Desubot wrote:
When painting a full coat. try to keep paint on the wet parts.

If you paint over dried areas you can get streaks since the layers are not blended and are just overlapped.

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
Wet on wet: try using a brush and just give a quick light coat of water before you spray paint on. It can sometimes help to smooth out the layer. Don't get it dripping wet, just make it somewhat moist.

davethepak wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:


As far as airbrushes, you can get a starter airbrush and compressor for less than $100 - do a search, the "what airbrush do I buy" topic come up about once a week - and a lot of people take time to answer the same questions over and over again. I paint metallics (various kinds) through my airbrush, and get amazing coverage using the vallejo model air, and air color lines.

best of luck

I wish I'd known that before I started with all this. Could have saved myself a bunch of trouble, and got better results for the same money....]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/662338/8122774.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/662338/8122774.page GMT http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/662338/8126774.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/662338/8126774.page GMT
One of the main problems with metallics is the suspension of pigments in the paint. I had learned this the hard way when I decided to make my own custom metallic color, in purple and spray it through the air brush.

The base of this color was Americana lavender, genestealer purple, and Folk art's Metallic purple. These were all acrylic based paints that I've had some success with in the past.

First step is consistency, and this is one of the largest tricks to master, since the paint has to maintain certain characteristics. The biggest example is skim milk, which was hard for me who never drank skim milk before, which I ended up with some trial and error. The easiest way to accomplish this is with the use of a thinning medium like flo-aid, or I use Vallejo thinner.

Second step is the make sure that the consistancey is nice for spraying(Not to thin, or thick). Thick paint will stick in your air brush, thin paint will drip off your model. If this is an issue then go back to step one to re-add thinner. As a good rule of thumb I prefer to add thinner to paint little by little, because it's easier to thin then to re-add paint for a custom color.

Third step, is to use a paint retarder in the bottle. I have no idea why it does this but thinning then retarding paint allows the retarder to hold the metallic paint particles in suspension so they don't collect at the crevice of your minis.
Again this ratio is difficult to describe, but with vallejo I usually use a drop to a drop and a half from the bottle for a small cup of paint, and then mix the paint with a splayed brush in the cup.

A few tips, wear a glove, and spare on your glove instead of your hands, easier to clean and scrap from inside the glove.

If anyone has questions they are more then welcome to send me a PM.

Regards
Nemesor Blackwing]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/662338/8137472.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/662338/8137472.page GMT


Now before anyone thinks I'm totally nuts, most of the metallics on this model were painted using those two brushes:

Spoiler:

The brush on the left is the Citadel Base brush; the brush on the right that is frayed to all crap is a super cheap, $1.50 PMX synethetic (I mean, really, they don't get any cheaper than that).

What's the secret then?

I put very little paint on the brushes. I actually put paint onto a wet palette, then wipe down the brush til it is almost dry, and then paint it on neat. No additional thinning. The metallic base paints by GW are highly adhesive, so you really don't need much to get it to stick. I use the medium base brush (in only slightly crudded up shape) to cut the edges, then use the messy junk brush to fill in the spaces between, before the paint on the edges dries. When it all dries up, it is perfectly smooth, with just enough texture that when you do a wash, it looks really nice. The breast plate on that Prosecutor was painted with that junk brush (with almost no paint on it). Most of the highlights were done using the tip of the flat edge of the filbert. Yeah, I used a tiny (good) brush for some highlights.. I'm not saying, ONLY use crappy brushes!

That POS (that's piece of ....) brush is also nice for metallic blending; the results are diffused painting rather than solid lines with highly visible edges.

Why doesn't a good brush work? I find the coarser bristles of the synthetic brush transfers just the right amount of paint (ie not too much). By the same token, I'd never use a W&N for a drybrush. The problem with the nice, sable brushes, or even good synthetics is that they hold *too much paint*, which means that too much paint goes onto the model. Coupled with most metallic paints thinning really badly... it's just not pretty.

Also, I really like how GW metallic base paints have very good coverage, and layer paints are truly quite translucent. You can really use that to your advantage. to get nice TMM effects with very little work -- compared, for instance, with Vallejo water based acrylics or AP metallics, where they are all thicker, and are hard to thin.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/662338/8138034.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/662338/8138034.page GMT

 Talys wrote:
Here's my dirty little secret: crappy brushes!