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I have some characters in my 30k Ultramarines army that I intend to do mainly in Gold. These will be the Praetor and the Company Command Squad (basically the Praetor's Honor Guard).

The Retributor Armor spray that GW does is decent enough, but I've been told that there's a better way:

A friend in my gaming group, who paints for competitions and, effectively, apprentices under a local Golden Demon winner, suggested I first base in a medium green, then layer copper over that, then layer gold overtop that.

Not sure what gold color he uses for this though, as I mainly use the Citadel range (can buy at the FLGS), and he uses mostly P3, and Vallejo (which I can and sometimes use, but it's online order). For brush on, I typically use Retributior Armor as the base, but I'm concerned using it as my friend mentioned would merely color over the previous layers rather than having them enhance the gold color.

I guess my question is, what is the best way to do gold? I'm aiming for a brighter Gold while maintaining richness, but a bright brass a la the official pictures for the Ultramarines Invictarii would work too.

I have a 20 year old pot of Citadel “Shining Gold”. I generally put that over primer (I almost always use white primer) then wash with Reikland Fleshshade.

Gives a warm, antique gold colour. I then drybrush with the shining gold, and occasionally do some *very* light highlights with Mithril Silver.

Technically (the best kind of correct) I’ve won a painting competition... against 6 other people... and only 2 of the competitors had fully painted squads... and I was the only person with completely finished models... but the point is that this advice does come from a competition winner.

My gold is uusaly. grey primer, retributor gold (2 thin coats ^^) seraphim sepia wash and bringing it back up with retributor gold.

Im no expert but it seems to do the trick.

alternatively for a more brasssy look I do the same except use nightshade wash and then final highlight with a bit of ledbelcher on top of the gold.

Kind of depends on how you define 'best'... To me, the best, shiniest, and most GOLD gold always comes from a spray or an airbrush. Something about that method of application always makes metallics appear more metal I think. Also acrylic metallics aren't as METAL as enamel based ones in a lot of cases (AK Xtreme Metal is a range that I think looks amazing).

Historically, red is go-to undercoat for gold. Used for decades in gold leaf and the like because it is supposed to create the most rich and vibrant gold colour. But again, 'rich and vibrant' might not necessarily be what you consider to be good.

Vallejo has an alcohol based gold that looks like real gold. Can’t remember the name of it.


::Google search::

Vallejo Liquid Gold

I generally layer auric armour over either back(for cold gold) & light grey (for bright/warm) then layer with tamiya gold flake to get a 3dish depth. hilite w bright ass silver.

Dont think there is a best, it is more what look do you want.

the look that works for me using gw products only is: retri armor, agrax shade, drybrush auric armor.

I take my golds from a brass base, through a bright copper, then finish with a bright gold. But yeah best is subjective. I'm going to try that green idea though.

Not surprised about the medium green base, athonian camoshade can actually work well for a more weathered looking gold with other washes working from the retributor spray with stormhost silver as well (to add highlights that'd be tied back into the gold through washes while making the retributor gold darker).

But it depends on the type of gold, like for a more aged antique gold I'll paint it up from brown as normal but give the gold a drybrush of leadbelcher then a sepia wash to give it a more dulled kind of washed out look.

One quick and easy way I've liked recently is basically just brass scorpion over black (has really nice coverage and the right tone red/brown), then auric armor over that with an agrax wash and then auric highlights.

I've gotten great results recently by washing over Retributor Armour with Seraphim Sepia, to give it some depth, then highlight up from there. You do have to be careful to go directly into the recesses though, otherwise it goes really dark and needs another coat of Retributor after the wash.

It doesn't sound like what you're asking, but if you wanted a quick and dirty approach you can also use the Contrast yellows (Iyanden and Nazdreg) over a Leadbelcher spray. A final Seraphim Sepia wash works wonders there too.

Sorry to be a cheater, but Testors enamel - shiny gold.

My avatar pic has this with a bit of the Sepia wash (Seraphina now?) to shadow the recesses.

I stumbled upon this when looking for a cheaper way to do Gold for my Custodes force. My problem was that I had A LOT of Custodes to do (120 infantry, 10 vehicles) so I wanted a spray of some sort to speed things up. However, I needed a matching gold brush-on paint for touching things up. Finding a spray that matches a brush-on in Gold is VERY hard.

I ended up just using GW Retributor armor, with a twist. I primered it in a lite grey primer, then did a thin coat of Krylon Metalic Gold (this stuff is pennies on the dollar to GW spray). Krylon metalic gold is about a 95% match to Retributor armor, but not perfect. It's a bit shinier for one thing. With that base layer on I did another layer of Retributor armor (not much needed as the model is all ready gold). It ends up looking like Retributor armor, but with a bit of shiny gold flake.

I recently got this effect starting with a brown base, sprayed on with an airbrush then dry brushed on brass scorpion and then a lighter gold. There a few more steps in there I can give but it depends what good you are after, maybe find a picture example

There's nothing wrong with Retributor Armor via brush.



This is Retributor Armor over Vajello Ghost Grey base. Wash Agrax Earthshade, work up the Retributor Armor again (cleanup, brighten large surfaces), followed by some Shining Gold highlights. It's just the amount of effort you're willing to put into the extra layers over the wash. Your friend suggesting Green to Copper to Gold will produce a good result I'm sure, but it seems like a lot of work as well.

mrFickle wrote:
I recently got this effect starting with a brown base, sprayed on with an airbrush then dry brushed on brass scorpion and then a lighter gold.

With the previous incarnation of GW paints, I based with brown, then gold over the top, I seem to recall it looked quite nice.

These days, its just dark grey or black base with Retributor over the top.

Thanks for all of the responses! I've got a few test models set aside, so I'll be testing out many of these.

Never thought of Sepia wash for gold, I think that will be the next thing, followed by drybrushing Brass Scorpion and some kind of lighter gold over brown. I'll still try my friend's idea, but given the steps, I may save it for last.

I'm liking Athonian Camoshade as a wash over the retributor spray, especially when paired with highlights of Liberator Gold and a 50/50 mix of Liberator Gold and Stormhost Silver. However, I may either need to let my pot dry out a tiny bit or get another; it goes on fairly light for me and seems to produce "rings" in the recesses if doing a targeted wash. Alternatively, I might try mixing with a bit of Agrax.

For those that used Auric Armor Gold, I heard that's a very difficult one to use, is that the case?

I saw a painting tutorial video that used Vallejo Liquid Gold (and taught a better version of my own technique that I'll want to start using). However, I don't have good enough ventilation for using 95% Isopropyl Alcohol for thinning (at least, not the kind of ventilation I would want). Is there a water-based acrylic that matches or is close to Vallejo Liquid Gold? Liberator Gold seems close, but I don't know of anything closer.

I have had problems with both auric and liberator, they are both usable but my advice is to experiment with them as just looking at the paint forms reflect how it looks dry.

My advice with both is shake them very very well and add a mixing ball if you have any as many of my first failed attend were due to not shaking enough. I think it’s liberator the really needs a good shake to blend the various colours in it otherwise it can be quite orangy

In my experience, the gold colors seem to be mostly transparent, thus you need a good base coat before you apply the gold; I normally go with a black primer- rhinox hide- brass- gold- silver edge highlights- sepia wash.

A note on metallic paint. What makes it metallic is usually aluminum flakes incorporated into the paint. What can happen in a thin layer the aluminum flakes do not cover the entire area. This hurts the metallic effect.

Thus, you rarely do one layer of metallic paint. It's common to use different colors to highlight, but this can leave the basecoat visible in the low spots looking rather dull. I prefer to use two coats of whatever base metallic color I'm using, to get more complete coverage with the aluminum flakes.

It's also worth noting that it is quite possible to get a good gold by painting silver and then washing with a yellowish-brown ink.