Acrylic Metallics that are finely ground and cover well?

[Patyrn]

Vallejo Model Air Silver is the paragon of metallic paints in my experience. It goes on like liquid metal, and covers extremely well in one coat.

Problem is, it's not really a color I need that often for base-coating metals, as it's too bright.

Does anyone know a gunmetal and a bronze that cover as well, and have as fine a flake as VMA Silver?

 

[MAXXxxx]

VMA - Gun (about the same as boltgun metal) or even VMA - Black Metal (darker than gun).

for Bronze... well I'd say the bronze from the liquid metal range. I haven't seen a good, darker bronze color in the vma range.

 

[Kalidane]

Wouldn't you be able to repeatedly glaze with super thin paints and get anything you want? I've had good results with dark blues.

Alternately, metallic paint in a well will separate and the metallic pigment can be drawn into your brush and mixed into any paint for metallic anycolour.

 

[Patyrn]

My VMA gun has much larger flakes, and doesn't cover very well. It's not like VMA Silver at all in my experience.

The Liquid Metals look interesting. I really want an acrylic if I can get it though.

Wouldn't you be able to repeatedly glaze with super thin paints and get anything you want? I've had good results with dark blues.

Yeah probably. But that's a lot of extra work just to compensate for an overly bright color.

 

[me_in_japan]

I'm a fan of VMA metallic black. Seems to be as finely pigmented as the VMA aluminum that I have.

 

[Avelorn]

I use the previous generation citadel boltgun metal (haven't tried the new) in combination with VAC silver. Generally because boltgun is matter it's easy to control the glares in the shadows with some glazing and VAC silver just bring that oomph that keeps the metal from looking aluminium.

It covers well but the pigments are not as fine as VAC but it's fine enough I think. I don't use many layers of metal paint, always as few as possible to not build up thickness.

 

[Einion]

Problem is, it's not really a color I need that often for base-coating metals, as it's too bright.

Tint it or glaze over it for alternate colours then - a lot of yellow metallic paints are a simple iridescent base (often the very same one used as the silver) with a little added colour, nothing more complicated than that.

Silver + a little black = dark silver.
Silver + more black = gunmetal.
Silver + yellow = gold.
Silver + dark yellow/light orange = old gold.
Bronze is trickier, the typical 'bronze' paint is nothing like metallic bronze in colour but more like the patinated surface on a bronze statue. The latter is easy enough to replicate though, with dark browns or dull green/khaki colours.

Problem with using hobby paints for this though is that if you use a matt paint the more you add the more it cuts down on the metallic effect, ditto with opaque colours, ideally you want to use something transparent or semitransparent as well as having at least a satin finish if not actually glossy.

Einion

 

[Patyrn]

I actually tried putting a drop of black ink in with the VMA Silver. Seemed to work well. I think I'll try doing the same with some other colors to try to get bronze.

 

[Einion]

An acrylic ink should work great for tinting a metallic base colour, being fluid and highly pigmented. Obviously you still have to watch out for a matting effect if they dry matt; if so try adding gloss medium, Klear etc. to compensate, or apply a thin coat of whatever when you're done.

Re. bronze, if you're aiming for that kind of browny-green colour, black + yellow + a little red might work perfectly; mixing into the silver you'd need to add a fair bit of the coloured mix to make the colour dark enough, if you do it by glazing over you'll need a lot less. If you're aiming for the real colour of bronze, you won't need to mix in a lot of colour; try a little red with just a dot of yellow maybe (bronze can often be pinkish).

Einion

 

[The Imperial Painter]

I've heard something about a vallejo metallic medium? So you could mix that with a dark grey of your choice in an empty dropper bottle.

Just my two cents
Tom

 

[the alleycat]

Hmmm, i've seen a few people using the VMA silvered metallics but when i've used them they seem more 'glittery' than metallic... can't say i'm really a fan. [unless i'm doing something wrong which is entirely possible]

For my money, i still prefer Citadels metallics over all the other's i have tried.

 

[RuneBrush]

The new GW Leadbelcher isn't too bad. Colour wise it's identical to a 50/50 Boltgun and Black mix.