NMM formulas (subtitled Why cant I... !!)

[Lurch]

Having recently purchased teh Alahan Swashbucklers from the Confrontation line, I thought I would try my hand at some good NMM in the gold areas to resemble the pic on the accompanying card, or like the pic at New Wave seen below:

I have tried repeatedly to get a gold look to this mini and cannot seem to complete the task.
I\'ve read Chrispys article, and Honzas Sky-Earth article, etc, but I cant seem to duplicate the look at all.
My most recent foible was to start with a base of Pro Paint Desert Yellow. I then did a GW chestnut Ink over the top. I then watered down the Desert Yellow to 3 parts paint and 1 part water.
Teh mini looked like he\'d been crawilng around in a cesspool and got crapped and pissed on.
So how do you get you gold NMM to look good? What paints do you use and how do you use them?
AARGH!!

 

[Errex]

Elemmental, my young padawan...

Ok, I\'m no master, but I can tell you this:

You can\'t just use browns, and yellows, and inks for a gold NMM.

You are going to need bleached bone and/or white too.

I usually paint an area with golden yellow, and then I shade with a layer of vomit brown. Then, I mix equal parts of bleached bone and golden yellow and highlight the brighter parts. Then, I gently dip the tip of a detail brush in chestnut ink and add deeper reflections where needed. On to highlighting again, I apply another layer of bleached bone, and finish with small points of white.

When working with yellows, you will often need to mix them with a more opaque media, (skull white or bleached bone, in this case), to give it a stronger look, and in NMM, you\'ll want to get as much a contrast between the dark/earth and light/sky reflections as you can afford.

 

[Chrispy]

Okay, the pic to me on these Confrontation things look like they\'re not using too much of a dark color.. maybe a light orangy brown (or just a yellow orange with a bit of grey or blue-grey added for contrast will do in a pinch ) Errex is also right- I never use inks. A dark color to blackline, yes, but never inks.. The only time that looked good was on the
Elf Mage. And then, I only used it to darken recesses, but not over the whole thing. I started out with a yellowbrown, darkened with a dark brown and blended the two together with chestnut ink.

Another problem may be your highlights, as I stated in the article, white is a must. Even if it\'s only a small spot, you need to blend to white. On gold I do this with a bright yellow, then a off white (equivlent to GW Bleached Bone), then finally white. Also remember to keep the contrat of the filligre from the rest of the mini with blacklining or somesuch method.

And don\'t forget reflected light!

 

[Badaab]

While that sounds good and all...
Not all metallic surfaces reflect a \'pure white.\" Only the type that you want that \'polished and refined look\' should be highlighted that far (IE jewelry, chrome, polished brass, etc.).

Keep in mind I\'m still really a novice at NMM, but I understand the concept, and can do it with paint on traditional surfaces (canvas, watercolor paper) and also with drawing materials, it just hasn\'t made the transistion into my miniature painting. I\'ve found that, until I have more practice, its just not practical (I have a Reaper knight that uses Sky-Earth NMM that\'s about 40 percent done, and he has over 20 hours of work in him). So basically what I\'m getting at here is practice, practice, practice, until you feel comfortable with it. I\'ve tried other people\'s methods of NMM, and they don\'t work for me. So maybe you just need to experiment more and find a method that works for you.

Joe

 

[slappingpaint]

http://www.slappingpaint.net/nmm-gold-redlioness.html

this is a rough gold NMM page I wrote up for my site. perhaps it can help you out. I tried to take step by step pictures (not the best) but something workable.

 

[Lurch]

Nice write-up Slapping paint.
You should really do another one similar to this one and put out an article here.
(I\'ve already added your site to my favorites list)

That tip is EXACTLY what I was looking for.

 

[PBertous]

Thanks, now I know what I was doing wrong and can fix it....hopefully