I'm not a painter. However, would like to do some basic paint jobs on my figures. Looking to make each faction a different color, but nothing more sophisticated than that. Thought it might be interesting to make each look metallic. Any advice is welcomed. Thanks.

If you're looking for a monochromatic, shiny, faction specific theme, I see no reason why you couldn't pick up some spray paint and go to town.

If you have concerns about the quality of the end result using something you get from Home Depot, you could always get an airbrush kit, thin, then use some of the metallic colors from Citadel, Vallejo, etc.

EDIT - actually, just do this .

4 steps to a good metallic paint Job:

prime black (spray primer / touch up with black paint / citadel colors are good)

paint the whole mini in metal paint (vallejo game color is perfect)

ink the whole mini (citadel nuln oil for silvers / reikland flesh for golds)

touch up (highlights with the original metallic paint / redo inks in shaded areas / golds with earthshade)

let dry between steps!

Honestly, I would just prime them - Grey for Silver, Brown for gold, then just spraypaint them with a metallic spraycan afterwards. Black wash for Silver, Quickshade or brown wash for gold. If you're going for a copper colour, you might even go as far as to apply a mixed wash of green/turqoise to get a weathered effect. But seriously, the old GW Tankbrush, washes and spraycans are your best friends here.

If you're doing a copper or bronze, Citadel's Nihilakh Oxide technical paint gives an almost-instant patina. I've gotten great results over Krylon copper spraypaint.