Help with glazing metallic paints

[Stargorger]

Hi all

Alright so, in preparation for trying on TMM on some new minis, I've been practicing on an old Rackham skeleton warrior. Attached are some pictures. First I based it with a dark silver, then I did some glazing (maybe 4 layers) in the darkest areas, then I did a few light coats of a medium silver, then I did a light glaze (5 coats) of dark grey between the silver levels, then a light coat of a bright silver.

And then I ran into a problem. When I went to do the next glaze (of light grey, to blend in the highlights), the dark gray glaze 'sloughed off'. I can't think of how else to describe it. I've had this happen once before when I was attempting to glaze a metallic paint. Basically, as I pulled the brush lightly over the area, the dark gray softened and kind of peeled off in the middle. Which left it with this weird 'patchy' spot in the middle, as you can see.

What the heck?! Why does it do this? And yes, I allowed it to dry. Maybe 2 minutes, with a hair dryer? Anybody know why this happens and/or how to avoid it?
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[JohnLobster]

Nice painting I'm nowhere near your level

What did you use to create the glaze ? Most glaze medium has retarder in it so needs longer to dry than normal. I would think 2 minutes not enough. I find that with just water the paint clumps. I like the Vallejo medium but it has to dry - I am usually working on several things in parallel so not an issue for me. It is possible that the bottom glaze layer did not fully dry, and the further ones sealed over it so that it did not fully dry at the bottom, causing the whole thing to peel off

John

 

[Pygmalion]

When paint peels off like that it could be the paint itself, or it could be the layers underneath it.

The most common problem when the uppermost layer delaminates is that the undersurface is no longer receptive to new layers of paint.

This sometimes happens if it gets a bit of grease on it.

Another possible culprit is the nature of metallic paints. Modern metallics are made from microscopic flakes, or platelets, of mica, which settle into a smooth flat layer as the acrylic medium surrounding them cures. That smooth layer can repel paint or make it less likely to adhere even after drying.

 

[Stargorger]

Thanks guys!

Yeah I'm not sure whether it was the metallic paint or the fact that I didn't wait long enough between layers. The second is likely true (I probably didn't wait long enough), but I'm nervous that even if I do, the metallic paints I'm using will be too
'slippery'. So I've succumbed to just doing NMM again lol.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Stargorger, I find that using a cheap and cheerful (£2.99) hairdryer to dry off glazes in between layers is by far the safest way to do multiple layers.
(also very handy for drying liquid paints, shifting crap off the painting table and repelling cats or dogs)