for regular application of most paints (including metallics) as they can be a bit think (except when drybrushing). But overall if you want to glaze (thin layer that lets the underpainting shine through) you will mostly need to thin paints 3 to 1 or more.

But anyway, metals and pigments are fully miscible? I was worried that they might streak due to different densities.

As long as the paints are acrylic paints they can be mixed. The only problem with the different pigments is that they separate after some time on your palette but that is not really a problem with regular working speed. If you leave thinned paint (with water) on your palette for some time things start to separate and the same goes for metallic paints but you can just mix them up again. There are some alcohol based paints that should not be mixed with regular paints. Acrylicos Vallejo has(had?) them here. I think if you scroll down to the category Boxes it's Ref. 70199 Liquid Gold. I think these are alcohol based and can dry out easily if you leave them open for some time (also rust is a problem).

Also, if I'm mixing the silver with other colors for the lighting, should I still do the black and white undercoat spots, or is that unnecessary?

You wouldn't need the underpainting (pre-shading and -highlighting). The underpainting would work (although you would need touch-ups) for regular paints but metallics just can't be thinned to such a degree and still be useful. So instead of pre-shading and then glazing with a metallic you paint a nice solid basecoat of metallic + dark grey and work from there with the other mixes and washes/glazes of regular paint.