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Hi All,

I have a pair of Legio Custodes Dreadnoughts which I have airbrushed gold and want to get that weathered gold look. I'm guessing a wash would be best but not sure on what one as I don't want to go to dark?

Cheers in advance

Apply glazes of purple toward recesses. Pin wash deep recesses with a darker red-brown. Hit edges with a gold/silver mix. Hotspots with a very bright silver.

I like using reikland flesh shade on my golds, gives it a sort of reddish tint. But what winterdyne said might be a cool effect as well. Why dont you try priming and spraying a spare bit you have and test it out on that? I have like 6 spare marines I paint and strip for testing purposes myself

I'll have to get hold of some glaze but could try the shade first i guess

You don't need anything special to glaze really, just lots of water.

I like Vallejo model colors because you can add just the smallest spec of paint and tons of water, for basically a slightly tinted water mix, and glaze glaze glaze. VMC violet red or VMC royal purple are pretty good in particular on gold. P3 Sanguine base is another good option for this.

But I also agree that Reikland flesh is a pretty good wash over gold too.

To clarify - glazing is a technique, not (edit: necessarily) using a kind of paint.

The idea is to have smooth, very transparent coats. This boils down to thin paint with VERY little on the brush.

The paint should not run / flood, nor should it be particularly visible. If it takes several strokes to build up the colour, you're doing it right.

Glaze mediums (and specialised glaze paints) help by keeping the paint 'thick' but more translucent - it runs less, meaning your brush control can be a bit more slack.

But you should get to grips with the brush control really. It helps with lots of things.

Reikland is OK, but I like agarax earthshade better. Reikland is a bit too red for me, whereas agarax gives a nice earthy brown shade to increase contrast.

I would go with Seraphim Sepia, or its current equivalent, on gold, if you wanted only a very light shading.

Army painter's Soft tone,Strong tone and Dark tone work very well. Also have a look at Scale 75's gold paint set/does away with the need for washes most of the time I find.

I have become a fan of using Nuln Oil Shade Gloss by GW on anything metallic. The black color is great for giving corners and recesses a stained / dirty look while still allowing the surface to remain glossy.

The Agrax Earthshade gloss from GW is also really good, imo, for gold metallics, as it ends up looking more reflective and gold than the original paint, though it does take longer than a normal wash to dry. For a more weathered feel, I tend to use normal Agrax Earthshade, which dulls it down but keeps the nice golden colour and also doesn't make the colour too rich. For a more redder, richer gold, Reikland Fleshsahde is quite nice and will still dull it for your weathering as it isn't glossy.
After that, a silver edge highlight can go a long way.
This is obviously a simple way of doing it, but I tend to go for simple. If you want something more pro, Winterdyne's tips are good.

I tried reikland flesh shade last night and got the gold to dull down a good amount. Seem to have the effect of pooling around the raised details which should then highlight nicely

My favourite wash for gold is seraphim sepia. Does the job for me and my salamanders.

Sauragnmon wrote:
I would go with Seraphim Sepia, or its current equivalent, on gold, if you wanted only a very light shading.

Absolutely this, if you are looking for a quick, subtle shading that is quick and easy. Any earth shade would make it look very toned down and weathered, unless that is what you want. I use the Sepia wash and then a very light dry brush with bright gold or sometimes silver to make the edges pop.

I'm not denying that Sepia might be a great wash on Gold, but just pointing out that going with earth shade or darker won't necessarily make it "toned down"... in fact it will give it greater contrast.

I did a huge gold experiment a few years, I have better techniques now - but still you can see I used a very dark brown (Umbral Umber) which is darker than GW Scorched Brown but slightly more reddish... the contrast is really nice and the result is shiny bright gold: http://atticwars40k.blogspot.com/2011/10/great-gold-rush-quest-for-best-gold.html