While I was painting my Lock and Load entry, Molik Karn, I decided that I'd do a stage by stage tutorial on how I do the darker gold non metallic metal shown on all my Skorne figures. A few people on the Privateer Press forums ask me about it regularly when I update my Skorne thread, so here it is.
I start by base coating the entire area that will be gold with Citadel Dark Flesh. This is an OOP paint, but an equivalent based on a quick google search is the currently produced Doombull Brown. Sometimes this requires a couple coats, in fact almost always it requires a couple coats!
The next stage is simply applying a layer to the gold area with P3's Bloodstone. Dark Flesh and Bloodstone have small enough of a difference between them that no blending in between is necessary; applying Bloodstone straight over top of Dark Flesh creates the first transition from light to dark. Try to apply this while leaving the darkest areas Dark Flesh. I almost exclusively use a technique called feathering which involves pushing and pulling the thinned down paint in a direction to achieve a smooth blend. I suggest looking up a feathering tutorial on youtube or google to know exactly what I mean.
The next step is probably the most inconsistent step out of all of them and varies from project to project for me. Usually I try to mix 50/50 portions of Bloodstone with Citadel Vomit Brown (again, OOP. google search says the new equivalent is Tau Light Ochre). You can see I'm always leaving behind a remnant of the previous shade. This eventually will make a stark contrast between light and dark, selling the NMM effect due to the color choices and 'dots' of reflection that will come later. When I'm deciding what areas to make dark or light, I try to imagine a halo of light coming from directly above the model. Again, make sure your paints are watered down because thin paint is more forgiving when making mistakes (it can be wiped off without drying as easily) and creates a smoother blend when applied patiently in multiple layers. If this stage is giving you problems, try dividing it into 2 steps instead: 1:2 Vomit Brown to Bloodstone followed by 2:1 Vomit Brown to Bloodstone.
Well what do you know? Without remembering it seems I did exactly my last suggestion. This is another layer done with mostly Vomit Brown in the mixture. You can really see a transition starting to form. This is when painting becomes extremely fun for me, when I begin to see my progress and know I've only got a couple layers left. It's results like this that reward you for your patience and diligence in making a smooth blend with watered down paints over many layers.
Starting to apply things sparingly now, we go into straight Vomit Brown. Wow, you see that sheen of what appears to be metal starting to form? Don't overdo it with the lighter colors. For every surface of NMM, with a few exceptions, I would always pick one edge/corner to be dark and one to be light. Make your plan before you even apply the first highlight. Map it out in your mind where you imagine the light to flow. Of course there is a perfectly correct way to do it, but just because something is incorrect doesn't mean it doesn't look cool, know what I'm saying? If something doesn't make sense in reality, it doesn't make it WRONG to paint on a miniature - this is a fun hobby and you should really in the end go for what looks cool! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise...
This final highlight may be hard to come by. It's Bronzed Flesh by Citadel, and it was OOP 2 generations of paint ago. The only current, in production way to get this color is going with Vallejo GAME color's Bronze Flesh. From my understanding Vallejo Game Color was originally made for Games Workshop so long story short all of their colors are more or less copies of the old Citadel colors. Apply this layer extremely sparingly, it should only be in the most bright parts of the metal.
The last part is probably my least favorite and something I won't continue to do on other armies (though I'll do it for Skorne because thats what I've done on every model so far, for consistency's sake). I think instead I would mix Bronzed Flesh with this color, Menoth White Highlight, for a further layer instead of applying dots of reflection, as shown here. They may be hard to see, but thats the point. You want to imagine areas where the glint of the sun/a light/ a muzzle flare would be hitting the shiny surface of the armor. Sometimes I place this in the brightest parts of the armor, or sometimes I'll place it in a transition stage between light and dark. Don't overdo it as always, and avoid putting dots too close to eachother. I really have no good way of suggesting how it looks right/wrong... just fool around with it and see if you like it. It's definitely not always easy to achieve.\
Once I get some professional photos, I'll post pics of this completed bad boy. He deserves the best quality photos, that only the lovely Sherry could provide! As soon as she's available I'll be borrowing her for some photo shoots. Hopefully this tutorial will inspire people to try out NMM as in my opinion is much more fun than working with metallic paints (and it doesn't dirty your water and brushes nearly as much!).
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