What happened to the GW metal colors?

[Puppet Master]

Hi there

I have always been a fan of Valleyo colours however I found the old range of GW metal colours were far better than Vallejo ones: the particles were minuscule and for this reason the colour was smooth and very thin. Moreover it was covering any surface with one layer even if heavily diluted.
The new "Layer" range of colour changed everything: the colour is very thick, almost jelly and even with a naked eye you can see that the size of the particles is larger: few large particles floats in a matrix of transparent medium. This far decreases the covering power of the colour that now is even worse than the Vallejo brand.
I have bought 4 colours from the layer range (mithril silver, gold and 2 shades of bronze) and they are all the same, what I have to do now is covering the primer with a layer of my old boltgun metal and give SEVERAL layers of the new colour. This is time consuming and covers the model details as a thick layer of colour must be laid.
Once again GW managed to make things worse.
Is anybody else who can recommend an alternative (good) brand for metal colours?
Thank you

[MAXXxxx]

for silvers the VMA line is really good.
for gold and brass the Vallejo Liquid range is what I'd suggest.

also a comparison pic from massivevoodoo: http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.de/201...son-chart.html

[RuneBrush]

Firstly, welcome to the site!

Not meaning to be blunt but the Layer paints are designed to be a thinner consistency and not cover in a single layer. If you want to do that you should be picking one of GW's Base paints, which do this and will actually cover well over a white undercoat too. The Base paints are all darker colours so ideal for building up to a brighter one. It might be worth looking out some tutorials on painting True Metallic Metals (or TMM) as you shouldn't be applying enough paint to obscure detail (metallic or otherwise).

That said (and I really do rate the new GW metallics) the VMA silvers and golds really are nice paints to use (with a brush or airbrush), super fine flakes and you can achieve an almost polished finish.

[Routaporsas]

Oh man...So they really ruined those metallic colors I really liked boltgun metal and used also mithril silver. Could using codex grey undercoat work better with these than black or white? At least I have some unopened boltgun cans still in my resevoir.

[Trevor]

I've only used leadbelcher, which I think is the new boltgun metal and it seems to be slightly better, certainly no worse, than boltgun.
Another vote for VMA, although the golds seem to lack colour, so need washes to bring the yellowy gold colour back.

[Tommie Soule]

Get on the new Army Painter range. Made by the old GW manufacturers I believe. Either way all my team use em and they Rock!

[Einion]

Yet another vote for the VMAs. The yellows aren't great, but you can easily glaze to get a better result (or, if you have the right kind of paint to mix in you can colour them directly).

Einion

[Wyrmypops]

I'm liking the new "Base" metallics GW have. Then moving on to the Vallejo Master range for the fancier transitions on top.

Though I could see myself putting the Base range aside in favour of a non-metallic base coat, as getting the shadows right is as much about having less metallic flecks as it is having a darker colour.

[Routaporsas]

Hmmm...well perhaps I could give them a try, but I could also get few pots of those vallejo air metals, as I assume that VMA refers to their airbrush line.

[Wyrmypops]

Yep. VMC = Vallejo Model Colour. VMA is the Model Air. The Air paints are quite nifty. Both "Model" ranges are spiffing metallics with very fine flecks, but the Air one is a thinned paint which saves ourselves thinning down a metallic paint for the highlights - with a bonus that using the Air paints for that role means you won't be getting a thinner amount of metallics due to adding water.

[freakinacage]

aaaaaaaaaaaand another vote for vma...

[Bartali]

VMA again with a side order of the Vallejo Liquid Gold range

[Routaporsas]

BTW: what would be equivalent VMA color to Boltgun Metal? I would quess that paint labeled as "Gun", could be similar.

[RuneBrush]

BTW: what would be equivalent VMA color to Boltgun Metal? I would quess that paint labeled as "Gun", could be similar.

Can't help you on what colour, but if memory serves Gun is darker than Boltgun Metal.

[Bloodhowl]

BTW: what would be equivalent VMA color to Boltgun Metal? I would quess that paint labeled as "Gun", could be similar.

Can't help you on what colour, but if memory serves Gun is darker than Boltgun Metal.

Didin't one of the GW how to paint books explain that their "base silver color" was Mithril Silver and that Boltgun Metal and Chainmail were just Mithril Silver mixed with Chaos black in varying ratios? Can you mix VMA with a VMC or VGC black and not dork up the consistency of the paint?

[Einion]

Didin't one of the GW how to paint books explain that their "base silver color" was Mithril Silver and that Boltgun Metal and Chainmail were just Mithril Silver mixed with Chaos black in varying ratios? Can you mix VMA with a VMC or VGC black and not dork up the consistency of the paint?

That would be very likely - practically any darker steel/iron/gunmetal colour on the market will just be the base 'metallic' pigment with added black.

This is why except for lacquers (Alclad) I stopped buying any metallics but the brightest silver years ago, since anything darker can be made on the palette in no time at all.

Einion

[Phoulmouth]

I have bought 4 colours from the layer range (mithril silver, gold and 2 shades of bronze) and they are all the same, what I have to do now is covering the primer with a layer of my old boltgun metal and give SEVERAL layers of the new colour. This is time consuming and covers the model details as a thick layer of colour must be laid.
Once again GW managed to make things worse.

I use the new GW metals and I love them. You need to understand, the LAYER range is so you can LAYER them better. It is not supposed to coat in a single application. Second, if you are trying to get the desired color you want then you really should only need 2 coats at the most. You should be applying underlayers to the metal areas. What I mean is that if you are going for a gold you want to put a coat of a dark to bright yellow, copper goes good over dark orange and mid browns, boltgun goes good over a dark or light grey, silver goes good over a light grey or even a white.

In my opinion you are using the paints incorrectly.

Oh, and if you are obscuring detail then your coats aren't as thin as they should be. I can apply around 8ish thin coats and not see a noticeable difference in detail at all.