don't think I'm doing the NMM right with it. I'm not sure if it's the angle that I'm using for the light source, or if it's the color choices that I have picked. Any suggestions would be appreciated..
Ok please bare in mind that this is only a VERY ROUGH guide (5 min photoshop).
This is a
suggestion on how the shading of NMM would work on this axe if light is falling top right to bottom left.
By no means is it the "be all and end all" of how the axe should look.
Personally I'd be toning the shadow's areas with highly diluted browns to simulate earthy reflections. (*)
Use the curves of the axe blade as a template for the transitiosn of colour.
The NMM pallette I use is based on the one used by Theirry Husser who used to do a lot of the Rackham painting and uses Vallejo Model Colour Intermediate Blue as the starting point for Steel edged weapons. This is a slightly Blue'r colour midway between the old SpaceWolves grey and Shadow Grey.
Hope this helps.
(*Although someone has used the term "Juicing" its a clumsy way of describing the level of dilution needed. Probably coming from online translations, the closest term I can suggest is TINTING. Using many covering strokes of extreme diluted paint.)
