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Looking at the very nice paint job done on the CSM Forgefiend on GWs site, I'm intrigued by the technique used to achieve the burnished/worn steel plate effect.
Does anyone have an idea of how this might have been accomplished? I'm guessing successive layers of lighter and lighter metal paints, done in a slashing motion with the brush.

Seen here


and a close up here

I always thought it looked like some kind of cross hatching method, if you can understand what I mean by that. That method, on top of some careful dry brushing perhaps.

To me this looks like an initial airbrushing, followed by a wash, then a layer of paint similar to the initial coat. Then a lighter color for highlights, then another wash, then final highlight. Probably just using real thin paints. It's not hard to do with a paint line like the badger minitaires

By sight, its lead belcher/bolt gun metal, very heavy washed with Nuln Oil/ whatever the old stuff was called.

Then highlighted over the top with both of the lighter shades of silver.

If I was trying to replicate the scratches without spending hours up hours, I'd probably use the medium shade silver (chainmail) to put down the main lighter areas, wash lightly again with black, then use a stippling brush (which already has very short, inflexible brushes) with a very light load of mithril silver (rune fang steel?) and lightly run it over the areas I wanted to scratch up. I suspect the regularity and placement of those in the pics means they were just painted in with a small brush though.

According to some of the "how to paint" articles in White Dwarves, I'd venture it's several heavy washes of Agrax Earthshade where they want it to appear burnished and dirty.

Something that's not scanning right here, people do appreciate burnished means highly polished? Because I'm thinking it seems to have been used more in a way appropriate to being old and beaten up ITT.

True, that is the actual definition. Seems our lexicon in today's world has kind of flipped it to mean the opposite, though. Kind of like how "literally" literally means "figuratively" most the time.

Then again the origins of Burnished come from darkening through fire.

I suppose the word we should be using is "patina."

 azreal13 wrote:
Something that's not scanning right here, people do appreciate burnished means highly polished? Because I'm thinking it seems to have been used more in a way appropriate to being old and beaten up ITT.

Actually, I did mean highly polished, and that's why I choose burnished as the descriptive. What I see when I look at the, rounded steel plates on that Forgefiend, is a highly polished, raised area in the center of each steel plate. The burnishing apparently coming from repeatedly being rubbed, scraped, and stricken by external forces. Thus, the highest portions of the rounded steel plating becomes polished and exhibits a brighter sheen of silver, owing to the fact that it is no longer dirty, stained, pitted, or scarred.

Maybe I'm assuming the effect is polish when it's not, but that's what it looks like to me.

Either way, no offense taken, just trying to clear up that I do know the correct modern usage of the word.

Also, thanks to those of you who responded with your best guess as to the technique.