Colours for NMM
Intermediate | Rating: 9.19 Votes: 21
Views: 25334 | By: Aegidius  |
| Category: Painting Subcategory: Techniques | Date: 2005-12-18 12:23:09 |
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When I was trying to use NMM on my minis I had serious problems with choosing colours. I tried to mix grey, black, white and I wasn't satisfied because swords didn't look like metal, they looked like stone...
I have found a simple solution. "Get a real sword and use colours that you see!" The problem is we can't see single colours(grey, black) well on that kind of items, only one metallic entirety. Recently I found another solution - use computer programme.
First you got to find some sword's photo on the internet. In example:
Then you launch some graphics programme(GIMP, Corel draw, PhotoShop) and choose some areas on the sword. Then just make them bigger and blur them. You already have colours pallete for your mini's sword!
As you can see, colours number 5 and 6 are not only a mix of white and black, but also small amount of brown. That's an example of how this method is helpful. You may also experiment with blue(in example add it to the lighter parts) or completely use it instead of brown to give your metal polished, cleaner look. Naturally, looking on real item also makes it easier to decide where which tint should be painted.
And one more thing - the metal surface should be contrastful but not too much. It depends on it's reflectivness - a stone has smooth shades, metal tray has sharper shades(it almost reflects surroundings) and a mirror is so contrastful that we can see us on it's surface. So, on average metal the highest highlights should be white, but avoid painting darkest parts too dark.
I hope I helped. 
PS: I recently realised that the sword's photo isn't mine, I found it by Google and it's taken from some shop with weaponry. I don't remember it's name and I can't find it again. To the owner - thanks and don't be angry on me |
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azurmage
15 September 08 |  |
Rating: 10
Actually, this was really helpful! Cheers!
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Telstar0101
17 May 07 |  |
Rating: 10
As soon as I started reading and before I saw the pic (or mention of using the comp, I just realised thats where this was going  ) I thought, damn thats so simple, why didn't I think of that?!?!?! lol Great tip!
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Suladan
19 March 06 |  |
Rating: 9
One of the best NMM articles i have ever had the fortune to read.
great tip
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ZaPhOd
17 March 06 |  |
Rating: 8
I think it is a good idea, thoguh you still need white for your highest highlights. I was thinkign about you sayign there is brown in the lower colors, which is cool, so why not use wolf grey or add a little light blue for the highlights... gives it a much more dynamic look. I have done this on several models now, like my Mancubus, and it rocks out 
Good tips.
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aj69
16 March 06 |  |
Rating: 10
Best tip I've ever seen for NMM. Thanks.
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Miniaturelife
15 February 06 |  |
Rating: 9
Great Tip
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Tellos
01 February 06 |  |
Rating: 10
Brilliant
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Ratty
19 January 06 |  |
Rating: 9
James: Pereguin Took was not having a go at Aegidius but adding to his article, Which was great by the way, I just want Arjay to release an article on how he chromes so well
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bluetac
13 January 06 | |
Rating: 10
you know the first time i heard about NMM i thought it was going to be hard, but thanks for the pointers, ill have to try it out sometime thanks for the tips
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Peregrin Took
05 January 06 |  |
Rating: 7
@ james sequeira: Why does it seem to you that I'm having a go at Aegidius? :S I'm slightly confused now.
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JonQuixote
03 January 06 |  |
Rating: 9
Wonderfully simple, it makes me want to give it a go.
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james sequeira
31 December 05 |  |
Rating: 10
thanks for pointing this out ill have to give it ago
peregin took why have a go at some one for taking the time to produce an article for us all ???
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Peregrin Took
28 December 05 | |
Rating: 7
If you don't want your NMM to look like stone, why on earth would you want to add brown to your colours? Try adding some blue, it really makes it not look like stone. 
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Aegidius
24 December 05 | |
Kowwabunga, yeah, there is some noise on this photo too. I forget to say, that you should copy small area and use blur function on it. Then make them bigger.
As I said I don't want to change the article because it awaits 5-6 days for publication after that.
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Kowwabunga
23 December 05 |  |
Rating: 10
Gr-8 article This is really easy, yet so helpful thing
I love easy things so you have 10 from me
And one thing. you should be carefoul sometimes. This could be tricky, cos sometimes on closeups of pic you can see lots of different colors, none of them creating normal color... But I stil think it's great tip and could be very usefull for anyone who's painting NMM
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Kowwabunga
23 December 05 | |
Rating: 10
Gr-8 article This is really easy, yet so helpful thing
I love easy things so you have 10 from me
And one thing. you should be carefoul sometimes. This could be tricky, cos sometimes on closeups of pic you can see lots of different colors, none of them creating normal color... I had it, when I did closeup on my pic of sword. There was even bright red and yellow dots.. o_O Jus few pixels wchih shouldn't be there.. And it could ruin whole my paint table o_O
But I stil think it's great tip and could be very usefull for anyone who's painting NMM
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Gilvan Blight
23 December 05 |  |
Rating: 10
Wow this definately falls in the "Why didn't I think of that!" category. Awesome tip.
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Aegidius
23 December 05 | |
An example of my NMM is an example of how-not-to-paint-NMM, because I don't follow my own advices
"It still doesn't look great, but for tabletop quality minis it's acceptable."
should be changed to
"It looks like stone",
but I don't want to edit article again
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Trevor
19 December 05 |  |
Rating: 9
Excellent tip.
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Galante
19 December 05 |  |
Rating: 9
This is great, and I thought about this before.
Very simple, very straight to the point, very efective
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bayrodney
19 December 05 |  |
Rating: 9
Cheers, I will make sure i add a bit of brown next time
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