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Getting out of 40k, and getting into 30k.

Trying to find a good tutorial on how to make that shiny red armor for Thousand sons without airbrushing (as I don't have one). Any ideas?

If you want a shiny effect, you might consider finding a red you like, and combining it with either a Satin or Gloss medium from a source like, say, Vallejo. Satin sits between Matte and Gloss, so it's not high on the shine, but it reflects a little.

Base the thing in a very bright silver

come back over the whole thing with tamaya clear red

voila

Or various metalic mediums

I would use the new shiny red GW paint over gold instead of silver myself. Try both on a spare mini.

The classic scheme is done with a metallic base coat glazed with several coats of clear red. All done with an airbrush. Good luck without one.

Not sure if you want to risk it or not.

and im not advocating anything without testing but there are a ton of options for metalic red spray paint

its pretty available in the auto industry.

also tamya has a spray can i think too.

Thank you all for the ideas.

Will try the Retrubutor Armor Gold base with the GW red over it to see.

And will try the red spray paint on some spare minis to find out how well it goes on

Well, the red over gold isn't a new concept.. if you actually look it up, typical Candy Apple Red paint is expensive because it uses gold flakes in it to get the effect. I know because I had a neighbour who insisted on Candy Apple Red on her car.

Yea, im hoping that one will work out instead of the red spray. Those are very fiddly (atleast in my experience)

Recently been trying the same thing - here's what I did:
(All with a brush, no spray/airbrush)

Black undercoat
Heavy drybrush leadbelcher
Light drybrush/highlight runefang steel
Couple of coats of forgeworld's clear red paint

And heres my test model using the above:

Looks pretty good
Im going to have to try that technique out cus im terrible with an airbrush

So I tried out both methods.

1. Prime black - Gloos red Krylon spray - wash nuln iol

Result: pretty horrible. The gloss so to thick and covers to much detail, even with a light black primer. Plus the nuln oil muted all the gloss effect

2. Prime black - spray testors gold - spray testors clear red - wash nuln oil. Same thing. It looked a little better pre wash, but I'm not sure how to do it better without a air brush?

Wash gloss maybe?

Yeah, I'd wash first, then apply the red.
You just gonna be dulling the lovely gloss otherwise.
FYI In my example above, I didn't nuln oil wash, as I made sure when I did the drybrusing of leadbelcher/silver, that enough black was still showing in the recesses to give about the same effect as a black wash.

edit: Also, no idea what the testors paint you are using is like, but with the FW red paint I was using, multiple thin coats works way better than putting it all on in one go

Is it the Angron Red paint? https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-IE/Forge-World-Airbrush-Paint?s=99189987018

and your saying it works by just using your brush and not a air brush? Id be worried it leaves brush strokes.

Also problem is id have to order it direct from them (I'm assuming in the US) and the crazy high shipping cost wouldn't make it worth it

yeah that's the one.
not exactly cheap with UK postage either, but I'd imagine worse for you guys.

I haven't noticed any brush strokes on the couple of models I've painted so far - as I said above, doing multiple thin coats kind of help with that as well
edit: theres another pic in my gallery if you click the image i posted above - has a more side on view, might show the lack of brush lines more than the other pic...?

So here was my day of testing. 4 and 5 seem to be close. What one is the best? Left to Right, 1,2,3,4,5,6

Also here is what I did for each below...



1. Prime Black - Spray Gloss Red Krylon - Wash Nuln Oil
2. Prime Black - Spray Testors gold - Spray testors clear red - wash nuln oil
3. Prime black - spray testors gold - spray testors clear red - wash gloos nuln oil
4. prime black - paint on leadbelcher - drybrush runefang - spray testors - watered down nuln oil
5 . prime black - paint on leadbelcher - spray testors clear red watered nuln oil gloss wash
6. prime black - paint ret armor gold - wash seraph sepia - paint on spirit stone tech


Like I said, 4 and 5 seem to be the closest, but 3 has that nice red.

Definitely Melta or missile guy!

I like 3 and 5, the gloss wash is the key