True Metallic Metal are Vallejo metallics for the airbrush that carry a colour of their own alongside the metal sheen. The category therefore holds obsidian black, rusted and aged metal, green and amber golds, turquoise, ultramarine, amethyst, purple and a ruby red. The pigment is finely milled so it passes a nozzle and leaves a burnished surface.
What that finish needs from you is mostly preparation: metal pigment hides nothing and exaggerates everything underneath it. The paragraphs below cover the base, the number of passes and why a matt coat is the wrong way to protect the result.
True Metallic Metal AIRBRUSH - Obsidian Black
3.96 €
True Metallic Metal AIRBRUSH - Aged Metal
3.96 €
True Metallic Metal AIRBRUSH - Rusty Metal
3.96 €
True Metallic Metal AIRBRUSH - Arcane Go
3.40 €
True Metallic Metal AIRBRUSH - Greenish Gold
3.40 €
True Metallic Metal AIRBRUSH - Amber Green
3.40 €
With an ordinary silver or gold, only particle size matters. A coloured metallic adds a transparent colour filter on top, so the metal beneath shows through and the shade shifts with the angle of the light. On a model it reads as an anodised surface, heat-treated metal or tinted titanium.
The range therefore sees heavy use on fantasy armour, mechanical subjects, decorated weapons and parts meant to be noticed from across a room. Against the alternative of silver plus a transparent clear, the advantage is that the shade is already mixed and you are not counting glaze coats.
Metal pigment covers no flaw; it pulls flaws out. Before spraying, finish the surface and seal it with a glossy dark base from surfacers and primers. The smoother the base, the more the result reads as metal.
Lay several light passes and let the paint flash off between them. A heavy coat clumps the pigment and the surface greys out. Lower pressure with the gun closer gives a smoother finish than a strong flow from a distance — with metallics the difference between a good surface and an overspray one is a single pass.
A metallic film stays sensitive to handling and to masking tape. Fix it with a thin gloss or satin coat from varnishes; a matt coat would kill the metal effect.
To carry the same colour key into brush-painted detail, the follow-on category is Vallejo model paints.
