Has it really come to this?

[Dr Death]

Well i think ive cracked, truly cracked, i just really cant get my metallics looking the way i want them no matter how hard i try. Every time i try painting metals they always look overpowering, i can never get my highlights in the right place because you can never see what the hell you\'re doing.

It is in the desparate hour that the eye begins to see and much to my hatred, disbeleif and hypocracy i think i might be turning to NMM........oh dear.

My problem with NMM is not so much that the technique itself is a bad one (yeah keep telling yourself that Hughlol) but that it seems to be a \"gateway drug\" to a style that i have a personal dislike for- super clean, spotless high fantasy heroes and villains that spend more time talking in american accents and maniacally laughing than getting bloody on the battlefeild. In all the surfing and soul destroying i have done on CMON i cant think of a single figure that has combined NMM with naturalistic painting.

So I beg either for advice on how to contain the sheer gloss of metallic paints or else how to paint naturalistic NMM.

Dr Death

 

[Fizl]

Washes - lots and lots of washes will take the shine from metallics but still make them look good. I think it was Cyril who did some fantastic real metallics stuff that doesn\'t scream gloss at you. Jacob Nielson has loads of good metallics in his gallery as well

Shaz

 

[Ritual]

Have a look at Arkaal\'s stuff! He does amazing NMM that is very life-like. His method of doing metal oxidations, scratches and nicks and such is truly great.

 

[Talion]

It is in the desparate hour that the eye begins to see and much to my hatred, disbeleif and hypocracy i think i might be turning to NMM........oh dear.

I\'m with you on this one, I think NMM looks fantastic on CMON. But that\'s because you are looking at it in 2D. In 3D it loses it\'s effect and doesn\'t look realisitc.

As for painting metallics, try using washes to take the edge off, also try mixing a little matt colour not much in with the metallics to tone the colours down, vary the shades as in normal blending, and your metallics will look better.

I personally always put one final wash onto my metallics after I finished highlighting them, to make a final blend.

 

[Einion]

I suspect that part of your problem might be that your standards are just a little high other people might not see your metallics as being as overpowering. Because we\'re seeing more and more figures in the historical-modelling circles with an overall matt finish I personally find it a refreshing change to see some shine where it\'s supposed to be, and on minis I quite like glossy metals, if the figure is painted to have a range of finishes.

Originally posted by Dr Death
My problem with NMM is... that it seems to be a \"gateway drug\" to a style that i have a personal dislike for- super clean, spotless high fantasy heroes...

Yeah, that is a problem but let\'s face it, most people seem to really like this. For fantasy subjects I think it works okay and when it\'s done really well it is very impressive.

Originally posted by Dr Death
...i cant think of a single figure that has combined NMM with naturalistic painting.

You don\'t often see a realistic, weathered look combined with NMM, although I have seen some. If I can find one I\'ll post the link.

Originally posted by Dr Death
So I beg either for advice on how to contain the sheer gloss of metallic paints or else how to paint naturalistic NMM.

A quick shot of a matt overcoat really tones down metallic paints, far too much in many cases so you could try this although I don\'t like it myself. I\'ve recently started using Tamiya\'s Smoke to glaze my painted steel after reading about it for years and I really like the effect, you can take a bright silver down to a grungy, oxidised steel with a few layers. A thin coat also helps to unify stippled/glazed oxidation marks using normal paint with the metallic base. It\'s a bit glossy so you might want to add in a little flat base to tone this down if you use it.

As for naturalistic NMM the best thing I can suggest is something I\'ve mentioned before - skip miniatures entirely and use paintings and illustrations for inspiration. Essentially we\'re just going for the same painted effects, just on a 3D surface.

Einion

 

[tidoco2222]

What Fizl said washes and lots of em.

 

[frenchkid]

Originally posted by Dr Death
In all the surfing and soul destroying i have done on CMON i cant think of a single figure that has combined NMM with naturalistic painting.

Ritual\'s minis would be a good exemple of natural painting and great NMM. Cyril would be another.
For good exemple of metalics have a look at allan\'s work and tidoco. You can even try and persuade tim to do an article on TMP

 

[Spacemunkie]

You are painting inch high chunks of metal.

Repeat after me :

\"THEY ARE NOT REAL! I have no need to paint them realistically. Moreover, if I do try to paint them realistically, they\'ll look SHIT!\"

Consider also the fact that most 28mm mini sculpts are indeed caricatures or cartoon-like characters, in outlandish poses, with too many muscles and weapons that are too large.

It really makes statements about realism sound ridiculous!

 

[provoke_me]

for me the choicde for NMM or good ole metallics depends on what the mini says. sometime s a mini will say \"go on, try out some NMM on my overly large battle axe\" and...som just say \"screw all that fancy crap, i just destroyed a village!\" it could be that im just crazy because i have conversations with my minis...

 

[Spacemunkie]

Oh, here\'s some \'weathered\' NMM...

Just needs to be done well.....

 

[provoke_me]

some of the best weathered NMM ive seen has usually come from the the people at Brushthralls
for example:

 

[Spacemunkie]

Nah, the French do it best....

 

[provoke_me]

shhh im american. im not alowed to like the french. lol
what i like about brushthralls is they show you how to do it.
but your right. the french do it the best. they also know how to sculpt very well too.

 

[Wolf_Fang]

that techmarine makes me want to hurl... its so freakin sexy!

 

[provoke_me]

sexy things make you hurl? you must be really good with the ladies.

 

[sebrushworth]

Originally posted by Talion

I\'m with you on this one, I think NMM looks fantastic on CMON. But that\'s because you are looking at it in 2D. In 3D it loses it\'s effect and doesn\'t look realisitc.

I really have to disagree about this statement, I\'ve only recently started doing NMM a few months back, and am still very much just beginning to learn it, but I showed my most recently painted figure (Eschelius the ardent) to my brother and he didn\'t realize I\'d painted the metal effects with greys and browns until I told him, and even then he didn\'t believe me at first. lol

 

[Ritual]

Remember that all techniques we use on minis, highlighting, shading, lighting effects (zenithal lighting, OSL, etc.) are 2D effects. Thus, the fact that NMM reflections are fixed on a certain spot is no more strange than the fact that every other highlight (and shadow) is also fixed.

 

[Spacemunkie]

I use only one rule when painting my minis:

Does it look good?

 

[Gerf]

Originally posted by Spacemunkie
I use only one rule when painting my minis:

Does it look good?

Yeah I have to agree on this one, as long as you get the desired effect/style that you are looking for it doesnt matter what methods you use.

 

[Dr Death]

\"THEY ARE NOT REAL! I have no need to paint them realistically. Moreover, if I do try to paint them realistically, they\'ll look SHIT!\"

My opinion is that there is a balance one must reach as an artist between what looks \"good\" on a miniature and what looks realistic on one.

Ultimatly if you painted a miniature exactly as it would appear if you had shrunk both the human being and the lightsource to the size being dealt with it would look terrible, and trust me it does because ive seen photographs of the model/s im painting (in this case a rohan royal guard) at the scale and there is veritably no definition.

Yet i feel i owe the designers of the orginal costume some form of payoff and so am painting as much as i can to the colours and the final result (of which shadows and highlights play a large part) of the costume.

My problem is that the metalic colour is standing out too much especially post highlighting (which ultimatly has to happen) so im beginning to think that doing it in NMM will \"take the shine off\" and return it to its rightful tone while still looking metallic.

Dr Death