Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey mates. Was considering running my Space Marines as Black Templars, however since I am planning in running a Drop Pod list and I plan to utilize multiple Codex's, I decided that running a different, personal paint scheme would be easier to utilize all the different books, and from looking online and around my current my meta, I realized that no one has been utilizing gold space marines and from looking online, I found a Chapter that I think would work in the Knights Gryphone. Although it says that they are orange, from what I have seen of them they have more of a Golden Look to them, so that is how I was going to run them. That being said, is there a way to paint Gold so that it isn't as shiny? From what I have seen, one strategy seems to be Priming them Black, painting a dark brown color as the first coat before applying the gold as the 2nd coat but I am not 100% sure. Anyone know of any tips on painting golden Space Marines? This is the scheme I was going for so I appreciate the help.

I can think of a few suggestions worth trying out:

1. Why use metallic paint if you don't want that shine? You can buy paints that are shade of gold and do a rough nmm-gold, or just make them be gold colored but not actually gold.

2. After your paint with the metallic gold, you could apply a matte sealer, which tones down the shine of metallics. Actually a lot of people who seal their minis will use a gloss seal and then brush a matte sealer over areas that are not meant to have a shine. I do this too and it looks good. From what I remember of putting matte fluid over metallics, the shine really does go away.

3. You could use a darker gold color for your option. I love the hashut (sp.) copper that GW makes, it screams "copper" to me and really gives a different look than typical "wow that's shiny gold"

4. You could buy Vallejo's metallic medium, which lets you....bedazzle...any color you want. It is a silver medium though. I had good success using this with bright yellows and oranges though, but you want to pick brighter paints than the color your actually want, kind of like what you do when you know you're going to apply a wash.

5. Whatever you do, please don't spray them with gold spray paint and dip them in army painter shade. All you'll end up doing with the time you saved is wishing you didn't do it.

I hope this helps, you have a cool idea so I'd like to see what you do with it, and if you come up with any fluff. Maybe they protect the emperor, or maybe they work for the 40k version of the Man With the Golden Gun (which would be awesome btw).

It all depends on what you want to achieve and, how much time you're prepared to spend on it, and what skill level you want.

First, do you want it not to be shiny, because it's weathered? The point of any metallic is the reflective nature (take out the mica particles of gold, and you have an ochre/tan).

If you want it to be gold, but weathered, try basecoating warplock bronze, and drybrushing with golden griffon, or one of the more gold-ish metallics. To add some weathering, lightly drybrush edges with a brass; and then to add some highlights, lightly drybrush some EDGES where light would hit with a silver.

As Tydil said, don't make the last step of a metallic model a dip in shade (or a wash). It looks terrible. However, if you layer over that, or even drybrush over that, it can look good.

It's ok if it's a bit shiny lol. I just don't want it to be as shiny as it comes base, and from looking at it I could always wash it with black to tone it down a bit unless there is another wash that is good with gold. Besides that, I heard using Vallejo red gold paint is a good option as it is a darker shade of gold. I personally won't be painting this army, as I have nerve damage in my hands but I would at least be willing to get the materials needed for someone to paint this army.

Try a flesh wash or brown, instead of black.

In GW parlance, that would be Seraphim Sepia, Reikland Fleshshade, or Agrax Earthshade. It wont be as harsh.

Equivalents of a reddish gold would be Gehenna's gold for Citadel and Greedy Gold from AP. I forget the P3 version, but there is a similar color as well.

Balthazar Gold from GW might fit the bill too.

In my experience, if you're going to wash over metallic gold, it's best done early in the process as it stains the paint and can need a lot of touching up. This guy is three coats of what was Burnished Gold and two coats of Shining Gold over black primer, with a gloss varnish. As has been said, a matte varnish tends to take the shine out of metallics quite well.

Went through these stages, which is VMC bronze mixed with a touch of VMC leather brown and black to knock it back, adding more bronze to highlight:



I think if you go with less gold, keep the broad highlights subtle gradiens you'll get the dulled gold look you want. Add a tiny bit more gold or possibly some mid-grey metallic (gun metal mixed with a bit of silver) to do tight highlights and edges and it should look pretty good.
A flat coat at the end will also kill the shine if you want to keep it dulled. I tend to flatcoat the whole model then regloss anything I want shiny.