Review: Green Stuff World Metal Colors

Green Stuff World produces a lot of interesting specialist paints, including fluorescent and “chameleon” colour-shifting paints. Now they expanded their paint range with a set of acrylic metallic paints, including coloured metallics like red, violet, green and blue. Non-toxic and suitable for both paint- and airbrush, they promise super-fine pigments, ultrahigh coverage power and fast drying times. In this review, we take a look at all 14 Metal Colors and see how they’ll stand up to the competition.

Green Stuff World’s Metal Colors come in 17 ml dropper bottles with an agitator ball inside. The ball helps to blend pigments and acrylic resin when shaking, so it’s easy to keep these paints in optimum consistency. The colours are non-toxic and acrylic based like most miniature paint lines (unlike solvent based metallics such as Vallejo Metal Colors).

Metal Colors are available at Green Stuff World’s website, priced at 2.85 € each (0.167 €/ml), about half the price of Games Workshop’s metallics, which are either 3.60 € or 4.80 € for 12 ml (0.30 €/ml or 0.40 €/ml respectively).

Having used these paints for a couple of days now, I have to say, they are very high quality. The metallic pigments are very fine, they apply super smooth, and most of them cover in two thin coats, even the gold paints. I’d compare them to the “second-generation” of Games Workshop metallic paints such as Retributor Armour, Stormhost Silver, Fulgurite Copper and the like.

They dry rather fast and some of them can be a bit thick, so I recommend adding a little bit of water or even better, some acrylic medium like GW Lahmian Medium or The Army Painter Warpaints Quickshade Mixing Medium. That’s especially true if you want to airbrush these paints.

The range comprises 14 colours, among them 5 silvers, 3 golds, 3 copper and bronze paints, and 7 coloured metallics.

Silvers

Anthrax Metal: An almost exact match to GW Leadbelcher, it’s a dark silver with a warm tint. However, in comparison, the pigments are slightly finer, it goes on smoother and it covers in one or two thin coats.

Tinmetal Grey: A light silver paint with a hint of champagne. Great for painting tin or platinum, or for a final highlight for gold or brass. You could also use it for highlighting Anthrax Metal or GW Leadbelcher to emphasise that warm, oily tint.

Gunmetal Grey: A neutral dark silver but without the warm tint that Anthrax Metal or GW Leadbelcher has.

Quicksilver: A neutral light silver, an almost exact match for GW Stormhost Silver/Runefang Silver. It covers as well as GW Stormhost Silver, too.

Mystic White: A very light, almost white silver, even lighter than Quicksilver (or GW Stormhost/Runefang Silver). Great for a final highlight when you want that super polished silver look. Opacity is not as good as the other silvers from Green Stuff World, so you’d probably need up to five or six thin coats for a good coverage.

Golds

El Dorado: A medium, yellowish gold. It’s similar to GW Liberator Gold or Auric Armor Gold, but a nuance more yellowish. Takes only two or three thin coats to cover.

Shiny Gold: A light white gold. Suitable for highlighting for all sorts of golds, like GW Liberator Gold, Auric Armor Gold, El Dorado or Antique Gold. Covers nicely in about two thin coats.

Antique Gold: A muted gold with a hint of green, unlike any gold in the Citadel range. Covers nicely in about two thin coats. Also a nice colour for brass.

Copper and Bronze

Gladius Bronze: A rather light bronze paint. Great for washing down with a brown wash or for highlighting GW Brass Scorpion. Covers nicely in about two thin coats.

Steampunk Copper: A light reddish copper paint. Can be darkened with a wash of GW Reikland Fleshshade. Covers nicely in about two thin coats.

Dark Elder Bronze: A dark brown metallic paint. Comparable to GW Warplock Bronze, but it’s less reddish and glossy and the pigment is finer. Covers very nicely in one or two thin coats.

Coloured Metallics

Caesar Red, Orchid Purple, Persian Violet, Neptunus Blue, Sharkfin Blue, Aqua Turquoise, Sirenscale Green: An interesting range of metallic colours. Take a look at the picture to see what they look like in real life. Caesar Red and Nuptunus Blue have the best opacity, needing only one or two thin coats for perfect coverage. Persian Violet and Sirenscale Green need two or three thin coats, while the rest needs four to five thin coats.

Conclusion

Green Stuff World’s Metal Colors are excellent. Fine pigments, great coverage, and excellent value (about half the price of Games Workshop’s metallic paints per ml). All the bases are covered, plus there are a lot of unique colours to expand your paint collection with.

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Product samples kindly provided by Green Stuff World. Opinions are our own.