Do you water down your metallic paints?

I normally use a 1:1 paint to water ratio for my painting but lately started wondering if this was still the right thing to do when it comes to metallics. I have been getting really streaky results when trying to work with Leadbelcher and don't know whether it is the actual sample of paint that i am working with or that watering down metallics is a no no.

Just thought I would throw it out to the hive mind before my next (metallic heavy) paint project kicks off.

Thanks!

UM

I find a lot of Citade metallics really clumpy and horrible to work with, Leadbelcher especially I find really bothersome, try Vallejo Air range for your silvers, they go on much smoother and still cover really well.

Edit anyway, ya if i'm using leadbelcher I do water it down a little and remove most of whats on my brush, giving whatever it is it 2-3 small, light coats, I still don't overly love the results at times though.

Thanks for the insight and recommendation Cherry. Much appreciated!

Yeah metallics are awful to work with.  You can try cutting the paint with an acrylic medium.  I have a big bottle of Vallejo airbrush thinner I got from somewhere although I'm sure other brands are available.

I really like the Vallejo range in general and definitely second the Vallejo air range idea.  Game air has really nice bright metallics that are very easy to work with and it saves the hassle of worrying about thinning ratios.  You can use the air paint straight from the bottle.

I really like the idea of not having to water down my paints. Ill have to look into the vallejo air colours.

First of all, don't forget to give a (really) good shake to metalics painting before using, I usually shake them for about 30s.

I usually water down GW metallics (~1:1), or thin it with lahmia (~2:1) even if it tend to remove some of the brightness.
Appy 2-3 thin coats for a proper result.

Usually i thin the highlights less, to get a brighter/sharper result.


Old GW paints (boltgun metal, mithril silver,etc.) used to be a no-no a they were supposed to be used as drybrushing, but the new GW paint range is somewhat okay with thinning down.

I'll give a try to Vallejo, currently GW paints are stil a pain to use.



If you don't like the result, you can still go on the Non Metallic Metal technics, but it's way more time consumming and hard to learn ; check for "Chest of color NMM tutorial" if you want to give a look/try, he got several well detailied tuts.

I just about always use water to thin down my metallic paints, although I've noticed that if you leave them on a wet palette for more than a few hours, they'll still get clumpy and you'll have to start fresh. Also Vallejo metal medium is a useful tool for thinning down metallic paints. It does turn them a bit lighter in tone, but it'll thin them out nicely.

I'm actually working on a friend's Mechanicus army, in which the main color is gold with other metal accents.

Here's a few pictures of the Ordinatus I was working on this morning, with which I only used GW metallic paints that were thinned down as I described above.







Bear in mind none of that's finished yet, so pardon some of the sloppy shading and lack of highlights.

Metallic paints are pain. I think the best of them are Liquid Gold from Vallejo. They are alcohol based so a little more difficult to work with, but the results are amazing if you wish to use metallic colours.

On normal metallic colours - I recommend using medium for thinning. either plain acrylic or metallic one. Also an Ice pallete helps to offset the degradation when painting.