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 guys,

I'm just beginning the paint-job on a KFF mek. I was thinking that having all the big bulb things looking like they are about to explode from heat would be cool, but I'm not sure how I'd achieve that effect - could red and bronze be mixed? I was thinking of having them be bronze for the actual metal.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hey mate, thats a great Idea! Definetly go for it!

I'd suggest to try some different ways on some sprue first, so you can chose your favourite.

I'd base it with a mix of red and bronze and then layer it up to white highlights. The less red you leave, the hotter it appears probably....

Bronze has a low melting point so tends to melt before you get much of a glowy effect. Go with this is a guide :

I think you would be better off layering it rather than mixing it. You're going for an OSL type of effect, so start with the bronze and then get some thin layers of orange on the sides. To be honest the thing that will make it look like its glowing will not be the bronze bit but all the bits around it, so you need to highlight with orange or red according to what ca "see" the glowing source.

I wanted a similar effect on an old Melta heavy weapon guy from an army I did a year or so ago! and i used pics of a turbo car manifold as reference, using white and orange mainly to show how hot it is, here's a pic of how it turned out, sorry the pic isn't better

Nice model, Nerdfest - the glow really ties in well with the red shoulder pad at the far end of his profile.

I was really hoping that you guys wouldn't recommend OSL, since I've never done it. Hum. So I dug out my 'Eavy Metal Masterclass book, and it says that I should do all the colours as normal before worrying about the OSL effect. If I do this as a glow effect, I'll also take the opportunity to leave the hanging cables black - I was ruminating on what colour to do them, but this works well since the glow will serve to add interest, instead of random bright colours. Either way, I guess that I'll plough ahead with the model as normal, and then touch base again when I am about to start the OSL. Thanks for the advice so far.

Just remember to post pics of the result!

From my experience with real weapons and pushing them to barrel color changes.... They end up white and you can kinda see through it. It's not good to push a machine gun to that limit but sometimes you need to. Bronze on outer parts and work in towards whitish / off white maybe. I don't think you will see osl from a hot barrel unless your doing night colors and that's another ball game.

For my meltaguns I do some wet blending to show the barrel heating up. I basecoat the entire barrel in Mechrite Red, then do Blood Red > Blazing Orange > Iyanden Darksun > Sunburst Yellow.

Here's a pic of some Wolf Scouts. It's not the greatest, but you can kinda see the effect:

Kal-El wrote:From my experience with real weapons and pushing them to barrel color changes.... They end up white and you can kinda see through it. It's not good to push a machine gun to that limit but sometimes you need to. Bronze on outer parts and work in towards whitish / off white maybe. I don't think you will see osl from a hot barrel unless your doing night colors and that's another ball game.

Well it isn't a barrel that I am looking to do. This is the model, about to receive inks:



The parts that I'm talking about are the bulbs above and to the side. I'm thinking that if they were to glow that hot, they would mostly illuminate the metal discs and the black wiring.

Now that could glow. If you do the osl remember that certain materials reflect different amounts of light/glow. I think a faint hint of it would look nice. Also check out how to do the metal using nmm to maybe blend the colors easier, just an after thought.

from this thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/389912.page?userfilterid=43399

he did it with an airbrush...