Developed originally for the wargaming and fantasy modelling market, we believe that these water-based metallic acrylics are a great addition to your armoury of paints for any modelling genre.
Darkstar Molten Metals are permanent when dry and there is no need for gloss varnishing as our metals stay bright and glossy and will not tarnish over time. Once fully dry (approx. 24 hours) they can be carefully polished to further improve the shine.
We do recommend that a primer or acrylic base coat is used prior to our paints.
You will find that they can also be used through an airbrush with just a 10% reduction with Darkstar Molten Metals Thinner or water mix for a great airbrush finish and will still remain glossy. Our paint should only be mixed with water (tap water can be used); they are not to be mixed with any alcohol based products.
Darkstar Molten Metals are fully intermixable and can also be mixed with other acrylic paints to create your very own metallic colours.
Each pot contains 17ml of paint.
We often get questions on how to use our metallics and if they can be airbrushed.
So we have put together a simple Question & Answer page to hopefully answer some of your questions.
We hope to expand and improve this page soon to include videos.
- Can your paints be used with an airbrush?– Yes.
- What do I need to do when airbrushing with them? – Mix the paint down to about 3 drops thinner to 1 drop of paint. Make sure that you shake the paint well before using it. We recommend that you use a 0.25mm needle or above, preferably a 0.3mm
- Do I need to use your thinner? – No tap water can be used if you are brush painting, however if you are airbrushing we recommend using our thinner as it has a retarder in it. Do not use any alcohol base thinners as it will destroy the paints consistency and it will clog your airbrush.
- What is different about the triads? – Our triads have been put together so that it makes it easy to produce great metal finishes. Each set has a base, shadow and highlight colour. These can be easily blended together to give a fantastic metal effect.
- Can I mix the metallics with other acrylic paints? – Yes, add some acrylic colours to any of the base colours described in the triad sets and this will give you an endless array for metal finishes.
- Is it true the paint can be polished? – Yes. Allow the paint to thoroughly dry, usually 24 hours, and then the paint can be buffed with a soft cloth to a shine.
- Your paints are too shiny to use, what can I do about this? – We have had complaints about our paints being too good, if you don’t like the shine, simply wash over with an ink wash to get the effect you want.
- Can you show me how to use them? – We don’t have any videos ourselves yet showing how to use our paints, but there are some really great videos and reviews to watch on and Twitter. Try this link to several videos by – Look for the videos on weathered metals to get some excellent ideas and tips
