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Hey guys,

For a little bit too long I've been stagnating with my painting and not really trying anything new out. But I've finally had enough of doing the same silver colour on everything (everything!).

I do VMA Gungrey, followed by a Nuln Oil wash, and a rehighlight of the same Gungrey. Occassionally an Agrax Earthshade wash if the metal is going to be dirty. But I'm trying to make the final look more interesting. Any ideas?

What is your silver recipe?

Appreciate the help,
Z

my go to is VMA Steel, silver and aluminum

usually just a black/brown wash

if you really want to get fancy and add more variety then

1) Rust stipple orange and stuff
2) heat discoloration: wash with blue purple and yellows
3) oily AF: black inks.

The only "recipe" I have is to avoid ever painting silver onto a surface directly. Any metallic I use gets dry-brushed on, even on flat surfaces. Brings more depth and doesn't give you the caked metallic paint look which is all too frequently.

A wash of blue can add a nice steely colour to silver

For a polished and new, ultra shiny look i'd do:

leadbelcher
drakenhof nightshade into recesses
ironbreaker thin layers
final highlight of stormhost silver
glaze with mix of ardcoat and a small amount of water for smooth coverage.

If you're looking for more worn styles try seraphin sepia thinned down over joins or certain spots over the silver.

I like to layer my silvers on with gold underneath (and sometimes a dry brush of gold) to give it a Bronzy tint. (Blood for the Blood God!)

I either use silver drybrushed over black, or base silver with a black wash/ink.

Sometimes with a little highlighting with the silver again.

I use both techniques on my Deathwatch. The silver arms are with the wash, the guns are drybrushed.

I also sometimes use Elbows' method of drybrushing silver onto a matte colour. Silver over black can look very effective for old battered metal. I don't use it every time, but it's worth trying out.

Another thing that's worth trying (and this isn't a recipe exactly) is washing your metallics with thinned Vallejo's Smokey Ink. It's a gritty brown wash that looks fantastic on metallics. You get a grimey, rusty effect with minimal effort.

Vallejo Model Air Gunmetal Grey and Aluminium.
Nuln or Agrax wash (sometimes both, nuln first).
Highlight with VMA Gunmetal Grey.
Add VMA Aluminium and highlight again.
Shade down with a mix of sienna, black, and glaze medium.
Highlight again, bit more concentrate on edges.
Pure VMA Aluminium on extreme spots. Shade mix and pure aluminium for scratches.

This is for hairy stick. The VMA paints layer and feather very smoothly by hand.

The Aluminium is like frickin' magic, honestly. Try it. My go-to for highting any metal.

@Winterdyne: How does P3 Radiant Platinum and GW Mithril Silver compare to VMA Aluminum? Is the VMA more white?

VMA aluminium is pretty white compared to oldschool mithril silver which was very slightly blue-grey. The vma aluminium has quite fine reflective flakes in it though, so it goes on nice and smooth and blends / layers on well as opposed to going too grainy like some other silvers I've tried. Don't have any P3 paints to compare against.