Painting metal

Metal
Before I go into how I paint
metal, there I few things that I would like to let you know.
You should really
have two separate brushes for painting metals. One for detail and base
colours, like a 3/0 and one for drybrushing. These paints have metal flecks
running through them, and can get into your normal colours if you use your
normal paint brushes between pots.
Always rinse
your metal brushes in separate water from that of which you clean your
normal ones, so that you keep the metal flecks out of your other brushes
and paints.
Make sure
that each metallic colour is dry before applying the next highlight. They
take longer.
So, how
do I paint metal? Well I use this method for large areas only, as I have
another method for smaller ones. You will be able to see this on the 'Kwik
Tips' page soon. Firstly, if I am painting large metal areas I prefer to
start with a Chaos Black undercoat. Metallic paints can have problems with
getting smooth and solid tone if applied over a white undercoat. Using
this large axe below, I will show you the steps I use.






Chaos Black

The base coat
that I apply to the undercoat is called Boltgun Metal. It is a very dark
metallic, and you may find it difficult to see it in the following picture.
Just look for the shine and you know it's there. This coat I make sure
is uniform and as solid as possible, as this is going to supply the axe
with dark tones in the nooks and crannies.






Boltgun Metal

Once the Boltgun
metal is completely dry, I then use the drybrushing
technique to apply all the highlights. The first highlight is done with
Chainmail Silver, and is applied thoroughly to the axe head, but leaving
the Boltgun metal in the corners of it.






Chainmail Silver

Again, once the
Chainmail Silver is completely dry, I then apply one more drybrush with
Mythril Silver, and apply them to the outer edges of the axe. Such places
are the blade, the hook tip and the clamp that holds it to the shaft. You
can tell the difference with them next to each other.

















Chainmail
Silver





Mythril
Silver



The last and final
step would be to put some Armour Wash around the two studs that are holding
the axe head to the shaft. This makes them more defined and helps them
to look as separate pieces of the axe.






Armour Wash

So that's it.
Pretty simple if you follow the steps. This technique is great if you use
it on the Bulkheads that come with a lot of GW's terrain, such as Necromunda
scenery, the Bastion, the Firebase and the Gorkamorka Fort to name just
a few.