Mixing NMM and metallic

[Beelzebrush]

What\'s the consensus of opinion of painting a mini using the NMM technique but also using metallics on the same figure? I would have thought that, if you make the decision to go NMM, then all metal details should be done this way. I\'ve seen a few pics whilst browsing the site that utilise the two but I\'m not sure that it\'s a good mix.. So what do you guys think?

 

[Infidel Castro]

This is my take on it...

You can use them together if the metals are on such things as swords or mail and all that, and then using NMM on little things like pommels or rings and other bits. Metals on very small areas, unless done expertly, look terrible. On large areas they look very good...

On the other side, if you use NMM on large areas, go the whole hog. Make sense?

Aye.

Phil

 

[Flashman14]

I don\'t have a philosophical problem with using both on the same model. but you\'re right - there is an impetus to do all or nothing isn\'t there . . .?

What matters is the outcome - if the use of one or the other calls undue attention to itself (like a botched nmm attempt) then that could be a problem but if both affects are done well and harmonize with the rest of the mini I \'d find it hard to condemn someone for it.

To coin a phrase: \"If the means do justice to the end then it\'s fine by me.\" ha! Bartlett\'s anyone?

 

[halon]

One of the problems I\'ve seen is metals have gotten something of a bad rap. They are inherantly grainy because they are suspended particles in a media. You can end up with a grainy surface if you\'re not careful. More than any other reason that\'s why NMM started being used. When you take a picture of a piece and blow it up 3x the grains in the metallics start becoming more obvious. In addition the metals out of the bottle also tend to be more shiny than they are in real life. There are ways to fix this, not the least of which is puting your metallics over the top NMM. It\'s also quite possible to mix black, grey. and white into your silver to shade the steel. Or yellow, raw sienna, and ivory into brass to make a very realistic looking bronze, brass or gold.

 

[sippog]

alternatives . . .

You\'re right about the coarse grain of most acrylic metallics.

There are a couple of alternatives to it tho - printer\'s ink uses a much finer ground and produces a much smoother finish. (Metallic acrylic inks in general are smoother - like Pearlescent). I have some stuff by Rose where you mix powder with a medium for dense rich metal finishes and I\'ve even heard of people using casting powders in a medium, like the bronze powder Tiranti sell, but you have to be careful with that stuff - it\'s very toxic to inhale.
Then there are rub on waxes like Rub n Buff (?) - great range of metallics! (I\'ve also got a set of little wax metallics in colours like blue, red, green etc that someone put out a long time for doing dragon scales which is useful sometimes.)

 

[vincegamer]

Personally I think it looks bad having some metal items NMM and some metalic paints. NMM creates the image of a static light source relative to the mini, but metalics reflect the actual light source so I think mixing screws that up. I\'ve seen some effective uses though, but the NMM is done to simulate plastic or crystal instead of metal.

That said, someone out there is bound to do a stunning job mixing, and I will expect to eat my words some day, but I haven\'t seen it yet. My vote is for keeping the figure consistent.