13 replies to this topic

[Vikinglodge]

Now Gold and Steel NMM is the hardest painting teqnich I have come across I think I am going to have to paint a good 100 NMM minis before I get it.

What types of mixes do you use?

How do you go about getting the reflictions where and depending on surface? I find it hard to know where to put the hotspots on larger surfaces specially.

My mix for gold righ now is Cobra leather Vallejo color
MIx with buckskin and vallejo gold yellow. Final highlight for hotspots of Sunblast yellow and dragon white.

For steel I just use armour gray and white and maybe some blue on larger surfaces.

[pae]

One way to get an idea of where to put the reflections and hot spots would be to take a picture of the unprimed miniature with a single light source where you want your theoretical light source to be. Then you'll have a reference. :D

[Froggy the Great]

I think this is one of the teaching tips that Anne uses in her Convention-booth classlets.

[Errex]

My colors for regular steel are :Reaper Dragon Black, GW's Codex Grey, REaper Dragon white and sometimes a bit of white ink.

For blue steel, I'd use GW's Deadly Nightshade, GW's Hideous Blue, Reaper Ice Blue or GW's Space Wolf Grey (depending on how intense I want the blue to be), and Reaper Dragon White and also white ink.

For gold, I've pretty much tried to follow Zaphod's recipe, basically using GW's Snakebite Leather and thinning with Reaper Dragon White. Sometimes I mix a middle tone out of GW's Vomit Brown, but all in all, it is a bit of a hassle.

I've tried to produce a bassy look using Reaper's Chestnut, Woodland and GW's Bleached Bone, but I'm still not sold on the hue.

I am itching to try some green metal these days, though.

[Elouchard]

A good brass can be made using lemon yellow and a bit of snakebite leather as the base (or highlight depending on if you go light to dark or dark to light), then doing shadows with lemon yellow + black with a touch of snakebite leather. This mix makes a nifty green/brown that you see in old tarnished brass. Highlight with lemon yellow + bone or pale sand, then a touch of white at the end in the hotspot.

Eric

[Death Angel]

For gold I use, scorched brown, bestial brown, bubonic brown, bleached bone and white. All Citadel colours. I haven't found a mix I am happy with for Steel yet but it is just basically either codex grey and fortress grey or shadow grey and spacewolves grey for a blue toned steel.

[Vikinglodge]

Have anyone used Titanium white for super highlights for NMM I Have heard about it and ordered myself some W&N Titanium white thought I would check it out.

The more I paint NMM it seems that its like painting Gems were you are trying to fool the eye its a shiny surface tho I find it harder the bigger the surface.

[pae]

I use Liquitex Titanium white for my whitest highlights. It's not too terribly expensive, and comes in large quantities. I picked up a small bottle of the stuff, filled an empty Vallejo dropper bottle about halfway, and filled the rest of the way with water.

[Isis]

I use Vallejo Dark Bluegrey for steel. Add black for shading and white for highlights. On my last mini I tried to do the highlights by painting very thin coats of white (I use GW) directly onto the midtone which has worked really well but the paint has to be incredibly thin for the layers to look smooth.

In terms of gold, I'm still experimenting with it, at the moment I use GW Snakebite Leather highlighted with Vallejo Sand Light all the way up to white.

I always start with the midtone first, then shade, then the highlights.

The contrast seems to be one of the things that makes the NMM work or not work, I found that the higher the contrast, the better it looks.

[Vikinglodge]

Flynn
Thats what I was thinking of doing when I get the tube to mix it into a vallejo bottle but all the ones I have are in use hmmm will have to look through theme and sacrefice one color for titanium white instead one I dont use much can put it into a empty reaper pot for the moment.

[battleMountainminis]

Now VL after that last fianna you posted in show off I'm not so sure you're going to need to do 100's of figures she was fantastic!

[Cerridwyn1st]

With steel, for my dark I use VMC 903 Intermediate Blue and for light 907 Light Blue Grey. I mix in white for the highlights, and use pure white for the glare point.

[Vaitalla]

Yes, VL, you're right--NMM is a lot like painting gems, where you're trying to fool the eye, and that may or may not take you in the direction of what actual metal looks like, depending on your style.

As Flynn stated, the best way to figure out where your "hot spots" (brightest highlights) will be is to put the primed mini under a strong light source and either take a pic or just make faint marks with thinned paint to serve as "guides". Remember that only extremely shiny and chrome surfaces have true hot spots; other treatments and types of metal, such as the brushed steel look you'll typically see on armor, will feature a highlight that is more diffused.

Simple guide to NMM:

1. Figure out where your strongest highlight is on a particular piece of metal (see above).
2. Immediately below (away from the light source) your strongest highlight will be an ultra-thin black (on cool-colored metals) or dark dark brown (on warm-colored metals) line. This is your darkest shadow. It is the juxtaposition of the brightest highlight next to the darkest shadow that makes the eye read an object as "shiny".
3. Moving away from the darkest shadow, you will blend up through dark grey/brown to a medium grey/brown to a light grey/tan to almost white again. The almost white is your secondary highlight, is located opposite your brightest highlight on the surface (which will put it opposite the light source, i.e. on the underside or backside of the piece of metal), and is meant to simulate light reflecting back at the shiny object from the environment around the mini. It is this secondary highlight, and its placement, that makes the eye read an object as "reflective".

So, brightest highlight, right under it the darkest shadow, blend back up to secondary highlight, repeat ad infinitum. Simplistic? Heck, yeah--that's why it works!

--Anne

[Neyuttad]

If you work from a black a grey undercoat, take a can of white primer, put it on top of the mini to where you want the light to shine from then spray a light coat.

If you work on white, wash the mini with thinned down black ink then do the same.

Hope it works