Hello all !
Until recently, I have used Revel acrylic paints almost exclusively; they are quite thick, so you only need to stir them once per session. Also, being water based, you do not need an extraction hood. They are good for brush painting, but need diluting a lot for spraying, and then need several coats.
I will be being more fussy with my metal finishes in future, so decided to compare a range of metallic paints. I bought a dozen different ones, mostly from the Mr Hobby range.
I prepared some lengths of plastic to spray. I cut them from a packet that I received some garden plants in through the post!
Each had a flat bit, a curved bit and an edge - that way I could see how each paint covered different surfaces. I undercoated each piece of plastic with Mr Surfacer 1000 and left them to dry overnight. I then sprayed most of each piece of plastic with a different paint, and sellotaped each one to a flat surface, so I could compare them once they were dry.
I was surprised that the Tamiya and Mr Paints only needed two coats for good coverage, and dried quickly. Most of them did not need thinning, but they did need vigorous and regular stirring. All the paints I tested gave a cast finish ( i.e. not a mirror finish ). I have Alclad if I need a mirror job.
Here are my observations:-
ALUMINIUM
The Revel is slightly rough and therefore slightly duller, which might be what you want. As I said before, this paint is good for brush application.
Mr Hobby silver is lighter and brighter, and could pass as aluminium.
Mr Metal aluminium is half way between the two.

Sorry folks, this got sent before I was ready. I got halfway through the remainder and it vanished into thin air.
Clive

Hi Clive

It looks set to be a really interesting comparison. It'd probably be best posted in General Aircraft where it'll be of help to the widest range of our readers.

All the best

Rowan

I always write long posts in Word and then just copy and paste. It has saved me a lot of grief and work several times.

Here is the second half of my try-out of metallic paints.
Iron and steel
Tamiya X-10 Gun Metal does exactly what it says on the tin – a cast steel sort of colour – but not dark enough for Vickers or Spandau guns. Ideal for some modern hand guns, perhaps. It only required two coats and can be buffed a bit.
Mr Hobby Steel is darker and shinier than Tamiya X-10.
Mr Hobby burnt Iron doesn’t look burnt to me; not if you buff it, anyway. Very close to X-10, but slightly coarser.
Mr Hobby Metal Black is darker, and the shiniest of the lot.
Mr Metal Dark Iron is the one I would use for “burnt”, especially without buffing. This would be good for cast iron articles.
Mr Metal Iron is medium in both darkness and buffability.

Other Metals
Tamiya X-12 Gold Leaf is pale and does not buff well.
Mr Metal Brass is a glarey gold colour ( brassy, in fact! ). It buffs fairly well, but not to a mirror.
Mr Metal Copper is realistic and would do well on copper kettles or the cylinders of a Beardmore engine.
Mr Metal bronze is GREEN, and is presumeably meant to reproduce oxidised bronze.

All the paints tested covered edges well.
The Revel Aluminium is good with a small paintbrush, but needs five coats when sprayed.
The Tamiya Gold Leaf would need three or four coats when sprayed, if you wanted to buff it.
All the others coat well with two or three coats.
None would buff to a mirror finish – Alclad would be better for that.

Hope this is useful, and I hope to do photos soon.
Clive

I must apologise - I couldn't get my camera to focus. I eventually got some O.K. shots of my test pieces, wrote it up - and the site auto controller said I couldn't load pictures, even though there was a button for it.
?
Clive

what button do you mean?
there is are image tags so you can hot-link in images stored elsewhere, but there is no "attach image to post" function here.