How do I paint metal armour and weapons on a miniature?

Metallic paints frustrate people who have learned to paint everything else well, because the rules are different. The pigment is a physically flat flake that reflects light, and it settles hard, clumps, streaks and clings to brushes. Once you treat it as a different material rather than a colour, it becomes straightforward.

What you'll need

• Metallic acrylics — a steel, a bright silver, a gold and a dark metal
• A brush kept specifically for metallics
• A dark shade or dedicated metal wash
• Gloss varnish for the shading stage (optional)

Step by step

1. Stir metallic paint properly, every time.The flake is heavy and settles into a hard cake at the bottom of the pot. Stir until there are no streaks of clear medium and no grit on the stick. Painting with the medium off the top gives a weak translucent coat that people mistake for a bad paint.
2. Base coat over a dark surface.Metallics are often thin and translucent, so a black or dark base gives depth immediately and makes the flake read as metal rather than grey. Over white they look pale and chalky.
3. Thin less than you would other paints.The flake needs enough medium to carry it but over-thinning separates the flake from the binder and the coat dries patchy and rubs off. Thin only until it flows, and expect to need two coats.
4. Lay the paint down in one direction.The flakes align with the brush stroke, so a surface painted in one consistent direction reflects evenly and one scrubbed in circles reflects unevenly. This is unique to metallics and it is very visible on a flat blade or shoulder plate.
5. Shade with a dedicated metal wash.General-purpose brown and black washes often kill the shine because their matting agents sit on top of the flake. Washes formulated for metal, or a gloss coat before an ordinary wash, keep the reflection alive.
6. Highlight edges with a brighter metal.A bright silver drawn along the sharp edges of a blade or an armour plate with the side of the brush. Metal reads as metal because of edge highlights more than because of the base colour.
7. Add the marks that metal actually gets.A few fine scratches in a bright silver on a worn edge, a hint of dark or rust in a recess, and a slightly different tone on a different component. Uniform metallic across a whole model looks like plastic painted silver.
8. Keep a brush for metallics and nothing else.Metallic flake lodges in the ferrule and behind the bristles and comes out later in the middle of a smooth colour. Every experienced painter has one brush permanently designated for metal.

Tips

• Gold is easier over a brown or a dark red base than over black, which tends to make it look dirty. Silver is easier over black.
• A gloss varnish before the shade and a matt varnish at the end gives shaded metal that still shines, which is otherwise a hard combination to achieve.
• Metallic paint on a wet palette can separate. Many painters use metallics from a dry palette even when everything else is on a wet one.

Common mistakes

• Not stirring the pot — Metallic pigment settles harder than any other. The clear medium at the top paints on translucent and weak, which people blame on the paint rather than the mixing.
• Over-thinning metallics — Past a certain point the flake and the binder separate. The result is patchy coverage and a film with too little binder to hold together, so it rubs off with handling.
• Using a general black wash to shade metal — Most matt washes deposit a flattening agent over the flake, so the metal loses its reflection and reads as grey. Use a wash intended for metal, or gloss coat first.
• Using a good brush for metallics — The flake gets into the ferrule and reappears weeks later in the middle of a carefully blended face. One dedicated brush prevents this entirely.

If it doesn't work

Alternatives

• Non-metallic metal: Painting the appearance of metal using ordinary colours — greys and browns with very bright highlights and very dark shadows. Total control over where the light falls, photographs beautifully, and it takes far longer and is genuinely difficult.
• Metallic over a coloured base: Thin metallic over a coloured undercoat gives tinted metal — a blued steel, a warm brass — which is quicker than mixing metallic colours and often more convincing.
• Metal pigments and powders: Buffed onto a surface rather than painted, giving a very convincing polished metal sheen. Delicate, needs sealing, and sealing dulls it.

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