PanzerKaput Goes To Barons' War
How I paint my Armour, Oh no I am giving away a secret, lol
After being asked how I paint my armour on the UHH by Squirrel Lord and @Sundancer, I thought I would do a quick guide. I have to saying I finding painting armour really interesting because of the reflexes, the different finishes, even the different metals as they all give different affects. But I don’t usually worry about all that but instead aim for something that I am happy with and best brings out the details of the sculpt. A good figure with lovely sculpted details, like Paul Hick’s or Matt Bickley’s are the ones I love the best for the level of detail, nicely between too much and not enough.
So I have do this simple step by step guide to how I paint armour, particular Early Medieval (Dark Age) and Medieval armour.
There is no magic, elves painting them for me, I so there was, it is a straight forward, simple formula that works for me.
All the paints I use for Vallejo Model Colour range, but you can use any paints.
I use the following VMC paints
Black, Gunmetal Blue, Natural Steel and Silver
The Paints I use from Vallejo Model Colour range, Black, Gunmetal Blue, Natural Steel and Silver
I first paint all the metal areas with VMC Gunmetal Blue. I use a very thin coat so the detail of the zenith underneath shows though a bit.
Next I lightly drybrush VMC Natural Steel over the surface of the metal areas to bring out the details.
I then do a very light drybrush, that kisses the surface of the model, using VMC Silver, to ring out the highlight details. You are looking the edges, raise areas and tops of the helmets, to give that polished, worn look. Trick is to just do the lightest of touches with the drybrushing. In fact you can leave it at this stage if you like but I apply a couple of extra things.
The next stage I wash a mix of VMC Black with the VMC Gunmetal Blue, I use 2 parts Gunmetal Blue to 1 part Black to about 7 parts water. You want this to be very watery so it washes into the recesses and bland all the colours together but not so it hides all your previous work. The good thing is you can play around with the Gunmetal Blue to Black ratio, more blue the bluer it is, more black the dark it will be. Also if you are going after the browny weather protection that was favoured in the ECW and 30YW add 1 part Flat Brown to the mix too. This is finished but I just do one extra stage
This is the last stage I do and it is simply a very light drybrush with VMC Silver again to just bring the details out and on the weapons edges I paint a very light edge highlight to them and hard edges on the armour. This is now all done and you see is it rather simple to do :D
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