Tools of the Trade V: Vallejos Liquid Gold

Hey you guys,

in one of my recent orders I got some of the Liquid Gold colors by Vallejo and I wanted to share my impressions of them with you.

Liquid Gold :-)

First thing you need to know about these colors is, that they are alcohol-, not water-based. Because of that, there are some things to keep in mind when working with them.

First, you should get some brushes solely for the purpose of working with them. the colors are basically real metal pigments, stored in an alcohol solution. So you should be careful never to introduce water into this mix, as that could potentially ruin your paints - cause it will rust them. So get one or two brushes, one for detail, one for basecoating and you should be fine.

Second, you need something to clean your brushes with. And as water is out of the question, you'll need some alcohol. I got 1 liter of 96% proof (the higher the better) isopropanol alcohol from my local pharmacy. Just check online where to get a similar product.

Third, you'll need to shake each pot thoroughly (and I mean VERY). Just look at the bottom of the jar and when you see that all the pigment is floating freely you can start working with the paints. Even when you are painting, take your time and shake the pots every few minutes, so that the pigment doesn't set.

Because of the alcohol base, the colors dry really fast, but you still have to wait a few minutes between each coat, so that you don't rub off any of the previous paint.

Even on a casual glance, you can see how much more realistic and vibrant the Liquid Gold paints are compared to water based metallics.

After the first test, I wanted to try the colors out in the real word :-). Luckily, the shield of my Triumph Heavy Warjack was on my desk and made a great first object to try the metallics. I used a basecoat of Copper and lightened them up with Red Gold and Old Gold. As a last step, I used Rich Gold for some hard edge highlighting. As you can see, the colors really pop and add a sense of realism to the shield.

Basecoated with Copper

1st highlight Red Gold

2nd highlight Old Gold

The finished shield

All in all, I'm really pleased with this product and would wholeheartedly recommend them. They might be a bit of a hassle to work with but trust me, they are more than worth the effort!

As always, enjoy and have fun,


IK-Painter