CoolMiniOrNot - NMM Copper Tutorial

First off I found Some reference pics in google image seach -

With weathering-

And without-

The reason for two sets of reference will become clear later.

Once I had a vague Idea of how the effect would look when finished I wrote down the necessary
Paint colours from this website – http://homepage.mac.com/thminiatures...uleursnmm.html

I then picked some minis to use and figured out how the effect would work.
The minis I picked were the warmachine butcher of Khadov and a GW Mordheim beastman.

And now the reason for two sets of reference. Here’s a pic of a nice, bright new copper kettle -

Shiny huh? Now here is a pic of an older more used and weathered copper tap minus the verdigris.

Quite the difference.
The older the item the darker the basic shade is, even before the weathering/dirtying process is added.
This is the reason for two sets of pics. One set of clean items to use when painting the basic colours, and one set of weathered/dirty/verdigris covered pics for the weathering process.
Time to get started!

Colours used for the metal -

VMC Red Leather
VMC Medium flesh
VMC Chocolate Brown
VMC White

I made some slight changes to the recommended colours as I wanted to try and get a more accurate match to the darker, older copper pieces I had seen.

Colours used for the verdigris -

VMC Andrea Blue
VGC Dark Green

I decided against using the suggested colour for the Verdigris wash as I wanted a paler, more chalky look.

Onto the painting!

Preperation

After cleaning and assembly I would usually give the mini a base spray of matt black, followed by a thin wash of black paint to fill the gaps left by the spray, but as these are just example models then I just undercoated by hand the parts to be used -

Basecoat

Several thin coats of VMC Red Leather were applied to get a nice even base to work from -

Shading

Firstly I gave the area a very thin wash of VMC Chocolate Brown to highlight the details-

Then using pure VMC Chocolate Brown I carefully painted a thin line where all the darkest shadows were bordered by lighter areas -

Then I thickened these lines downwards, feathering the paint off towards the areas where there would be natural highlights -

Lastly I shaded all of the very darkest areas completely with the same -

Highlighting

Starting with a mix of 75% red leather-25% medium flesh I start doing the opposite of the dark horizon lines feathering off to the base colour-

Then I’ll do the same on all the areas that have a natural highlight-
and repeat with a mix of 75% medium flesh and 25% red leather-

And again working through pure medium flesh up to a 50-50 mix of medium flesh and white and onto 75% white 25% medium flesh-

And the final highlights of about 90% white and 10% medium flesh-

Stop here if you're after pristine new copper!!!

Wash

I like to give the area a few controlled washes of thinned chocolate brown to darken down the highlights-

Verdigris

I first give the darkest areas a thin wash consisting of 75% Dark green and 25% Andrea blue-

Then lastly I move on to the main areas with a heavier wash of 50-50 dark green/Andrea blue.

Some detailed pics of the finished articles -

And there you have it! I’ve only really been using this technique for a few weeks but it always seems to work out well.

Let me know if I've missed anything or if there's another tutorial you'd like me to do!

Baz