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I tried out various tactics to paint Alpha Legion and using a non metallic color scheme with Stagedon stegadon scale green and have gotten promising, but non metallic results. Would mixing the color with Lebelcher give me a shinier version of the color? If so, what steps would I need to take?

Well if you mix blue paint in it will really cut down on the glossy metallic look of the paint. Imo this still looks really cool though, I sometimes basecoat silver mixed with gray, then use true metallics for the highlights.

You could also try painting it metallic first and then use blue washes/glazes which will dull the finish a bit too but not as much.

Sort of.

Adding silver to a colour is somewhat akin to adding white, it will desaturate it.

You will still be adding the metallic flakes, so it will increase the metallic effect, but you may struggle to retain the vibrancy of the colour.

The best method to get a vibrant, metallic colour is to do as Gunzhard suggests, or, even better, use a candy effect paint over a metallic base. It is tough to get even coats with any of the candys I've used without an airbrush though, but I've not tried the FW transparents as yet.

to get the result you are looking for, you have to use what is called a clear paint, NOT a glaze or a shade.
clear paints have a gloss finish instead of matt so when they are applied over a metal the metal stays shiny but becomes tinted by the clear.
if you are looking to paint yours like the ones shown on forgeworld I believe you need to use a very thin coat of calth blue from the forge world airbrush range. although they are designed for air paints it is possible to apply them with a brush and still get good results.
I was lucky enough to get a look at the range recently and they are easy enough to apply with a brush, you just have to be careful not to over do it otherwise the paint will run before it drys, similar to when using shades/glazes from the citadel range.
here is the forgeworld air paint range.

Well alpha legions off forgeworld old style is silver then blue/green Clear colors from tamaya.

another option is getting some metallic medium or iridescent medium from various manufacturers.

Metallic medium presents the same problem, the addition of silver flakes to the base colour paint washes out the overall colour.

 Gunzhard wrote:
Well if you mix blue paint in it will really cut down on the glossy metallic look of the paint. Imo this still looks really cool though, I sometimes basecoat silver mixed with gray, then use true metallics for the highlights.

You could also try painting it metallic first and then use blue washes/glazes which will dull the finish a bit too but not as much.

I tried doing that and achieved this result, IDK if I could do it for a whole model though.

http://i.imgur.com/txWXdkz.jpg

You could try basecoating the area, then applying a thin wash of the metallic paint on top. The base color should show through, but the metallic flakes will be on top. I've done that in the past and was satisfied with the result, but YMMV.

Paint it silver first, then go over the silver with a wash of the desired color. There was a tutorial on this site on what the results will look like. I'll see if I can find it.


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I often use this effect on gun barrels to make them look heavily used.

glaze over it with a blue or ink

You can buy metallic blues from various manufacturers. For example, I painted this fella with Gunze's metallic blue:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/389628-.html?m=2

I came across a way that I think would look really cool for Alpha Legion, you probably need an airbrush to do it though. Back in WW2 the Japanese used a metallic blue/green paint as corrosion resistance. It had a lot of variation, ranging from almost black through to a bright blue metallic to an almost green metallic.

Anyway, a few companies make metallic blue/greens for that purpose. Gunze's offering is a nice metallic blue, subtly green, which sprays on somewhat translucent. I accidentally discovered if I sprayed the Gunze metallic blue green over a base of green (specifically Tamiya's interior green as I was painting a Zero, but it probably doesn't matter) then you get this awesome blue-green metallic that looks blue from some angles and green from others. You can gradually build it up in some areas and not others to accentuate the effect.

First thing I thought was "This would be awesome on Alpha Legion"