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Greetings Dakka. Recently I took the plunge into an army I've wanted to do for years, the Night Lords! I'm nearing the stage where its time to put some paint to plastic and I have some ideas I would like some feed back on from some more experienced painters. I would really like to achieve a mirrored deep blue chrome finish with of course the lightning added afterward. From the research I've done it looks like there are half a million ways to do it, but the two that stick out to me are using Alclad II chrome or Spaztix Ultra mirror chrome with tamiya clear blue sprayed over top. I've seen it done on Gundam and car kits but has anyone tried it on wargaming minis? I have read that alclad is kind of brittle and if you spray a clearcoat over top it eliminates the mirror effect, so I wonder, would the clear blue help protect the alclad and preserve the mirror effect if a clear coat is then applied on top?

I've been looking at this for inspiration.


I would LOOOOOVE to achieve that purple blue finish. The blog I found that in stated that the painter sprayed a chrome red before applying the blue. I mean just look at that. Probably not with such a high gloss though. The painter used a sandblaster for that.

Basically I'm trying to avoid sparkly metallic armor and something that wont chip off after a few games. Does anyone have any tips, experience or advice?

Metalic car paint?

You can get spray and top up versions?

I've been experimenting with metallic blue craft paint. I wash it with purple tone and then lightly dry brush the blue again. My test model turned out pretty close to that robot. Not as glossy of course.

You could mix your own. Citadel have a tint paint set that you could add to a metallic, or other base. of your choosing.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Citadel-artificer-tint-set

I am painting some models, Dark pearl Green with Flat Black. Im using Testors Acrylic paints. The paint is like a wash, really thin, almost and leave brush stroke free color. Here is where I found my colors and bought them on Amazon. If you mouse over the colors it will tell you the color. The color you are looking for is close to Deep Purple I think.

http://www.testors.com/product-catalog/testors-brands/model-master/acrylic-paint/bottles

I would airbrush the models with a silver like Vallejo Real Silver. Its solvent based so be aware of that.

Then I'd layer blue ink over the top. Either shade with more coats or purple.

For shades and highlights I have a couple techniques. You can persuade the silver, dark recesses and bright silver highlights then do a consistent coat of blue, letting the shade and highlighted silver show through.

The other way is to shade with your ink. Either layer on more blue or use reds and purples for your shades. Be careful because the highlights come form the lightest coats of blue.

Thanks for the input guys, looks like I have some experimenting to do. I will be sure to post results!