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Hello painting experts. I'm looking for a few of your opinions. First of all, I need a deep brown colored paint. I have Bestial Brown already, but I want something darker. Here are some colors that look like what I want:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bistre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_%28color%29#Caf.C3.A9_Noir
Next I want an iron black paint: black with some metallic looks to it. Maybe the best comparison is the look of iron clad cookware.

My last question is about drybrushing. How do I do it? I guess the only thing I need it for is to create a worn look on black plastics (like guns). What product(s) should I buy?

Anybody?

If you are willing to use craft paint, check Michaels for Folk Art Sequin Black. Its a bit dark for me, so I add 1 drop FA Gunmetal Gray to 4 drops Sequin Black
They probably also have the brown you are looking for

for basic tutorials I would suggest the search function. there are many people who give out the basics. Youtube as well.

Paints that have a darker shade of brown: burnt umber, but its a reddish brown, otherwise you need to mix and experiment until you get the color you want.

Looks like you want something like the old GW Scorched Brown (I use the Vallejo Game Color equivalent, Charred Brown). Nice and dark brown, slightly on the warm side. Too stark a jump to go from Scorched to Bestial directly, if you want to use it for highlights, but the two play nicely together, if mixed.

Not sure about the black iron paint. When I want the subdued iron look, it's usually in smaller areas of weathering, so I just use a soft pencil. Graphite over black paint is still an option, it would just require grinding up a bunch of pencil leads or buying an iron pigment to cover larger areas. Black ink over silver metallic paint is another way to do metallic black, but it doesn't look much like iron, in the end - graphite has a nice dark silver color and a low, even sheen that can't be beat, in my opinion.

Drybrushing doesn't take much in the way of special equipment, luckily. People usually keep dedicated brushes for it, since it's hard on the bristles (in fact, most larger brushes that would get retired, due to splaying bristles and the like get relegated to drybrush duty, instead, as you don't need a fine point) - flats or filberts are more popular than rounds, due to their increased coverage. Bristle qualities are debatable - some people prefer shorter, stiffer bristles (which make it easier to scrub the paint off), while other prefer something softer and finer, like a makeup brush (which allows for a finer, smoother dusting of pigment). The technique works, albeit slightly differently, with just about anything, though - I've used stiff hog hair flats, bushy old nylon brushes, and soft Taklon filberts, all successfully.

The technique is pretty simple, at its core - load your dry brush with a bit of undiluted paint, then scrub it on a paper towel. The goal here is to remove most, but not all, of the paint, leaving only a little half-dry pigment and binder behind on the bristles. The brush is then lightly swept across the area in multiple passes, depositing pigment bit by bit, primarily onto high points of the surface. If the surface is highly textured (where drybrushing really shines), you'll get super easy and reasonably smooth highlights. On flatter surfaces, the texture that picks up pigment is simply that of the underlying coat, so you get a more general, chalky or dusty appearance.

The real key to drybrushing is brush load. The more paint on your bristles, the starker the effect and the more likely you are to leave streaks. For a subtle effect, you need to make dozens of passes (which doesn't take nearly as long as it sounds) with barely any paint on the bristles, building the effect gradually. There are sometimes cases where you want more paint and a coarser effect, of course - this is sometimes referred to as overbrushing, which applies a thicker, more solid looking coat (due to having more paint on the brush), but still remains mostly on raised surfaces (due to the light sweeping motion and low flow of undiluted paint).

 oadie wrote:
Looks like you want something like the old GW Scorched Brown (I use the Vallejo Game Color equivalent, Charred Brown). Nice and dark brown, slightly on the warm side. Too stark a jump to go from Scorched to Bestial directly, if you want to use it for highlights, but the two play nicely together, if mixed.

Not sure about the black iron paint. When I want the subdued iron look, it's usually in smaller areas of weathering, so I just use a soft pencil. Graphite over black paint is still an option, it would just require grinding up a bunch of pencil leads or buying an iron pigment to cover larger areas. Black ink over silver metallic paint is another way to do metallic black, but it doesn't look much like iron, in the end - graphite has a nice dark silver color and a low, even sheen that can't be beat, in my opinion.

Drybrushing doesn't take much in the way of special equipment, luckily. People usually keep dedicated brushes for it, since it's hard on the bristles (in fact, most larger brushes that would get retired, due to splaying bristles and the like get relegated to drybrush duty, instead, as you don't need a fine point) - flats or filberts are more popular than rounds, due to their increased coverage. Bristle qualities are debatable - some people prefer shorter, stiffer bristles (which make it easier to scrub the paint off), while other prefer something softer and finer, like a makeup brush (which allows for a finer, smoother dusting of pigment). The technique works, albeit slightly differently, with just about anything, though - I've used stiff hog hair flats, bushy old nylon brushes, and soft Taklon filberts, all successfully.

The technique is pretty simple, at its core - load your dry brush with a bit of undiluted paint, then scrub it on a paper towel. The goal here is to remove most, but not all, of the paint, leaving only a little half-dry pigment and binder behind on the bristles. The brush is then lightly swept across the area in multiple passes, depositing pigment bit by bit, primarily onto high points of the surface. If the surface is highly textured (where drybrushing really shines), you'll get super easy and reasonably smooth highlights. On flatter surfaces, the texture that picks up pigment is simply that of the underlying coat, so you get a more general, chalky or dusty appearance.

The real key to drybrushing is brush load. The more paint on your bristles, the starker the effect and the more likely you are to leave streaks. For a subtle effect, you need to make dozens of passes (which doesn't take nearly as long as it sounds) with barely any paint on the bristles, building the effect gradually. There are sometimes cases where you want more paint and a coarser effect, of course - this is sometimes referred to as overbrushing, which applies a thicker, more solid looking coat (due to having more paint on the brush), but still remains mostly on raised surfaces (due to the light sweeping motion and low flow of undiluted paint).

What do you think about GW Graveyard Earth? And do you think I could get what I want by mixing Chaos Black with a little Boltgun Metal? Do I need special paint for drybrushing?

I also have some additional questions. My metallic paints are getting a bit thick. They're GW Boltgun Metal and Mithril Silver. Can I add a drop of paint thinner in the bottles to thin them out? I like nice smooth coats.

To answer some of your queries;

- only way to see if the black / metallic mix is what you're after is to try it and see as only you really know the effect you want, but I think you'll get a very dark metallic look rather than a 'black with a shine to it' if you see what I mean.

- you don't need special paints, although I've found GW foundation/bases slightly better due to the higher level of pigment and they do have a range of dedicated drybrushing colours if you fancy giving them a try; I've heard they're easy enough to use.

- just add a drop or two of water to them if they seem to be getting a bit thick, either to the whole bottle or to the paint as you use it on a pallette; GW paints are all water-based acrylics so don't use paint thinner.

Hope that helps.

For the dark brown paint it might just be best to go buy a new bottle of paint if your planning on using it for more than a single model. Brown is a very broad range of dark or desaturated oranges that can range from nearly flesh tone to something almost dark red so you have to play with saturation, brightness, and the actual hue to get the brown you want. Looking at the examples you provided I feel there is a little bit of a yellow ocher or orange feel to them so you might be able to start from there.

Most cookware I've seen is basically entirely black except for maybe a few scratches so you probably don't even need to add metal to the black paint. If you need to drive home the idea that it is metal a very light drybrush of dark metal paint should be enough.

Graveyard Earth is certainly a useful color, but it's quite light - more of a subdued khaki tone - not even remotely close to the examples you posted. Not quite sure what you're asking, here, unless you've just gotten the names of paints mixed up...

The other two posters both have good points, which mostly address your followup questions. Personally, I just let my paints thicken in the pot, within reason, since I thin as I go (and to the specific task at hand) on my wet palette. If they start getting really thick, I'll add a few drops of water and stir. I (and pretty much any experienced painter, for that matter) would recommend using a palette when painting, to make thinning and mixing colors easier. The likelihood of getting a good consistency out of the pot is rather low and thinning the whole lot is liable to leave you stranded when you need thicker paint, like when trying to drybrush.

As for the metallic black, I honestly don't think that mix will get you what you're looking for, but I can't be sure. You're really just going to have to experiment. From what you described, graphite over black is my best guess, but only you can be sure, as only you know exactly what you want.

for the metallic black, check vallejo air color black metal
http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/product_info.php?products_id=124