Metallic Metal 101

For the first post I have some very special thing. I have been asked countless times about painting metal.

There are few great ways to handle them, but in my opinion this one is the easiest.

Paints used:

1. Citadel Shade: Seraphim Sepia
2. Warpaints: Strong Tone Ink
3. Vallejo Silver Paint, 17ml
4. Vallejo Mahogany Paint, 17ml
5. Vallejo Black Model Color Paint, 17ml

Step 1. Base coat:

I assume you already know how to put base coat. I used Vallejo Air Silver, it’s airbrushed, but you can put it with regular brush as well. In fact it’s great overall metallic paint . Why it’s so bright? The brighter base, the more colorful metal will be after washes.

Step 2. Gold Wash:

Usually I’m putting two or three layers of wash. I started with gold, so I used Seraphim Sepia. As far as I know it’s only reliable wash to paint gold. Although, if you know other product, please let me know.

There’s nothing fancy at this point. Remember to let it dry well after each layer. If you try to put another layer too fast it can really mess up final effect and there’s not much you can do to fix it.

Step 3. Glazing Gold:

I like my gold a little bit reddish. After washes I’m glazing gold parts with red brown. The best paint for this purpose is Mahogany. Again it’s paint designed for airbrushes, but I’m using it as normal paint.

It isn’t as thick as regular paint which would be bad if you would like to cover an element with it. However, that’s why it’s so great for glazing. It really smooths shades made with washes. It takes one or two layers of slightly watered Mahogany to get the job done.

Step 4. Steel Washes:

I don’t know if it qualifies as ‘Steel’, but I don’t know how to call it. Anyway, we’re painting every metal part which isn’t gold. Again we’ll need two or three layers of wash.

I’m using Strong Tone, if I would have a choice I would use old GW Delvan Mud wash, but it isn’t available any more. This one is almost as good. Same rules apply, be patient and let it dry, before doing next layer.

Step.5 Black lining:

I painted black all non-metal elements, to make metal more visible.

At this point you should paint black lines between all clearly different metal elements. Like different metal plates, chain mail etc.

If some elements are to bright after washing, you can glaze it with black paint. You’ll make all shades look deeper. I’m using Vallejo Black, which is cheap and reliable black paint. Just remember to use the one for ‘Model Color’ palette. The black from ‘Game Color’ isn’t as good.

Step 6. Highlights:

After first five steps you should have pretty nice metal done. Although it can be dull after so many washes and glazes.

You can highlight the most visible elements with Vallejo Air Silver. Usually you should focus on edges, spikes, rivets and all elements you would like to highlight.

If you made something too bright, you can cover mistakes on gold with Mahogany glazes and mistakes on steel with Black glazes.

That’s all folks! If you decide to follow this tutorial, please send me results at: paintcademy@gmail.com

Cheers!