Metallic painting

[Black Knight]

I thought I would ask here as I already know there are quite a few of you that have been painting metallic colours on your knights.

 

I have just received my Cherry red so I can start painting my first big Knight. I saw the picture below and it is what I had in my mind when it comes to the shading.

 

My question is how the shadow effect is done on the metallic? I understand that I need to undercoat with a silver then go over the top with the red but how do I shade while keeping the metallic effect. Do I undercoat with silver then go around the edges and bottom with black or do I start with the black and then shade the centre with the silver. Or is there some other way of doing it? 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Edited July 20, 2020 by Black_Knight

[ValourousHeart]

The red contrast over GW's gold primer did a really nice red metallic for a friend of mine on a set of stormcast.

However my attempt to get a smooth coat with contrast on my Knight (over gray seer) ended up with a rippling water effect.

The official story is that the water effect was totally intentional.

 

The Knights where I used Contrast on the accents instead of the main panels worked out really well.

 

The red contrast over gold will give that bright to dark effect. 

However you will need to thin the contrast down a lot, and do multiple coats, because of how smooth the model is.

You'll also want to do very small sections at a time.

 

The hardest part was the shoulders, which the example did in white.

<face palm> why didn't I think of that.

Contrast over that large smooth surface gave the most ripple effect.

[Black Knight]

Thanks for the reply ValourousHeart, I already have the red I want to use, I didn't really want to use contrast as I have seen how much of a pain it can be on large panels. I've got a large bottle of Vallejos candy red, I just need to figure out how to do the darker shadow areas in the above picture without removing the shine of the silver layer.

[brother_b]

Could have been preshading black and white/grey for the areas of light and dark. Then very thin application of metallic followed by very thin build up of the candy red.

 

That’s my guess at it I think we’ve got someone that uses candy red on their knights. Maybe Hermanista. He will probably comment on this thread too.

[hermanista]

That’s my guess at it I think we’ve got someone that uses candy red on their knights. Maybe Hermanista. He will probably comment on this thread too.

I feel called out at this point! Lol.

 

I use clear greens and blues under my reds.

 

 

 

This is the link to the imgur folder with it in, though only used green on this one.

 

I've used black as well on some of the originals, but having tried both versions I think I preferred the green/blue.

 

http://imgur.com/gallery/rGaL8oE

[MajorNese]

FW has shown that step by step in the Imperial Armour Masterclass - Horus Heresy. On a knight, in red gloss.

 

Basecoated bright silver, slightly airbrushed with Calth Blue and Mortarion Green, then several layers of thinned Angron Red to get it to its intended color.

Blue and green for pre-shading was called "tonal shading", I guess those colors darken differently when coated with a red "filter".

[ValourousHeart]

 

That’s my guess at it I think we’ve got someone that uses candy red on their knights. Maybe Hermanista. He will probably comment on this thread too.

I feel called out at this point! Lol.

 

I use clear greens and blues under my reds.

 

 

 

This is the link to the imgur folder with it in, though only used green on this one.

 

I've used black as well on some of the originals, but having tried both versions I think I preferred the green/blue.

 

http://imgur.com/gallery/rGaL8oE

 

That is brilliant, I'm going to add that to my book.

[Dusktiger]

another method if you prefer to stick with just metallics, is to make a custom metallic of 50:50 Boltgun Metal:Vallejo Black. 

 

This'll make a nice dark metal that'll apply pretty smoothly, even with a brush.   And if it's still a little too bright, cover it with a wash of Nuln oil to further darken it.

 

Afterwards, coat with 3-5 thin coats of your candy red to avoid ripples and bubbles forming between the coats.

[Mandragola]

A slightly weird trick I've found is using green ink to shade red. That would mean two layers after the metal though, so it might start to disappear. I find green shades red better than black does, for reasons I don't really understand.

[Subtle Discord]

Green works well because green is made by combining the Primary colours yellow and blue. Red is also a Primary colour, and when you mix all three primary colours you get black; technically, but in reality it's more of a dark brown, and this is with paint, with light combining all the colours creates white, so yeah, it can be confusing sometimes.

 

Since you're blending the paints actual hue/pigments to create the darker tones it should be easier to get a smoother transition to the blend; doing it with black (which is not technically a colour; white is a 'tint' and black is a 'shade') will create a shade that darkens the red more abruptly as the red pigments simply 'layer over' the black pigments rather than blending with them.

[Black Knight]

Thanks all for the replies I need to look at them later, stuck in bed with Nurgel, hope the wife doesn't catch me.

[Colonel Cross]

Wow really enjoying the discussion in this thread. Thank you for all who have replied. I've seen plenty of tutorials which use a brown (burnt umber, to be exact) to prime a model they then airbrush red over and it looks really great.

[Black Knight]

Yay I live and return from the depths of Nurgels cauldron.

 

I never thought to use the colour wheel and use another colour to shade! Is that a metallic green hermanista? Could you tell me what colour it was please. Funny enough I don't have any Vallejo greens so I am going to have to order in. 

 

Thank you all again.

[hermanista]

I've tried a couple of metallic greens.

 

There was this version

 

Silver base, clear blue preshading, badger minitaire Ghost tint green.

 

 

And this version, silver base, I think clear blue preshade again and then Tamiya clear green.

 

[Black Knight]

There is definitely a matt/gloss difference with those two. What did you use for the red pre-shading, was it a metallic green or just normal?

[Magos Takatus]

Ooh, those are some wonderful green colours. I personally prefer the first one of the two. If I hadn't already settled on paints for my Knights I would have been ordering those paints as we speak. :D

[hermanista]

@Black Knight

 

As above in my earlier post, silver base, tamiya clear green and clear blues for the preshading.

[Black Knight]

Ah I completely blanked that out, was looking at the lovely pics, thanks Hermanista,

Edited July 30, 2020 by Black_Knight

[Clingy]

@Black knight

 

Any photos of your progress?

[Black Knight]

Unfortunately no, I just got the last of the paint late last week(Vallejo metalic green), it took a few weeks for the supplier to send it to the shop.  I do have all the paints now so I will get to it soon, I just got a Valiant so I now have all the models I wanted(I am not ready to go Forgeworld Knights yet, although I am thinking of starting my resin career with a Termite Drill).

 

I now have to decide which one to start on, probably the Castellan as it gives me a bigger canvas to experiment with. 

[Clingy]

Oh nice. So you elected to go green instead of red?

 

My knights are painted metallic red house Taranis scheme. The green that hermanista linked earlier looks brilliant

[Black Knight]

Nah still sticking to red but you apparently use the green to pre-shade the red.

Edited October 15, 2020 by Black_Knight