Metallic Paints

[wako1302]

Starting a new 40K ultramarine list for 8th edition, and I want them to stand out from the regular Marines out there.

 

So I have decided to give them all Metallic looking armour.

 

I have had some good results with the Vallejo Model Air Metallic paints, but they do not do a Metallic white.

 

Has anyone had any success if finding and using a Metallic white paint.

[smart_arse]

Scale 75 have one called "White Alchemy' but it's VERY thin though so it's hard to tell how metallic it really is.

[NovemberIX]

Can't say I've tried it but you could mix Vallejo Metal Base with a Vallejo White. I did that recently with night blue and it came out pretty nice.

[Major_Gilbear]

Perhaps you can try mixing some metallic medium or silver paint into some white? I would probably use layer of white or light grey under it first though, as these sorts of colours are notoriously bad at covering over dark/strong colours otherwise.

 

Otherwise, silver = white as far as traditional heraldic rules are concerned, so you could try using either normal white or a very bright silver instead maybe?

[Bryan Blaire]

"Metallic white" is often an iridescent medium mixed with white, and most companies that produce that mix are going to call it something like white pearl/Pearl/pearly white, because it gives a white gleam. You should probably check into that. Aside from that, I would agree with suggestions above, mix a white paint into a bright silver, or use a white glaze over silver to tint the silver more white.

 

Something to ask yourself though is if you really want a metallic white (like a car painted an actual metallic white pearl would look), or if you want the specular highlight effect of white painted over metal, possibly with a gloss sheen. The first will only truly be achieved by painting a metallic white/pearl color, while the later can be faked by using a brighter specular edge highlighting method, or for best results, a NMM effect with white (which would probably be hard).

[Khornate individual]

Or go to a hobby store and pick up a bottle of Folk Art Metallic Pearl White.  It's 2 oz of paint for around a dollar, a lot cheaper than gaming store paints.

[Bryan Blaire]

Or go to a hobby store and pick up a bottle of Folk Art Metallic Pearl White.  It's 2 oz of paint for around a dollar, a lot cheaper than gaming store paints.

This is a good suggestion, just make sure you thin it down enough to use for models. A lot of times those hobby acrylics, like canvas acrylics, are much heavier/thicker/full bodied (whatever you want to call it) than model acrylics, so you may need to thin much more than you are used to to keep from clogging up details, but may also need to use an extra couple of layers depending on the pigment load in the paint. It's something I ran into when I was using my deep carmine canvas acrylic for my Angels Encarmine Terminators.

[AndrewChristlieb]

The problem with pearl white craft paints (metallic white) is that they're silver. To get the metallic effect the paint has small bits of metal in there to reflect the light and being as they're a silver color even in a white base the reflected light still looks silver.

 

You could try painting a true pearl effect like they do with cars though. Base coat in a highly metallic color (like a pearl white or mithril equivalent) then apply several coats of thin high gloss white over top maybe?

[Khornate individual]

The metallic pearl white that I have didn't have to be thinned down any (it was thin enough already).  On shoulder pads it took a couple of coats to cover evenly.  But I did all my Templar shoulder pads with it and they all look metallic white, no silver.  I think if I only did one coat or cote however it's spelled, it would look a little more silvery, but a couple coats and their good to go.

[madscuzzy]

Suprisingly Vallejo's metal medium is almost white.  My buddy uses it as highlights for his models when he wants them metallic white, but the coverage is not as strong as a paint.  

 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I have attempted to use several varieties of the craft store paints on minis before, and without fail, they don't hold up once thinned down enough to be used. Some of them just wouldn't stay together when thinned down and others were very grainy. Despite the great price, I would only suggest them for bases or terrain pieces and not minis.