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So, I'm painting an Aurinax Gold Dragon miniature (https://www.waylandgames.co.uk/122142-thickbox_default/waterdeep-dragon-heist-aurinax-1-fig.jpg), for use in my D&D campaigns. I'd kind of like to say I helped two of those players take up painting miniatures of their own, but since then, they've kind of left me behind, on the skill front. They took what I showed them, hopped on some YouTube videos, and got better at shading, blending, and other painting stuff; they also picked up washes, a practice I've never really tried on my own stuff. As I sit down to make this adult gold dragon; a model that is going to be a LOT of gold paints (mostly shining, with slight use of burnished accents, as I feel my own burnished gold paint has never coated as well), I realized I wanted to make it POP!



I've never gotten around to painting Custodians, or Coteaz. I painted one Grey Knight Stern up in all shining gold, as a custom character for fun, but never really made him look awesome. Is there anything inking, or washing (here's hoping I don't sound dumb) to do on gold/metallic paints, that won't cost it the sheen? Something to liven it up, and sort of catch up to my friends, or is washing better served on more matte colors? Sorry for the newb question, but I figure I've got some time, as I'm just about to start painting the bare mini, so there's some time for anyone who wants to answer to do so, before I mess anything up. Please have a wonderful day, and thanks for reading!!!

 venkelos wrote:

I've never gotten around to painting Custodians, or Coteaz. I painted one Grey Knight Stern up in all shining gold, as a custom character for fun, but never really made him look awesome. Is there anything inking, or washing (here's hoping I don't sound dumb) to do on gold/metallic paints, that won't cost it the sheen? Something to liven it up, and sort of catch up to my friends, or is washing better served on more matte colors? Sorry for the newb question, but I figure I've got some time, as I'm just about to start painting the bare mini, so there's some time for anyone who wants to answer to do so, before I mess anything up. Please have a wonderful day, and thanks for reading!!!

Do you have an airbrush? This helps tremendously with getting a shiny gold coat. I painted my Harlequins gold https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/775107.page and used an airbrush, 2 tones of gold and Agrax Earthshade followed by some silver highlights.

The key here is to not slop the wash over the whole mini but paint it into the recesses.

Another alternative would be to paint the mini gold, wash the whole mini, then drybrush the mini with the same gold to bring back the shine. Then a lighter drybrush with a brighter gold, followed by a final drybrush or highlight of silver.

I find sepia works better than Agrax for gold; it’s not so dirty

I find that the GW gloss washes work pretty darn great over metals.

If you use the regular washes it will dull the gold colour quite a lot in my oppinion... so you'll have to re-establish the original gold colour to have it all shiny again.

The gloss variants remedies a bit... but I personally find agrax and sepia washes to strong. I personally use a fleshshade over gold to retain a warm gold.

Alternatively I have also seen a few tries to shade on purple or greenish to shift the colour more to a cold tone.

Reikland flesh shade is my go too for glazing gold and washing around gold rivets/detail. Purple works OK too,

Undercoat the model brown first, it really really helps the gold shine. Use some gloss agrax earthshade mixed with lahmium medium to make a light brown shade, then you can use different shades of gold to highlight the rest of the model.

 Garrlor wrote:
Undercoat the model brown first, it really really helps the gold shine. Use some gloss agrax earthshade mixed with lahmium medium to make a light brown shade, then you can use different shades of gold to highlight the rest of the model.

I like purple under the gold. Brown can make it look a little muddy. Example:




...and a tutorial here, although it's using Army Painter paints rather than GW.

I tend to base coat with Tin Bitz (or equivalent); it has better coverage than gold and lends a warmth to the final colour.

I love using Armypainter Strong Tone over Retributor Armor from GW. My stormcast use it as their accent color, just painted as two simple layers of one base, one wash.

If you want to have a mainly Gold mini that has many different shades and does actually look interesting I can only recommend the following steps:

- Base Coat with Retributor Armor Spray (the Spray is awesome!)
- Obviously go and paint all parts you missed with retributor armor
- Drybrush heavily with Stormhost silver. The Mini should look more silver than Gold at this stage
- Wash the Miniature completely with Seraphim Sepia, this will provide initial shading as well as giving the Stormhost Silver a golden Shine.
- Wash all recesses with Nuln Oil. Be careful with this or the mini will get very dark. You may want to dilute the Nuln Oil.
- Apply Highlights with Stormhost Silver
- Apply a last very light coat of Seraphim sepia where the Highlights phase out.
- Paint the remainder of the miniature

Following this guide will provide you with an aged looking Gold which is not too shiny.

Bright gold?

Start with White primer.

Take a bright gold, like the old “shining gold”. Apply two very thin coats, you should see some of the white through the gold on the upper ridges.

Wash with Reikland Flesh shade. At this point, it will look dull.

Dry brush with shining gold. It will brighten the details right up. In your particular miniature’s case, I would probably leave the underbelly without any highlight / drybrushing. Working against the direction of the scales will give a “deeper” look to them, but also darker. Working with the direction of the scales will make them brighter, but make them look more “flat” on the model.

Take a bright silver, the old Mithril Silver, for example, and *lightly* dry brush the brightest areas. That will give your gold a bright “glint” in the light. I would suggest working against the direction of the scales, to keep just the edges of the scales in silver. Working in the direction of the scales risks making the scales look more silvery, but also looks brighter and smoother / sleeker, if that’s what you want.

The warmth from using the Reikland FS will give life to your living model. It also goes well over reds, so if you paint the mouth or eyes red, one shade to rule them all, right? A deep red would look great on the webbing between the wing fingers.

It also looks good over bone colour, like on the claws and teeth.

Purple/violet tends to lend itself to a brassy finish.

On the citadel paint app, there are various grades of gold
For my Dante and Honour guard helmets I chose Mystic Gold,
its retributor armour, shaded with drakenhof nightshade, layered with liberator gold and highlighted with stormhost silver.

Has a worn vintage look to it.