WIP Metallic Marine: Help Needed....

[Andaah]

Hello all! Been ages since I\'ve posted here but the time has come again. I have a few questions but before I start here\'s the WIP:

Now, it is NOT brilliant and photography really shows up the bad stuff. However, I won\'t get into a shame-spiral. I want to paint a whole army to a decent standard in a decent timeframe. I have always found that I can knock out metallics quite quickly.

However, this is not the quality I\'m after. So...

1 - How can I improve the depth and texture of the metals? I have put on 3 general wonder-washes of black ink.

2 - How can I add some nice weathering to the model?

3 - What colours can I add to jazz the metal up? I am talking shoulder pad colours and other contrasting colours as I don\'t particularly like that blue!

Any help would be awesome. Cheers in advance....

 

[darkartminiatures]

Looks fine to me. for extra contrast you could paint the joints in the arms and back of the legs black. Grey knights also have a nice contrast with red,white and black shoulder pads. and for weathering, beastial brown always looks good. Hope this helps.

 

[vincegamer]

I think a deep, almost brownish red would look better than that blue.

 

[Sand Rat]

I\'d go with a dark blue wash over the metallic sections - will give them a bit more depth

 

[lono]

I don\'t know if it is the sort of look you are after exactly, but for really quick but still decent looking metals I worked out a pretty good method on my Necron army.

- White undercoat
- Brown basecoat (I airbrushed on Snakebite Leather (EDIT- Actually I think it was Bestial Brown. Either work, I\'ve done \'em both, they just give different effects) for speed but painting on is fine)
- Drybrush of Boltgun Metal (basically the heavier your drybrushing the less ancient and dirty it will look because more brown will show. See how the gun on the base has been lightly brushed and looks very weathered, but the carapace is much heavier done and looks fresher.)
- Drybrush of Mithril Silver (just powder the high points with this)
- Several extremely thin washes of blue tones. I used some Hawk Turqoise and a Vallejo colour I can\'t for the life of me remember right now. A fairly dark blue/black. Apply these washes sparingly.

Here is a picture of my Lord. He\'s far from the best mini I ever painted, but boy was he quick! In all I could do 20 Necrons and 3 or 4 Scarab swarms in the time it took to watch a few episodes of Buffy (not exactly a normal way of expressing timeframe I admit, but I was rewatching them at the time!)

As for complimentary colours, just do some experimentation and see what works best on a few test models. There is nothing really wrong with the current blue, but as you don\'t like it use this model and just try stuff out!

 

[Andaah]

Ooh nice. But I\'m trying to stay away from drybrushing for now.

I would like to emulate these:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/129779
http://www.coolminiornot.com/105934

And in particular...
http://www.coolminiornot.com/122443

I feel that my metals are to dark. Can someone suggest a GW paint closer the the shade of the last one?

 

[matty1001]

Not sure if your metallics are to dark, as they seem to be pretty bright in that top marine pic. Its more a case of getting contrast. Try mixing purples with a touch of brown and back for shading, and just glaze them on where the shadows are, getiing darker in the deepest shadows (add more black)

You could PM the artist of that last one about the colours he used. I reckon he has used browns (Bestial?) and a touch of green for shadings (but im honestly not sure)

 

[darkartminiatures]

Looks like theres some dark flesh added to some of those. Nano\'s piece rocks!