To NMM or not to NMM..... need opinion

[tabithatan]

I am having a little difficulty here......

see currently I am painting that shadowblade character from GW.....the thing is I found that the metalic blades on characters look infinitely better in NMM than in jus brushed over silver / chainmail / other metalics....
so i did the blade of the character in NMM.... after a few tries, it actually looks pretty much like a decent magic blade.....

here\'s the biggie problem....
er.... there\'s lots of other little metal bits on the fig... hanging chains... small blades, little things that assassins like to dangle about themselbes... and almost all in some kinda metal...

now I think I could do swords and stuff in decent NMM.... but not the rest of the stuff.... so I am thinkin of a NMM and metalics mix.... on the same fig... but I just cant get me brain around the idea and I wanna jus throw the fig into thinner......

so what should I do?
go for all metalics, all NMM or a mix?

PLS PLS PLS give comments... thanks....

 

[Corvus]

It depends I think... of course a big blade is an eye catcher because it has a large surface. If this can be done in NMM, it would be great.

But on the other hand you have the small details: pieces of armour, golden jewellry, etc. This also looks great in NMM, especially golden parts with earth/sky effects.

If you want to go for the maximum score, and you want to spend more time on your mini, I\'d say: go for full NMM. But if you want to try out NMM and not spend too much time on the other details, then I\'d say a mix is appropriate here. Like I said, the blade is the biggest part of the mini, sort of an eye-catcher.

So I think it\'s up to you .

 

[Trevor]

what Corvus said. I would do both.

 

[Beelzebrush]

Coincidentally, I have just finished the Shadowblade figure myself. I also debated whether or not to paint it in NMM or metallics. In the end I went for NMM. There aren\'t actually that many small pieces to tackle. Personally, I\'m not too keen on a mix of the two. I think you either have to go one way or the other for the approach to work and to keep the illusion consistent.

Anyway, here\'s my finished attempt:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/index.php?id=22314&c=All&m=All&nm=none

Whichever way you decide, good luck!

 

[tabithatan]

after thinkin about it and readin the comments here I think I might do a mix......

I arent that great when it comes to painting small stuff and
er..... yeah.... I do think that some of the pieces on the shadowblade fig are kinda small.....

also, this fig is gonna be displayed with some other figs in a diorama and I dont think I could do NMM for the others so jus to keep the look consistant.... I\'ll use NMM sparingly.....

btw thats one really really nice fig Beelzebush..... really..... very inspirin.... say did you do his opponent too? that El guy I mean

 

[Errex]

Mmmm...

I\'d say use NMM or metallics, but not both of them. The reason is:

If you leave the blade NMM and use metallics on the other bits, people will automatically think that that the blade is made of stone, or ceramic, instead of steel. Weird how sometimes the mind works. This is a model i did mixing both styles:

Now, if you are going to do a diorama, I think you\'d be better off using metallics. I just finished a drider diorama in wich I used NMM on one mini, and then had to go NMM on the rest, including some discarded items, just for the sake of consistency.

I have found that most viewers favor a consistent look all over a model.

 

[Beelzebrush]

Thanks tabithatan. I do have the blind elf fellow but I haven\'t painted him yet. I started another Confrontation mini instead