Painting Gold

[Emerald Rose Widow]

So for some of my future models I want to have a nice bright burnished gold, I want it to look shiney and metalic, and gorgeous. Does anyone have advice on how they like to do this and create that gorgeous burnished look?

[DrLove42]

In my experience, scorched brown/shining gold base.
Follow up with total shining gold coating
Light wash with Devlan Mud in the cracks
Heavy highlight with burnished gold
And finally very fine mithril silver highlight on edges

But if anyone else has a better way (or any NMM) secrets i'd love to hear them too

[plawolf]

I have found that if you want really shinny metallic looking gold, its best to apply mithril silver over the base coat (the color of the base coat does not really matter in my experience) and then apply a watered down burnished gold. The silver will partly show through the thinned down gold, creating a good shinny gold feel and also saves you the bother of having to do highlights.

You may wish to play around with how much you thin down the burnished gold to see what shade of gold you prefer the most, but a general rule is that the more you thin it down, the more shinny the result (up to a point of course).

[Meph]

If you want to have that nice polished look, best to carefully highlight as opposed to drybrush. This will mean a huge increase in workload though, in terms of time and patience.
And a nice gloss coat at the end might do wonders as well.

Orrrrrr, you could go an entirely different route and find yourself a decent really metallic paint, they're usually oil paint though. But you can't beat a real oil-based pigment paint, you can even find 'm with real metallic pigments as well.

[isotope99]

I basically agree with the doctor, with some slight differences:


A tin bitz undercoat over black spray
A base coat of scrorched brown and shining gold
A topcoat of shining gold
A thinned down wash of devlan mud
Re-highlight with shining gold if the wash has dulled it
A final highlight of a mix of mithril silver and shining gold


As an example, this is what I used for the gold guy on my dreadnought:

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/kson_dread_21.jpg

[SotonShades]

One of the tricks I've picked up is to use purple inks/washes/glazes on gold rather than the browns such as gryphonne sepia or devlan mud. I tend to go for the purple first, followed by gryphonne sepia for a dirty gold, or devlan mud followed by Leviathan purple for a gleaner, more lustrous looking gold.

Otherwise the steps are the same, with a dark brown or metallic base over black undercoat up to a mithril highlight through your gold tone and washes.

As meph said, for a polished, clean look, you really do need to highlight rather than drybrush.

[Emerald Rose Widow]

thank you for all the help everyone, ill keep this all in mind and try things out when i get to that point, thank you

[Gir]

I found with my sanguinary guard the following worked really well:
Tempest ochre or Iyanden Darksun (Depending how dark you want it)
Couple of coats of Shining gold
Wash with Gryphonne Sepia.

If you want, you can then highlight with shining gold and/or mithiril silver.

[DWest]

My preference for shiny gold is to use Vallejo Bright Bronze for my base. It's a little redder than true gold, but makes a very shiny base, and it will even take over a non-black basecoat if you're in a hurry.

Here's my Librarian done with Bright Bronze highlighted with Vallejo Glorious Gold. Did a Devlan Mud wash to tone it down a bit.
http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/Kurlgyre25/102_0016.jpg

[Emerald Rose Widow]

My preference for shiny gold is to use Vallejo Bright Bronze for my base. It's a little redder than true gold, but makes a very shiny base, and it will even take over a non-black basecoat if you're in a hurry.

Here's my Librarian done with Bright Bronze highlighted with Vallejo Glorious Gold. Did a Devlan Mud wash to tone it down a bit.
http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/Kurlgyre25/102_0016.jpg

Wow, i love how this one looks, thanks for all your help everyone, ill keep this in mind when i do the units in gold that im going to do

[Jay Adan]

I've been really happy with using P3 Brass Balls as my Gold base then washing it with various colors based on what I want the final result to be. The Brass Balls metallic flake is very fine and comes out extremely shiny.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dullspork/5732976321

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5224/5686969715_88f2259625_z.jpg