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I am not quite satisfied with how shiny my gold is after washing and highlighting. Any tips how i can make my Custodes more shiny? Thanks.

You could dry the gloss washes from GW, which dry shiny. Or you could apply some gloss varnish.

Shiny how? If you want shine, you could gloss varnish your models, but this won't give them a metallic shine.. Metallic shine isn't glossy. To acheive this you need to create the contrast in the metals, and this takes a lot of time and effort.

Another option is to try some true metals from ak interactive. They are an oil wax based paint that you apply, then buff like shoe polish with a soft cloth. That will give you a realistic metallic with the shine you want.

Vallejo make dropper bottles of flat, satin, and gloss varnishes that can be painted right on like any other paint, and is water washable. I love them and use them all the time.

For metallics, I'd go with Vallejo satin varnish.

There are two ways of doing this.

One is to use our Gloss+ in the metallic, this give a shiny (As well as tough) finish, or wait until our new Metal+ is out towards the end of this month, this when added to metallics, brightens them up

Not to be trite, but you could get shinier gold paints.

ardcoat from GW. I use it to give the armored parts of my nids a "cockroach shine". This could be the shine you're looking for.

Highlight with the original colour?

Do you want them brighter or shinier, as those are two very different things.

I find a super light dry brush with silver on top of the gold (VERY light) makes the gold really pop and details shine.

If you want the gold to be more glossy, then the other posters have the right advice with various gloss coats.

+1 on the super extra highlight with silver,

When I painted my honour guard helmets and cmdr dante, I followed the citadel paint app for a worn gold look, the last highlight was silver

I would recommend Vallejo's Metal Color Gold. It's a mix of silver and gold, almost platinum like, but highly pigmented.

The process I did on my Custodes was super simple, all drybrushed. VMC Umber, S75 Necro Gold, and Vallejo Metal Color Gold.

This is what my "raw" custodes looked like after the 3 super quick drybrush steps above.



I did some oil washes (black and umber mix, with a touch of purple) and some color filters (red and purple) to tone up my shadows and define all the details, but I preserved the bulk of the highlights so you can still really see how bright it gets, without pushing silver. I did go back in after doing all the oils and washes with light drybrushes of my necro gold and vallejo gold to redefine some highlights.





You can really see how bright it gets on Valdor's shoulder/wings (I went a little heavier on him because I wanted him slightly "brighter" than my infantry.

 John Prins wrote:
Not to be trite, but you could get shinier gold paints.

That's not the problem, if you paint metallics using the GW preferred method of 1. base 2. shade 3. layer, then the shade step will always dull down metallics. You can use gloss shade on the metals, but they still dull them a bit. If he wants very shinny metal paint to remain shiny he needs to be more controlled with his washes and recess shade, switch to oils or build up his metallics from dark and not wash them back from a mid tone using dry brushing (something far to few people do these days). He can also use a gloss varnish on his metallics when he's done. Satin if he wants it more subtle.

EDIT DV8 has a good example of dry brushing, I hadn't scrolled to see his post yet.

At the end of the day, if you shade metallic paint, they get less shinny.

 Red Corsair wrote:

 John Prins wrote:
Not to be trite, but you could get shinier gold paints.

That's not the problem, if you paint metallics using the GW preferred method of 1. base 2. shade 3. layer, then the shade step will always dull down metallics. You can use gloss shade on the metals, but they still dull them a bit. If he wants very shinny metal paint to remain shiny he needs to be more controlled with his washes and recess shade, switch to oils or build up his metallics from dark and not wash them back from a mid tone using dry brushing (something far to few people do these days). He can also use a gloss varnish on his metallics when he's done. Satin if he wants it more subtle.

EDIT DV8 has a good example of dry brushing, I hadn't scrolled to see his post yet.

At the end of the day, if you shade metallic paint, they get less shinny.

You can shade without drowning the model in wash.

Evidence:




Wash was only applied to recesses. There are also silver highlights, that was good advice. I airbrushed 2 kinds of (Vajello) gold paint before washes.

A wash applied to a recess isn't shading. You're edging, or defining crevices.

Metallic paints are so reflective because part of the paint pigment includes actual metallic flakes. RedCorsair is correct in that a non-metallic wash applied on top of metallics, regardless of the quantity, dulls down the natural reflectivity of metallics because you're covering up/obscuring metallic pigments with non-metallic pigments (which are naturally less reflective).

The amount of washes (and thus pigment) you layer on top of metallics will naturally dull down the shine of metallic paints as a result, and you can control the degree by controlling the amount of pigment (by controlling the amount of the wash).

The best way to maintain the natural reflectivity of metallic paints is to highlight and shade purely with metallic paints, and different brands will have more or less reflectivity based on how their specific pigment to medium to flakes ratio is (I actually find GW tends to fall on the low end of the spectrum, with S75 and Vallejo getting progressively higher in reflectivity, especially with the darker silvers and golds.

 DV8 wrote:
A wash applied to a recess isn't shading. You're edging, or defining crevices.
.

I think you are splitting hairs. A shade is supposed to be defining crevices, isn't it? I mean, you can always go back and brighten up the metal after an all-over wash, or you could just be careful with the shade in the first place. As always, there's more than one way to skin a cat!

 John Prins wrote:

 DV8 wrote:
A wash applied to a recess isn't shading. You're edging, or defining crevices.
.

I think you are splitting hairs. A shade is supposed to be defining crevices, isn't it? I mean, you can always go back and brighten up the metal after an all-over wash, or you could just be careful with the shade in the first place. As always, there's more than one way to skin a cat!

He means it isn't shading the model. Shading is darker areas, opposed to the lighter areas of highlights. A wash doesn't really do this. It usually has to be done manually by layering up or glazing down.

Shinny can be done with Gloss coat.

If your wanting shinny/sparkly metallics.

Use Vallejo Metal color Gold/Copper if you want to keep with acyrlics.

or

Use Vallejo Liquid Metals Gold Alcohol Based, its a different animal but is the closest thing to true metal i have ever seen. You have to use Iso Alcohol to thin, NOT water.

https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/categoria/hobby/liquid-gold-en/

Have you tried a highlight or drybrush of silver, followed by a watered down coat of ardcoat?

I found that putting on pure ardcoat makes a model too shiny, but watering it down gives it a more subtle effect.

If you're using a wash, the amount of gloss in the metallic paints to start with won't make much different. The matte effect of the washes will dull it down.

Gloss varnish (after all painting is complete) has the risk of looking candy-coated, but a satin varnish will return some shine. I'd suggest starting with a satin and see what you think.

first thanks to all of you.I will need some to go through all your tips.