Coloured Metallic Paints

[Disruptor_fe404]

Hey team!

 

I'm looking at using some coloured metallic acryllics for some specific models. Does anyone know if there is a range of coloured metallics from manufacturers like Scale75 or Vallejo (I see they have a metallic blue in the Mecha Colour range, but it doesn't look like it's actually metallic) or even Tamiya (Metallic Blue X13 is a paint they have but that doesn't look actually metallic either)?

 

I'm open to other manufacturers as well, it's just that those ones came to mind first.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Lord Marshal]

Turbo Shift probably do the biggest range of coloured metallics off the top of my head.

 

Green Stuff World also have them.

 

Scale 75 have their Alchemy range. It's a bit of a weird one in that it's a lot thinner than your typical (even their other) metallic paints - I've used them with a brush and they seem a bit thick to brush straight on like a filter, but the coverage not going through an airbrush isn't great either. The colours they have are a bit limited, but they've a nice garnet, pink, cobalt and I think an off-green to list a few.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Vallejo do a metallic medium to turn any paint metallic. I've never used it, but may be worth a look?

Coat D'Arms (who made the 1990's GW paints) have a purple, green, and blue metallic, if I remember correctly. (but they are probably harder to get hold of in NZ)

[Bryan Blaire]

Reaper has a set of colored metallics as well, but I’m not sure how they stack up to the other color lines mentioned here.  They seem to do decent brushed on, but I haven’t had a reason to use them extensively.

[Arkhanist]

Looking at metallic blue specifically, someone did compare a bunch of different ones together here - including reaper, vallejo and scale 75.

 

Several are decent, such as vallejo model color gunmetal blue (which I've seen recommended elsewhere) but it depends what shade blue you're after.

 

Turbodork is probably your best bet though for a wider range of metallic colours from one company, as mentioned above, though availability can be an issue. (they also do multi-colour chameleon metallics under the the turboshift range)

 

Another common method, given the mixed quality of blue, green and red metallics generally is to do a nice quality silver coat and then tint if with a semi-transparent coloured paint over the top. Though for reds specifically, a gold undercoat is usually more vibrant. This generally gives a very wide range of colours to choose from (including mixes), compared to the limited selection (usually only one or two non-traditional colours per range) for metallics.

 

Such tints include tamiya clear, Contrast, the former foreworld clear paints (now back as GW air paints) or any number of acrylic inks. Through an airbrush is ideal, but all bar inks can be done by brush with a bit of care.

 

brush on Contrast example for Alpha legion:

 

 

• Grey Seer base spray

• Runefang Steel base coat* - This is very important, as leadbelcher is just too dark and the bright blue doesn't come out as a result, could probably use Stormhost Silver as a replacement, but I didn't try.

• 1 pt Aethermatic Blue, 1 pt Akhelian Green, 2 pt Lahmian Medium mix. - You can use Contrast medium instead, but I found Lahmian to give me more control for even coats.

• Standard Nuln Oil the silver areas and Stormhost Silver highlights.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Arkhanist

[Disruptor_fe404]

Thanks very much for the comprehensive answers, team! It definitely seems like there are many options to try out...

 

Not sure how I missed GSW having metallics, since I just ordered some chameleons from them, but their sets look interesting enough for me to try them out!

 

VMC and Scale 75 are pretty readily available locally, and it looks like Turbodork actually have a local retailer, which is great.

 

Looks like there's some experimentation in my future!

 

Thanks again frater!

[The Unseen]

There's also these

https://www.goonhammer.com/45642-2/

 

Note: I have not used the paints myself, I just remembered reading this review when you mentioned metallic paints.

[Tyriks]

I'll second Turbodork. I've liked everything I've used from them so far.

[Arkhanist]

There's also these

https://www.goonhammer.com/45642-2/

 

Note: I have not used the paints myself, I just remembered reading this review when you mentioned metallic paints.

I have several darkstar metallics, and do use them sometimes; the brass and bronzes are particularly useful. The paint is good, and they have a big range of silvers, golds and copper/bronze but they don't really have any other colours; dark steel blue is kinda blue, and victorian gold is kinda green, but they're not really useful for anything than the classic 3.

 

The pots also suck. They're just too fat to fit in a vallejo stand hole, but loose in a citadel pot sized one which is annoying. The bigger sin is the dropper top is a friction fit into the bottle; if you screw the lid down anything beyond the first couple of turns, it pushes the nozzle partly into the bottle and paint leaks all round it and up into the cap. All my darkstar paints have a mess under the cap, and dried bits flake off everytime I open one; and I've had to rescue the nozzle from inside the bottle more than once. I don't think it's helping any with viscosity either. I keep meaning to decant to proper vallejo-style droppers, but haven't got round to it yet.

 

So scale 75 are my go to for smooth base metals, and then I use darkstar or GW's new metallics post-varnish for those shiny highlights.

[Disruptor_fe404]

I'll second Turbodork. I've liked everything I've used from them so far.

 

I've found a local retailer for Turbodork, and picked up three metallic reds and three metallic blues!

[Magos Takatus]

I like Turbodork myself. I've found even though they are being shaken vigorously they still come out of the bottle like toothpaste for me but once thinned to a sensible consistency they are pretty good. I've messed with some of their colourshift paints (see Pteraxii in my Admech plog for the paint Floor is Lava), I've also got a red, a green that turned out more blue-green than I had hoped and then a brassy colour called Cartridge Family. It's worth giving them a try in my opinion.

 

I have also used the Green Stuff World metallic paints, they have a few colours that I use including a bronze, a copper and a paint called Tinmetal Grey which is a handy colour for highlighting darker metallic colours like bronze. I haven't tried any of their colour metallic paints though.

[plastic_slug]

One of my 'local' stores has a full Turbodork rack. I used 'Redrum' metallic red on a Dreadball project a couple years ago, and was satisfied with the results. Alas, no pics at hand, but the paint covered well, but it was kind of thick straight out of the bottle. One of the good things with Turbodork is that you frequently have several options in shade within a color; there are like 3-4 different reds, for example. 

[Evil Eye]

This is probably only practical for UK-based hobbyists but C Roberson's Liquid Metal series is rather fantastic and does a range of really nice water-based acrylics in colours that are usually only obtainable via lacquer-based paints. I have their Red Purple and one of their pearl paints, they're really rather nice.

[Arkhanist]

This is probably only practical for UK-based hobbyists but C Roberson's Liquid Metal series is rather fantastic and does a range of really nice water-based acrylics in colours that are usually only obtainable via lacquer-based paints. I have their Red Purple and one of their pearl paints, they're really rather nice.

Huh, those are the exact same colour names and image examples as darkstar molten metals, and the paint looks identical in the bottle. I've heard previously (and in that goonhammer article The Unseen linked) that Darkstar basically came across another manufacturers acrylic metallic that was very good but nobody had heard of, and managed to get an exclusive contract for selling to wargamers. I think you've just found who they got them from!

 

The darkstar version is very nice (which is why I have half a dozen colours), it's just the bottle nozzles I dislike substantially. Looks like C Roberson sell em in 30ml pots to artists instead of 17ml bottles, for less than double the price - plus a load of colours that darkstar don't do. Innnteresting.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Arkhanist

[Evil Eye]

 

This is probably only practical for UK-based hobbyists but C Roberson's Liquid Metal series is rather fantastic and does a range of really nice water-based acrylics in colours that are usually only obtainable via lacquer-based paints. I have their Red Purple and one of their pearl paints, they're really rather nice.

Huh, those are the exact same colour names and image examples as darkstar molten metals, and the paint looks identical in the bottle. I've heard previously (and in that goonhammer article The Unseen linked) that Darkstar basically came across another manufacturers acrylic metallic that was very good but nobody had heard of, and managed to get an exclusive contract for selling to wargamers. I think you've just found who they got them from!

 

The darkstar version is very nice (which is why I have half a dozen colours), it's just the bottle nozzles I dislike substantially. Looks like C Roberson sell em in 30ml pots to artists instead of 17ml bottles, for less than double the price - plus a load of colours that darkstar don't do. Innnteresting.

 

Incidentally I also discovered the Darkstar connection, courtesy of a mini-painting Discord I'm in! But yeah, they're rather good and if you can get the ones Darkstar hasn't brought over for a sensible price (namely the pearls and coloured metallics) I would highly recommend doing so. I've not compared them to, say, Scale75's Alchemy range (though granted I haven't actually tested any of their coloured metallics) but they're really nice and vibrant colours. Though I am a bit biased as I can quite easily get them from a very nice art shop in Norwich...

 

To OP I will definitely vouch for Turbodork. They do some very nice colours- their "Prism Power" colourshift paint is one of the coolest of its kind I've ever seen.

[Kurgan the Lurker]

Something else to look at for metallics:

 

[MithrilForge]

Also , i have used these and they're quite "metallic" and colourful with a really good coverage.

(thanks to britmodeller.com for the picture )

A small sample of the warhead blue, i used it on the buggies rocker covers (engine).i have washed over it to tone it down as well FYI)

Edited April 28, 2021 by mithrilforge

[Magos Takatus]

 

Something else to look at for metallics:

 

 

 

Absolutely gorgeous. I only have the copper and the... antique gold I think? Depending on the medium you used for them (so far I've only tried the GSW medium) you can get a variety of results from what I hear. There is also a black metal that they sell and I have tried mixing them in different quantities to get slightly darker metal for shading. They aren't perfect but in my opinion they are very good. I want the remaining gold and the bronze but I'm waiting for the world to calm down a bit before I try ordering from GSW again. They also have some new metallic filter paints. That meant nothing to me at first but reading up on them they apparently go over an existing colour and create a metallic sheen over the top of the previous colour. Sounds fun but I have no strong ideas how to use them yet.

 

 

 

[Disruptor_fe404]

Hey team, thanks very much for all the further suggestions and resources!

 

Looks like I might have even more to try out... 

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

Something else to look at for metallics:

 

These look like a lot of fun to use and seem like a product that produce a lovey, lustrous finish. It also seem like a versatile range of results can be achieved by mixing the pigments with different fluids. Will definitely be getting the set.

[Evil Eye]

Sorry to resurrect a several month old thread, but I've potentially found another answer to this- metallic pigments from Amazon + the clear medium of your choice!

The guy in the video does Gunpla stuff and uses lacquer clears, but he states it works just fine with literally any clear medium, so for our purposes you could very easily use an acrylic clear paint (I have some of the old Forge World clear medium for instance) if you don't fancy working with lacquers or want to apply it by brush. I've got some pigments coming in the post today so I'll report back when they arrive!

[Bung]

That looks like some stuff used for car paint jobs.

[ranulf the revenant]

Mixing Vallejo Metal Paint with coloured inks worked quite well for me...

[Laughingman]

 Another alternative is Mission Models line of colored metallic. Though they work best over a metallic basecoat in my experience.

[Evil Eye]

Had a go with those pigments through my airbrush. Pretty good results.