UM Ultra Metallic is a metal range built on exceptionally finely milled pigment. Dried on a model it does not leave a grainy metal texture but a smooth surface with even brightness, closer to polished metal than to metal paint. That is why these shades are used where the metal will be looked at from close up, on engines, gun barrels, decorative fittings and the machined parts of machinery.
Fine pigment comes with one condition, and without it the effect never appears: the ground has to be smooth and glossy. Over a sanded or matt surface the particles scatter and the metal turns grey. Spray onto a sealed gloss base, at low pressure, in two or three light passes, and do not go back into a pass that has started to set. Further metal surfaces, polishable types included, are in Gunze metallics, and the full set of metal ranges can be compared in metallic model paints.
