Learning to paint Non-metallic Metals (NMM)
Spot the difference!
Some days are better than others. This is the story of a not so good day. We often see people’s successes, but I think it’s important to show that this stuff is not easy, and often won’t work out perfectly first time.
I managed to get an hour and a bit in last night, but to me it feels like not a lot of improvement. First up, a before and after pair of images to give some context:
Subtle, eh?
So I tried to get the surfaces of the hammer looking more metallic. I still just struggle sometimes to know where to put highlights and what shape they should take. Not too happy with it.
Next up, I was trying to use Vallejo’s Armour Brown to get some depth into the shadier parts of my golden metals. you can see this on the right foot of the model (left as you’re looking at it). I guess it sort of works? I dunno.
You can possibly also see on the greaves my attempt at putting a horizon line reflection. I’m 50/50 on this effect right now.
You can probably guess I’m a little down about it now. I’m used to being able to spend an hour on a model and see a noticeable improvement. NMM needs more patience, obviously!
On the positive side, I added some blue onto the base which helps tie the base to the model a bit better. So a small win 😀
Hopefully the next update will be a bit more cheery, I’ll aim to get the highlights completed on the model, at least.
Wow, amazing work! I could never even thing of trying this skill! 🙂
Thank you for the kind words 🙂 I’d argue though that the trick here is more patience than skill. Hopefully I have enough!
Actually I think you have made the hammer look much more metalic and I can see that the brown has shaded the recesses well. I’d have missed out the differences if you had not pointed them out but I think NMM is a combination of lots of subtle changes like these.
I’m glad someone can see it, at times it felt like going backwards 🙂 It’s been an interesting learning experience – hopefully I can improve on my next figure!
My missus is picking up some Stormcast for herself this weekend, and I’ll be sure to show her this for inspiration, wonderful work.
Ok, now I’m blushing 🙂
I think a lot of us are picking up some new Stormcast this weekend… she has good taste! For me the big thing with these figures is finding a scheme you like – there’s so many options. In my case it was wanting to be able to enjoy the gold without feeling it overwhelmed everything – and that’s why the rest of the armour is a darker, plain colour.