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I'm painting a Chaos Lord with a pair of lighting claws and I want them to look razor sharp - mean enough to gut a Blood Angel in a single swipe!
They're painted with metallic paint, but I just used boltgun metal (gunmetal) shaded with a black ink. They looked allright, but I was ultimately disappointed as they didn't look very intimidating or very well done at all.

So I've stripped the claws and I'm ready to start over, got it primed and ready to go.
Thought I would come here and get some advice first.

How can I make metallic paint look more shiny, like a steel sword?
Is there any particular method of highlighting/shading I should use for this sort of thing?
Have a look at this artwork of Wolverine from the X-Men, those are some hand knives
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs9/i/2006/046/d/7/Classic_Wolverine_by_JPRart.jpg
That's what I'm going for.

Also, I'm not interested in object source lighting or any other lighting effect. I could do that, I could make em glow if I wanted.
No, I want them to look like polished steel.
Any tips?

if you want that exact look, then you're talking non-metallic metal (nmm). search for nmm on here and you'll find a few quality tutorials. if you want something quick and dirty, base coat with boltgun metal, wash with dark ink, then highlight once with chainmail and edge highlight just the sharpest bits with mithril silver. you can do the highlights with regular brush strokes if you've got a steady hand (and a pointy brush) or just drybrush it on.

What about painting them Boltgun, then edging them with mithril or chainmail silver. Give them a black wash and then rehighlight the mithril/chainmail.


Edit: Damn, ninja'd by Varl.

I don't know how you paint, but if you use an airbrush this video has a pretty neat way of painting lightning claws.

varl wrote:if you want that exact look, then you're talking non-metallic metal (nmm).

Aw jeez, I'm not sure if I can pull off non-metallic metal. I think I'm a pretty good painter but that's one thing I've always avoided.
Maybe today is the day I'm gonna have to learn.
I don't want to do a sub-par job on this guy, I know how I want it to look, I've just gotta make it happen.
I'll do some research on NMM

ScootyPuffJunior wrote:I don't know how you paint, but if you use an airbrush this video has a pretty neat way of painting lightning claws.

I don't use an airbrush, but this video is still relevant, I can still apply techniques from it to some degree.
Thanks for the link.

Any other advice?