modern metallics

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rob_van_riel
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modern metallics

Post by rob_van_riel »

Ages ago, when I painted something gold or silver, it came out all bright and shiny. These days, with Humbrol, I don't seem to be able to get far past sand and grey with a small hint of metallism, and especially the gold is more brown than yellow. With Vallejo, I find the silver paint to be unuseable, and the gold barely, so that's no option either. For airbrush work I could use Alclad, but for more traditional hairy stick work, I'm stuck.

Does anyone here know of a better option for polished yellow metal and polished white metal?
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iggie
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Re: modern metallics

Post by iggie »

Tamiya acrylic metallics are pretty good Rob, as are Humbrol acrylics. The silvers benefit from a black u/c and I've used yellow under golds and bronze to good effect. They also buff up well with kitchen towel
Best wishes

Jim
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rob_van_riel
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Re: modern metallics

Post by rob_van_riel »

iggie wrote:Tamiya acrylic metallics are pretty good Rob, as are Humbrol acrylics. The silvers benefit from a black u/c and I've used yellow under golds and bronze to good effect. They also buff up well with kitchen towel
I'll take Tamiya for a spin during the next round of experiments (Humbrol acrylics are just not available).
Buffing, I fear, is out of the question though; I'm targetting fine details on figures, the sort of thing that has you worried it might break if you look at it too hard. Whatever paint I end up using, will have to do the trick right off the brush, and preferably without being too picky about what's underneath it (painting a minute detail once is hard enough, doing exactly the same twice with different colours is probably beyond me).
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mattbacon
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Re: modern metallics

Post by mattbacon »

You might try this:

http://ak-interactive.com/v2/?product=x ... -gold-30ml;

I've never tried the gold, but I've got several of the burnt metal/exhaust manifold kind of colours and they brush paint very well...

bestest,
M.
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Kitaholic
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Re: modern metallics

Post by Kitaholic »

If you're hairy-sticking Tamiya acrylics don't over brush them, one maybe two passes then let it dry completely or it starts to drag in clumps. It brushes better if you really thin it down but takes many, many coats to achieve coverage
Regards

Gord

Desperately trying to find his MOJO, don't know where I left it
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iggie
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Re: modern metallics

Post by iggie »

mattbacon wrote:You might try this:

http://ak-interactive.com/v2/?product=x ... -gold-30ml;

I've never tried the gold, but I've got several of the burnt metal/exhaust manifold kind of colours and they brush paint very well...

bestest,
M.
Hi Matt, what's the brush clean up? Will DIY white spirit work?
Best wishes

Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
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mattbacon
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Re: modern metallics

Post by mattbacon »

IIRC it's just water. I think they are acrylics, just with very fine pigments...

I'll check this evening.

bestest,
m.
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Arcwelder
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Re: modern metallics

Post by Arcwelder »

I've found the Citadel metallics to be excellent for small detail work with a brush.. haven't used their golds though. Gehenna's Gold is the new version of Shining Gold and Auric Armour has replaced Burnished Gold. They do need a good old stir first.
Is this your sanderling?.

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AndrewR
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Re: modern metallics

Post by AndrewR »

Have you tried the Vallejo Air metallics Rob? These are much better than the Model Colour ones, and brush extremely well. They are my standard choice.
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rob_van_riel
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Re: modern metallics

Post by rob_van_riel »

AndrewR wrote:Have you tried the Vallejo Air metallics Rob? These are much better than the Model Colour ones, and brush extremely well. They are my standard choice.
Nope. The mere fact that they're rather explicitly not intended for normal brushes ensured that I didn't even consider that range; I want to be able to do any touch-up after airbrushing from the exact same bottle/jar of paint, so anything pre-thinned for airbrush is excluded from even testing. (I make an exception for metallisers, so the metallics might have made it in - but that would have been too logical). Real quirky that they work so well of the traditional brush.
Added to the test list, along with the citadels (both easily available brands around here).
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AndrewR
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Re: modern metallics

Post by AndrewR »

rob_van_riel wrote:
AndrewR wrote:Have you tried the Vallejo Air metallics Rob? These are much better than the Model Colour ones, and brush extremely well. They are my standard choice.
Nope. The mere fact that they're rather explicitly not intended for normal brushes ensured that I didn't even consider that range; I want to be able to do any touch-up after airbrushing from the exact same bottle/jar of paint, so anything pre-thinned for airbrush is excluded from even testing. (I make an exception for metallisers, so the metallics might have made it in - but that would have been too logical). Real quirky that they work so well of the traditional brush.
Added to the test list, along with the citadels (both easily available brands around here).
I was surprised how good they were when I tried brushing them too!

BTW Vallejo now makes a dedicated metallic range. I have not tried brushing these, but I suspect they will not work well.
Up in the Great White North
rob_van_riel
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Re: modern metallics

Post by rob_van_riel »

Following some of the recommendations here, I checked out Tamiya and Vallejo air. Peeking through the bottom of the bottles, Tamiya seemed a closer match to what I wanted, so I bought a bottle of "Chrome silver" and "Gold leaf" for testing. Both look spot on where colour is concerned, at least on the toothpick I used for stirring the paints, but I think the gold will take some testing to see how it behaves in action.
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