Painting Metallics

True Metallics
or 'Metallic metallics using metallic paints'

This is my tutorial on how to paint plate armour using metallic paints. Anti-NMM if you like... *grins*



1.

OK,
stage one. Nice and easy - Add water to GW's Chainmail paint and block
in all of the metallic areas. Do not worry about blacklining or drybrushing
with this technique as the depth is created by the use of layered
ink washes.







2.

Mix
up Black and Brown ink in approximately 70:30, black:brown ratio,
and dilute to taste (aka add water). Wash this all over the metallic
areas blocked out in stage one. You need to load the brush quite heavily
with this ink mix to allow it to flow over the armour. However, do
not allow the ink to pool as you will get 'tide marks' where the ink
dries.







3.

Layer
more and more of this ink wash over the armour plates, building up
darker areas where they overlap or where you would expect shadows
to fall. Again, it is important to keep these layers thin to prevent
pooling. Finally, wash black ink between plates for greater definition.








4.

Edge
the plates with chainmail to increase the contrast between the shadows
and highlights. This makes the armour shine. Depending on 'who' is
wearing the armour, this is where you can really define the quality
of the metal. This example is an Orc from Reaper's Warlord line and
so I have kept it quite dark and rather dirty.







5.

To
bring the colours together, I would wash over a very thin coat of
the brown/black inkwash over all the armour again. This is also the
stage where I would add particular 'weathering' streaks of neat black
and brown ink to create the look or worn and badly kept armour. I
then very finely edged the armour one final time with chainmail.



There we go, metallic steel done properly, without any grey paint in sight! *winks*