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I'm currently working on the color scheme for my own chapter of Space Marines. Its one thing to see a picture of them, but I really want to have an idea of how this color scheme will look like in real life before I invest in it, since from my personal experience largely metallic models are very hit or miss. So I was wondering if anyone has painted their marines in a similar color scheme and/or if you believe my current colors are too tacky or gaudy, and what recommendations you have to change it.

The Gilded Ones:

TACTICAL


SERGEANT


STERNGUARD VETERAN


COMMAND SQUAD VETERAN


CAPTAIN w/ ARTIFICER ARMOR


ASSAULT MARINE


VANGUARD VETERAN


CAPTAIN w/ JUMP PACK


TERMINATOR


TERMINATOR CAPTAIN


HONOUR GUARD


CHAPTER MASTER ADAMIS AURELIS

w/ ARTIFICER ARMOR


w/ TERMINATOR AMOR

Your pictures don't work. Upload them to Imgur or something; don't hotlink from B&C.

 MasterSlowPoke wrote:
Your pictures don't work. Upload them to Imgur or something; don't hotlink from B&C.

Better yet, upload them to Dakka.

D'oh! Sorry about that. Fixing now...

Actually commenting on metallic marines: I've found that metallics are best over a neutral base coat such as grey or khaki. Some people swear by black, but my experience with any metallic over black darkens it too much. How gaudy it looks is dependant on the metallic paint itself, and I swear by the Vallejo Game Colors metallics.

Thanks Peredyne! Pics should be working now.

It's a very similar theme to Iron Fists, but a bit inverted, and Iron Fists look great.

My experience with metallics is limited to Citadel, but I know Vallejo has some amazing metallics. I just can't be bothered to use isopropyl or anything other than water to thin them.

I find as long as you use Citadel's base Leadbelcher for silver and Balthasar Gold as a first layer, and then use your choice of metallic on top, it looks just fine. Ironbreaker looks too similar to Leadbelcher and Runefang Steel is extremely bright though, so if you wanted a medium between Ironbreaker and Runefang I don't know what you can do other than a wash, since I don't believe you can mix black or white with metallics like you could with other colors.

Balthasar Gold with any of the Citadel golds over it look amazing. Gehenna's Gold for a rich, slightly orange gold/bright copper look, or Auric Armour Gold for a very light, bright, shining gold. Seraphim Sepia is an amazing wash for gold. Don't use Aggrax Earthshade, it's not nearly as good as Devlan Mud or Seraphim Sepia for gold.

 Tyberos the Red Wake wrote:
It's a very similar theme to Iron Fists, but a bit inverted, and Iron Fists look great.

My experience with metallics is limited to Citadel, but I know Vallejo has some amazing metallics. I just can't be bothered to use isopropyl or anything other than water to thin them.

I find as long as you use Citadel's base Leadbelcher for silver and Balthasar Gold as a first layer, and then use your choice of metallic on top, it looks just fine. Ironbreaker looks too similar to Leadbelcher and Runefang Steel is extremely bright though, so if you wanted a medium between Ironbreaker and Runefang I don't know what you can do other than a wash, since I don't believe you can mix black or white with metallics like you could with other colors.

Balthasar Gold with any of the Citadel golds over it look amazing. Gehenna's Gold for a rich, slightly orange gold/bright copper look, or Auric Armour Gold for a very light, bright, shining gold. Seraphim Sepia is an amazing wash for gold. Don't use Aggrax Earthshade, it's not nearly as good as Devlan Mud or Seraphim Sepia for gold.

I'd like to use Runefang Steel (formally Mithril Silver I believe) for the silver parts and Auric Armour Gold (Burnished Gold) for the gold parts. I haven't used the new metallic base paints before so I'll have to check them out. Biggest problem I've had with Auric Armour Gold/Burnished Gold is that you have to paint a lot of layers for it to look good, and then you lose some detail in the process. Or maybe I was just doing it wrong...

Alright, I can think of a few things that you should know before you try this. When you do your iron colors, you should start with a basecoat of black. Gold, however, should be done over a nice dark brown.

With a lot of metallics, you're going to run into a serious contrast problem. The shine of all that metal blurs the details when you look at it, and that's one of the reasons that NMM has become so popular as an alternative. When you want to do a fully metallic color scheme, you need to reduce that shine by a significant degree.

Make friends with black wash (nuln oil, badab black). When you do your iron basecoat I would go with the mid-tone instead of the darkest one available (chainmail, ironbreaker, et cetera) over black. You want to follow that up with a heavy black wash to create shadows and mid-tones that aren't nearly so shiny. Once that's dry (might take a while, you used a lot of wash) you should go back with the brightest silver tone (mithril silver, for example) over raised portions and details you want to emphasize. The result is a two-tone silver color that really pops for the eye. It's freaking beautiful.

Now the gold is a whole other can of worms. You can't count on ts shine to make it stand out, since *everything* is going to be shiny. So you have to cheat a bit. Put down a basecoat of brown, and then go with your gold layer (I have no experience with the newest GW metallics, so I would use Shining Gold or P3 Brass Balls). Do a nice heavy black wash over that and you've got your shadows and mid-tones set like before. Now, in my experience gold doesn't highlight well over gold, so what you should do is take your gold and mix in some bright yellow. Not too too much or else you'll completely lose the shine, but enough that it has a nice yellow tint to it and is somewhat brighter than the regular paint. Use that to highlight in the same way as the silver.

Last thing, the cape and such on your commanders. Red is a terrible choice for a cape to adorn a gold color scheme. It will make your eyes water when you look at it. Instead, you need a cool color, like a dark blue, perhaps with a little white for details.

Hope all that helps you get a good effect out of your troops.

I'd sincerely recommend you take a look at Nerdfest '09's epic gold tutorial for full gold armour. He did it on a Terminator and if you follow it it picks out all the detail really well whilst keeping the shine and the use of metallic paints. It's worth a look even if you just use it for detailing on other forces/armies you have on the go:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/1440/356350.page

 bossfearless wrote:
Alright, I can think of a few things that you should know before you try this. When you do your iron colors, you should start with a basecoat of black. Gold, however, should be done over a nice dark brown.

With a lot of metallics, you're going to run into a serious contrast problem. The shine of all that metal blurs the details when you look at it, and that's one of the reasons that NMM has become so popular as an alternative. When you want to do a fully metallic color scheme, you need to reduce that shine by a significant degree.

Make friends with black wash (nuln oil, badab black). When you do your iron basecoat I would go with the mid-tone instead of the darkest one available (chainmail, ironbreaker, et cetera) over black. You want to follow that up with a heavy black wash to create shadows and mid-tones that aren't nearly so shiny. Once that's dry (might take a while, you used a lot of wash) you should go back with the brightest silver tone (mithril silver, for example) over raised portions and details you want to emphasize. The result is a two-tone silver color that really pops for the eye. It's freaking beautiful.

Now the gold is a whole other can of worms. You can't count on ts shine to make it stand out, since *everything* is going to be shiny. So you have to cheat a bit. Put down a basecoat of brown, and then go with your gold layer (I have no experience with the newest GW metallics, so I would use Shining Gold or P3 Brass Balls). Do a nice heavy black wash over that and you've got your shadows and mid-tones set like before. Now, in my experience gold doesn't highlight well over gold, so what you should do is take your gold and mix in some bright yellow. Not too too much or else you'll completely lose the shine, but enough that it has a nice yellow tint to it and is somewhat brighter than the regular paint. Use that to highlight in the same way as the silver.

Last thing, the cape and such on your commanders. Red is a terrible choice for a cape to adorn a gold color scheme. It will make your eyes water when you look at it. Instead, you need a cool color, like a dark blue, perhaps with a little white for details.

Hope all that helps you get a good effect out of your troops.

Thanks Boss!

One thing though, are you sure about the no red on gold thing? I based their colors on the Adaptes Custodes, who use gold on red as seen here:

http://tutofig.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Adeptus-Custodes-squad-Metallic-gold.jpg

It looks pretty good to me. I still switched colors for the cape like you suggested and I don't know, but it doesn't seem as striking to me.

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/sm/bpe=FACB63&bpj=FACB63&bp=FACB63&bpc=FACB63&hdt=d3d4dd&hdm=d3d4dd&hdl=d3d4dd&ey=d03437&er=d3d4dd&pi=d3d4dd&nk=FACB63&ch=FACB63&eg=d3d4dd&sk=d3d4dd&abs=FACB63&bt=FACB63&cod=FACB63&ull=FACB63&lk=FACB63&lll=FACB63&lft=FACB63&url=FACB63&rk=FACB63&lrl=FACB63&rft=FACB63&slt=FACB63&sli=FACB63&srt=FACB63&sri=FACB63&ula=FACB63&lel=FACB63&lla=FACB63&lw=FACB63&lh=FACB63&ura=FACB63&rel=FACB63&rla=FACB63&rw=FACB63&rh=FACB63&bg=FFFFFF&rb=202020&gr=202020&wg=true&be=BBBBCC&laurel=true&aq=true&cloak=3B3876&loin=3b3876&mk7=333333&pp=AA0000&pws=true&/spacemarine.jpg

With the gold i would do as others have said, use a brown as a good base ( im still using old colours) however i wouldnt wash it with a black, i would use a more reddish tone similar to the old chestnut ink GW used to do. This over gold and then hitting the highlights again really made the gold a strong a rich colour