What kind of paint shall I use on my iron man to replicate metal surface?
Several people had recommendations when I asked this earlier in this thread. I think you just need to look around at what's out there and wait until something "hits you".
A couple folks recommended spray paint for autos.
Well, I stumbled on some stuff that was kind of in that area:
I'm doing War Machine. So, I was hunting for something really dark gray, but not quite black. WalMart and my local Ace Hardware just had the standard battleship-gray and black. Now, I was tempted to get this black spray paint for plastic that had some sparkly flecks in it. I did buy a can of that and tried it on a broken piece from one of my parts.
But then I went to Harbor Freight to get some more sandpaper....and on one of their aisle "ends", they had this auto spray paint that's supposed to be specifically for painting your car's wheels. And they had a dark gray that was PERFECT! So, that's what I've bought and used. And it looks pretty good! (Sorry, I don't have any photos yet. I was supposed to have my costume ready by this past Saturday at 4 PM. And when I finally got my costume to a finished point at 6 PM, I discovered my thighs, shins, and codpiece were effectively "too long" when worn together. They started rubbing each other and damaging each other when I walked. So, I had to "abort" going to my event that day. But I'm working out the problems in time for several other events later this week!)
That paint I chose dries to touch in 15 minutes and totally dries within 30 minutes. I don't know about you, but fast drying is an important feature for me. I don't want to wait a day for the paint to dry.
I will also mention that when I did Robocop a few years ago, I bought a couple of $5 or less cans of "metal" spray paint in a silver color... ones made by Krylon, a few other brands, and even a generic one, I think. It was only three cans so I wasn't out much money. I took them home and sprayed them each onto a sample of the plastic (Walmart For-Sale signs) that I used to make my armor. And one of them looked absolutely PERFECT !! The plastic was the biggest contributor to making it all look like METAL, not so much the paint. The paint certainly HELPED, though.
So, get out there and check a few stores. If you have the money, but a few cans and try them on some scraps. If you don't have the extra cash for that, you'll have to rely on the lid colors on the cans, but I've found that those are usually very accurate.
Good luck!