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anyone have a tutorial on how to blend this? or mix it or where i can buy it? or something?

Tamiya and Gunze make coloured metallics though the range is limited.

Tamiya also make clears where you can paint the model with a silver and then apply a clear blue over the top, the model you posted looks like it was done using that method.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Tamiya and Gunze make coloured metallics though the range is limited.

Tamiya also make clears where you can paint the model with a silver and then apply a clear blue over the top, the model you posted looks like it was done using that method.

now here's the BIG question does the second method require an airbrush?

It often works better if you have an airbrush, but the model you posted doesn't look like it was done with an airbrush, or if it was done with an airbrush it was done with a very heavy coat.

The tricky thing if you don't airbrush it is that it goes claggy very quickly, so you have to apply it both quickly and smoothly on the first go because it's difficult to manipulate the paint on the model.

If I was trying to reproduce that I'd do something along the lines of leadbelcher basecoat, wash black to make sure the crevices come out nice and dark, heavy drybrush with a light silver (runefang or some such) and then apply a coat of Tamiya clear blue.


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For an example, this is Tamiya clear red and blue airbrushed over a silver basecoat...
https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/836705-.html

https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/836706-.html

This is Tamiya clear red and yellow hairy brushed over runefang steel (not a great example because it's only small panels rather than a whole model like the picture you posted, but I don't have a better picture on hand)...
https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/851644-Orc%20Thrower.html

This is Gunze's metallic blue (ie. NOT a clear, but the actual metallic blue) with a blue ink over the top. This is hairy brushed rather than airbrushed, and the purple is a mixture of Gunze metallic blue and Gunze metallic red because they didn't make a metallic purple...
https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/389628-Blue_cron_back.html

All seeing skink, oh great lord of painting. THank you so much. my models thank you, even though i'm probabbly about to strip them ALL because if i can do this without an airbrush and just some new paint, i'll be redoing all my ultramarines.

again thank you SO much.

so i guess the only question left is where can i get tamiya clear blue?

The gunze is probably your best bet but if you can't find it, Vallejo Model Colour Gunmetal Blue is a really nice paint!

One way to do this is to do the whole lot silver working up from black & the apply a gloss glaze. I know Tamiya do a clear red - i'm sue they do a clear blue as well.

Liquitex makes a great acrylic pearlescent medium that mixes wonderfully with citadel/vallejo paint lines. Gives colors a nice metallic sheen. It takes some getting used to, if you go that route practice mixing paint and applying it to old sprue before you paint a model.

 bubber wrote:
One way to do this is to do the whole lot silver working up from black & the apply a gloss glaze. I know Tamiya do a clear red - i'm sue they do a clear blue as well.

clear yellow and clear green as well. Have used them on transparent parts of Gundam kits.

Hobbycraft sell Tamiya paints cheaply enough. I've used the clear ones over metallic silver for the gems on Harlequins. Turns out quite nice.

Scale75 do a lot of coloured metallics.

I happened to have a spare silver painted saurus lying around, here's what he looks like with some Tamiya clear blue slopped on him, excuse the low quality pic I just snapped it on my ancient iphone 3gs because it seems my camera battery is flat.



I think it's a rather similar look to the model in the original post.

My Saurus is a bit less sparkly, probably because even though the Tamiya clear blue was applied with a hairy brush, the underlying silver was airbrushed using a metalizer paint (I was trying to get a realistic looking aluminium), if you apply a regular GW metallic you'll probably get the more sparkly look.

That was done with 1 heavy coat, you maaaay be better served doing 2 thin coats because perhaps it has settled a bit too much in the crevices, to be honest I'm not sure (his loincloth and axe were done with 1 thin coat but I didn't have time to apply a 2nd thin coat to see what it'd look like).

EDIT: And a tip, use a big brush, you don't want to be manipulating the paint once it's hit the model's surface, you just want to slop it on then leave it, probably worth testing on a couple of models you don't care about first.

You can compare that to this model that was done with Gunze metallic blue rather than clear blue over a silver base...

If you want some shading effect under it with a brush, you could also take your favourite raw metals and use them as is before laying a coat of Gemstone Blue over the whole thing to give the whole metal a nice blue finish.

I love these and wish I could find a Wolfy Blue to use. I guess I'll just have to stick with the normals for now until I get a new army again.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I happened to have a spare silver painted saurus lying around, here's what he looks like with some Tamiya clear blue slopped on him, excuse the low quality pic I just snapped it on my ancient iphone 3gs because it seems my camera battery is flat.



I think it's a rather similar look to the model in the original post.

My Saurus is a bit less sparkly, probably because even though the Tamiya clear blue was applied with a hairy brush, the underlying silver was airbrushed using a metalizer paint (I was trying to get a realistic looking aluminium), if you apply a regular GW metallic you'll probably get the more sparkly look.

That was done with 1 heavy coat, you maaaay be better served doing 2 thin coats because perhaps it has settled a bit too much in the crevices, to be honest I'm not sure (his loincloth and axe were done with 1 thin coat but I didn't have time to apply a 2nd thin coat to see what it'd look like).

EDIT: And a tip, use a big brush, you don't want to be manipulating the paint once it's hit the model's surface, you just want to slop it on then leave it, probably worth testing on a couple of models you don't care about first.

You can compare that to this model that was done with Gunze metallic blue rather than clear blue over a silver base...

so base coat with ledbelcher and heavy application of tamiya clear blue? thanks so much for this! i'll be sure to let you know when my reivers are done to show you the progress.

If you want highlights and such on the model, it's a good idea to use some Ironbreaker or Runefang or other silver paints to get the highlights done before you lay on the clear blue.

I highly prefer forgeworld clears over the other brands as they are not nearly as toxic and are prone to look less gooey as well

 Ustrello wrote:
I highly prefer forgeworld clears over the other brands as they are not nearly as toxic and are prone to look less gooey as well

I used Tamiya paints for a while. Switching to Vallejo and Citadel paints...I could not-taste the difference. Those Tamiya ones are potent.

You can kind of make your own clear by mixing the paint with a liberal amount of medium. Medium is just paint without pigment. So it dries clear. It would make sense that if you find a clear medium with the consistency you want so its similar to your other paint (ard coat is just gloss medium for example) a 50/50 mix should dilute the pigment count enough that the paint will be very transparent and the base metalics will show through. Experimentation would be needed but I bet 50/50 ard coat with your wolfy grey would make a wolfy clear.

airbrush arrives monday, got the tamiya clear red i had ordered today. painted it on a test mini. does not paint well stinks to hell. i mean i've had good moonshine guys and i've had some bad moonshine, but this stuff takes the candy cake. pictures to come later



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camera is kinda crap. looks more shiny in person, more metallic. but definately not to be brushed on.


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also i have a sneaking suspicion that i'm on the right track for the original intent. i think the first image is done with HEAVY airbrushing or very careful brushing.

Tamiya paints are definitely a "use in well ventilated area" item.

I still reckon the picture in the OP was hairy brushed on because you'll struggle to get it in to the crevices like that if you airbrush it, but maybe it was airbrushed. You have to be both quick and careful. Also it pays to make sure the underlying metallic is as smooth as possible (if anything you might airbrush/spray the metallic to make it smoother) because the Tamiya Clear will find and expose all the bumps and streaks in the metallic.

If you want to see an example of what Tamiya clear looks like when it's airbrushed on quite heavily, this is done with a mix of Tamiya clear blue and Tamiya clear green (representing the aotake corrosion resistant coatings the Japanese used on their aircraft in WW2). I was unhappy with the result overall, but this is basically what you get when you airbrush it quite heavily (way heavier than I'd normally spray because I was trying to coax it in to the crevices).

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Tamiya paints are definitely a "use in well ventilated area" item.

I still reckon the picture in the OP was hairy brushed on because you'll struggle to get it in to the crevices like that if you airbrush it, but maybe it was airbrushed. You have to be both quick and careful. Also it pays to make sure the underlying metallic is as smooth as possible (if anything you might airbrush/spray the metallic to make it smoother) because the Tamiya Clear will find and expose all the bumps and streaks in the metallic.

If you want to see an example of what Tamiya clear looks like when it's airbrushed on quite heavily, this is done with a mix of Tamiya clear blue and Tamiya clear green (representing the aotake corrosion resistant coatings the Japanese used on their aircraft in WW2). I was unhappy with the result overall, but this is basically what you get when you airbrush it quite heavily (way heavier than I'd normally spray because I was trying to coax it in to the crevices).

i think I'm going to try and improve on the original by base coating lead belcher applying a heavy bulk oil wash and dry brushing chainmail and finishing with the clear coat


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Got a couple test models to experiment with and Vallejo model air steel if it comes to that

Tamiya paints NEED Tamiya thinners (X-20A) it is an alcohol based paint and it will go funny if you mix it with too much water.
My bottle of thinners says 'a mixture of butal-2-ol and propan-1-ol'.
I have a 250ml bottle and dilute tamiya clear paints with it in a 1:1 ratio, then airbrush then on without any other chemicals.
These paints were designed to be airbrushed on, and I'd expect them to ruin any hairy brush.

Regarding the image in the OP, I think that was painted with a mid-silver, then pre-shaded with a darker silver or black ink, then pre-highlighted with a brighter silver, then finally given at least two coats of Tamiya clear blue with an airbrush.
The pre-shade and highlight are very noticable on the power fist's fingers, its a very nice piece.

There is a range of vallejo metallics colors.

That looks exceptionally close to their model air mettalic blue.

Its a great paint, as you can either brush it on, or airbrush it. I use it in a lot of applications.

I too have experimented with putting various clear paints over metalics - and can say the tamiya paints are good stuff.

A brand even more temperamental than the tamiya, are the allclad airbrush metallic - they are incredible - and have a variety of metals and transparent shades - you can do some amazing things with them - but they are airbrush only, and lacquer paints so are a bit tricky to work with.

DaemonJellybaby wrote:
Tamiya paints NEED Tamiya thinners (X-20A) it is an alcohol based paint and it will go funny if you mix it with too much water.

You definitely need to thin them when airbrushing, but when hairy brushing I use the clears straight from the bottle.

When hairy brushing Tamiya's regular paints (not clears) I do tend to just use water because I'm too lazy to decant my X20A.

When airbrushing Tamiya paints I actually use Gunze's Self Leveling Thinner. It's a lacquer based thinner so you need to up your safety game when spraying them, don't inhale them and get rid of the fumes immediately. BUT, IMO it's the best option for thinning Tamiya paints, X20A dries to fast and doesn't go on as smooth by comparison.

These paints were designed to be airbrushed on, and I'd expect them to ruin any hairy brush.

Not really. I don't use my "good" brush, but I use one of my older Kolinsky brushes. After painting an Orc BB team and a few other little random things with Tamiya clears plus touch ups with the Tamiya non-clears on my model aircraft, I haven't ruined the brush. Always wash it out with soap after a painting session and if it's going to be a long painting session I'd recommend washing it out part way through as well.

Regarding the image in the OP, I think that was painted with a mid-silver, then pre-shaded with a darker silver or black ink, then pre-highlighted with a brighter silver, then finally given at least two coats of Tamiya clear blue with an airbrush.
The pre-shade and highlight are very noticable on the power fist's fingers, its a very nice piece.

Yeah I think I said in my first post that I reckoned it was shaded beyond what you'll achieve from the clear itself.

The reason I don't think it was airbrushed is how thick the clear looks and how well it's found its way in to the recesses. That look is hard to achieve with an airbrush because to get it to work it's way in to the crevices you have to thin it quite heavily, but then on the flip side if you thin it a lot when it dries it shrinks, so you end up with light coloured "rings" around the detail where it's dark in the crevice, light in a ring around the crevice, then darkens again on the flat surface. If you look at how the clear is built up around the rivets on the armour, to me that looks like it was manually dragged there with a hairy brush rather than naturally pooling via an airbrush, but maybe it's just a separate wash tricking my eyes.

But then maybe it was airbrushed and I just haven't hit the right mix to achieve the same result


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davethepak wrote:
There is a range of vallejo metallics colors.

That looks exceptionally close to their model air mettalic blue.

The only vallejo air blue metallic I'm aware of is "arctic blue" which doesn't look as vibrant. This car was apparently painted with arctic blue metallic.

http://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7189

If you actually want to use a metallic blue (vs a silver with a blue clear) you should definitely check out the Gunze aqueous hobby colour range.

A brand even more temperamental than the tamiya, are the allclad airbrush metallic - they are incredible - and have a variety of metals and transparent shades - you can do some amazing things with them - but they are airbrush only, and lacquer paints so are a bit tricky to work with.

Alclad are awesome if you want to make a metal that actually looks like a metal rather than paint. Most paints are "metallics" in the sense they have a metallic grain to them, alclad paints are "metalizers" in that they aim not to create a grain but rather a solid metallic finish, and they achieve that by being super thin with superfine metallic flakes.

One downside to them (aside from being tricky to use and they're also often very delicate) is that it's very hard to get consistent results. The finish is dependent on a plethora of parameters which can be impossible to control short of having a temperature and humidity controlled spray booth.

personally i don't really want a "metallic" finish to my models. i wan a finish like the OP, which is more of an iridescent enamel. like they have on some cars. but to each their own.

also yes if you want an actual metal finish, go alclad.

Another way to go is with model car paint (Testors etc.). Lots of different colored metallics.

T

Warcolours has a wonderful colored metallic line. Highly recommend those in addition to the solutions above.

Vallejo metallic air line are also a fantastic metallic color. And though they are an airbrush line, they go on pretty well with a brush too. Their artic blue is almost exactly like the original picture.

GW do a DIY set of tints to make nice metallics if not using an airbrush.

https://youtu.be/QksrFJyT5A4

DiscoKing wrote:
GW do a DIY set of tints to make nice metallics if not using an airbrush.

https://youtu.be/QksrFJyT5A4

Too bad they're no longer available...