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I have always struggled with gold, a color I can never seem to get right, I think I have a found a technique that works for me, and as I was planning on using the same technique for another project I wanted some feedback on this. Basically the area of the World Eater symbol is at the point where I am happy with it, though I feel like it does not quite pop enough, I was thinking of increasing the contrast of the surrounding red, and deepening the shadows to try and get it to pop a little more, I can also work up to more of a mithril highlight....but I need the advice of those who know better...

Ashton

Is the glare on the top left corner of the right side body panel painted or from the light?

Looks nice, you just need to highlight. Try a mix of silver/gold. eg Boltgun Metal and the gold you are using and then the same but with Mithril Silver. Or just use thos silvers, no gold needed. Also, maybe try using a wash like Gryphonne Sepia

AustonT wrote:Is the glare on the top left corner of the right side body panel painted or from the light?

It is painted. Basically to get this gold I first based with a 50/50 mix of tin bits and burnished gold. Then I started building up to burnished gold, and then I gave 2 washes with sepia, and then staying toward the bottom(where the shadow is) I started working devlan mud into the mix. I do not want to go to further on the mud washes because it is starting to dull the gold, I think I will try deepening the shadow on the red and see if that helps.

Ashton

Hey Red, you are obviously already a good painter but you might like my 'gold experiment' blog article... check it out:
http://atticwars40k.blogspot.com/

I did this as prep for my Sanguinary Guard.

Have you tried using tau cept or iyanden dark sun as base coat and then paint gold on top with a little wash works for me you should give it a try exellent paint job I really like the colour blends

Redfinger wrote:

AustonT wrote:Is the glare on the top left corner of the right side body panel painted or from the light?

It is painted. Basically to get this gold I first based with a 50/50 mix of tin bits and burnished gold. Then I started building up to burnished gold, and then I gave 2 washes with sepia, and then staying toward the bottom(where the shadow is) I started working devlan mud into the mix. I do not want to go to further on the mud washes because it is starting to dull the gold, I think I will try deepening the shadow on the red and see if that helps.

Ashton

In which case I am suitably impressed...as I clearly mistook it for a natural light. IT is very convincing shiny gold. Although I often argue gold is frequently so dinged and scratch so as to produce a dull shine rather than mirror shine, we live in a 40k world. And this shine is excellent.

I like how bold it is, especially in the painted glare, but I agree that adding the shadow would give it more depth. Looks really great!

Love it.

Has that nice "gold leaf" color to it.

love the shadow work on the nuts/bolts.... rivets

love the worn look on it too.

And it is not to thick, like most of my work suffers from with metallic colors, particularly gold, brass, copper, and bronze. A brown undercoat has helped me a lot.

You're shading it the wrong way (Edit: as in direction, not technique!) for a high-shine effect with the light direction from above; you actually need to darken where the light falls (ie the reverse of what you've done) and then apply a very sharp highlight. It's the same theory as NMM - the artificial contrast of the highlight makes it brighter and seem like a catching surface. Don't worry about 'dulling'; you do actually want that to happen as it'll keep the shade umm... shadey. You need the control over the reflectivity to get a good effect. The contra-highlight (brown->gold->gold/silver mix) should be progressively more reflective / metallic as it brightens, with the shade (toward the top) being more matt. with a final very metallic silver. I find shading down to about a 2:1 scorched brown / black mix works very well.

In terms of a highlight paint, get some VMA silver or VMC metal medium. Both are extremely good metallic highlighters and are thin and fine-grain enough to blend nicely with. Pure VMA silver is very good as the top edge highlight.

Look for stuff on CMON by Bohun. The guy's a master of the metallics, and uses very matt shades achieved with pigment powder to good effect.

I like it, but personally id put a wash of ogryn flesh over it at that stage.