When I'm painting something that's going to be metallic, I usually use a matching color to underpaint it first.

For example, I'm currently painting a row of bullets on the ARAH Tunnel Rat chest. I paint the bullets pure yellow first, then I paint metallic gold on top of that.

As an afterthought, it might have been interesting to paint the bullets apple green instead of yellow before applying metallic gold.

Does anyone have an experience with anything like this?

I've only ever used Citadel Burnished Gold. Burnished Gold was meant to be a highlight for Shining Gold and I didn't know this when I bought the paint. Gold (and silver paint, for that matter) has a tendency to take on the base coat it's painted over. This property holds true even for car paint.

Just by experience I've found out that painting gold over yellow gives a very bright shiny metallic yellow. Gold over black gives a dull gold like the gold paint used in classic 80's Joes. Painting gold over white gives the closest to it's native state (the color when the liquid's sitting in the bottle) like the gold paint used on newer toys.

- JM

I have never tried painting a matching color under metallic paints.

I usually paint it black first, then give it a slight drybrushing of metallic paint to accentuate the details and contrast between the metallic accents and the shades, and also give it a somewhat dull look.

Do you have any pictures of parts painted your way? (what I just wrote might sound horribly wrong)

I remember reading once to get a good gold color, paint silver first, then apply a transparent yellow paint over it. Never tried this though

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Chryslophylax, I'm curious to try the black-under-gold technique. Sounds cool.

Remster_9, here's an image of a custom figure, "Open Bolt", using yellow-under-gold...

I paint silver first and then paint whatever metallic color over it. I don't do the transparent colors unless that is the look I'm going for. I do this because silver covers very well, whether brushed or sprayed. So, when I go over it with the metallic color it only takes one coat to give it a nice shiny look that is able to withstand play wear better.

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Ah, the Boris Vallejo technique, works well for details as well as mixing colors.

Never needed to try it for metallics, but I did use it for the freaky skin details, like Lisa Trevor's mottled skin. I wanted to show the cellular and venal damage coming through her normal skin.

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I've done this with mixed results. It produces a very yellow looking gold. It'd be great if you were making a custom Iron Man, for instance. For gold, I still with actual gold paint, but I have found that the transparent-over-silver works great for making metallic reds, greens, etc.

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The only thing I can add is I have used a flat white undercoat with metalics and it does seem to be a much brighter and shinier end result. Also it seems that the paint lasts longer as well.