Four & Five Tutorial - Three Step Metal

By John ‘Scarab’ Salmond

This is the first in the series of what I am calling the ‘Four & Five Tutorials’. This goes along with a post that I did earlier. These are tutorials are very mid-range tutorials. Some of the techniques can be pushed further but the intent is to help someone understand some simple ideas to take the basics one step further.

THREE STEP METAL

I used GW Bolt Gun Metal. I painted all of the metal objects on the fig. Bright and shiny.



Now I only use black for a wash on very limited occasions. Metal is one of those. When I painted a mass number of Necrons this is exactly what I did for a technique. I did throw in a drybrush of Iron Oxide for rust. Here the wash is about 35% paint and 65% water. This is something you may have to play with to get it right based on the type of paint you use. I used Ceramacoat.



This next shot I have just started to paint the scope with the wash. Don’t apply to much wash.

Tip: when painting a wash and you relize it is to thick. Just dip your brush in some water and go over the area you just applied the paint to. After you do that you may have too much wash in that one location. You can dry your brush and then use it as a sponge and wick up the extra wash.



This next picture shows the wash just applied. It is still wet. I wanted to show how much to apply. This wash was a tad thick but I was fine with it. Normally they are a little thinner when I do metal washes. Notice the gun and where the uni-pod is supporting it. I have not done the uni-pod yet so you can see the difference.



After all the metal areas are carefully covered with the wash. I have to let them dry. Now this next step I am using GW Chainmail for the highlight. You can just hit the upper most regions if you are painting tons of figs. I added a bit more on these figs. Make sure you thin the highlight paint down before you start.



Here are a couple of photos’s of the figures after the highlight. If you want to spend more time you can do one more stage of the highlight. You can use GW Mithril and up it one more. You can even take use white as the last stage. Each time you would narrow and reduce the amount of paint. But since this is three stage metal here you go. This makes for an easy way to get nice looking table top minis. This is not what I would do if I were to compete in a compitetion. Remember… these are not that advanced. We want fast, easy ways to get table top minis. With practice you will start to see several ways this simple tutorial can be applied. When you vary the thickness of the black wash you will also get different looks.



Tip: Notice how my paint overlaps areas I have not painted yet. This prevents little white seams between paints.

John Salmond...