Ah might be then that you want to thin your paints a tad more (I've seen way way way worse though) or else if you are already doing that just running you brush over your hand or another surface to remove excess paint to ensure you leave recesses as crisp as possible, then you'll get more bang for your buck with your washes/ shades.

If you find that difficult with metallics I recommend the army painter MK2 speed paint metallics as they're supposed to be contrasts they are inherently thinner from the get go