Really shiny silver plate armour?

[Raven Morpheus]

Hi all

I have a Bretonnian Knight that I'll be painting up for Warhammer Quest 1995 (images of it below). I'd like to make the armour parts look something like in the first image below but I have an image in my head of a hero wearing plate armour that is super shiny silver with a kind of other worldly (in a good way) very slight blue shine/glow to it, as though the armour has been forged from something really exotic, perhaps a bit like mithril.

I've been stuck for a very long while though on just how to achieve this. I do know that I don't want to go down the route of the NMM technique though, it's cartoony, and I can't do it.

With my Warrior Priestess, I tried using Citadel Grey Knights Steel, and whilst that turned out OK, it's not quite what I am looking for on the Bretonnian Knight.

I did a test on one leg with Vallejo Metal Color Silver, highlighted with Vallejo Metal Color Aluminium and shaded with black. That looked OK but still not quite as bright as I'd like it to look, and obviously there wasn't any particular blue "glow" to it.

I also tried on the other leg Vallejo Metal Color Aluminium, with black shading. That looked a little more like the blue glowy shiny silver I was looking for, because to my eyes Vallejo Metal Color Aluminium seems to have a very slight blue tone to it, but I don't seem to have anywhere to go for a highlight colour for it, unless Vallejo Metal Color Chrome is orders of magnitude brighter and will serve as a highlight!?

Both leg tests were done over a gloss black undercoat.

I'm thinking shading with blue wouldn't quite look right, so I'd like to stick with black shading. I'm also thinking a blue glaze would look wrong also - might as well use Grey Knights Steel as it'll probably look the same.

So, I'm struggling with what paints to use as a) base colour and b) highlights, either straight out of the pot or to mix up.

You guys were very helpful in pointing me in the right direction when I was trying to achieve dark black/brown leather on my Witch Hunter model, so I'm hoping you guys can help with this?

Thanks in advance.


Example image - from the movie Excalibur, 1981.

This is the original box artwork that I'll be following as a colour guide -

And this is the model -

 

[Ashmagnus2112]

I'm not exactly the best painter to in ever but I'd suggest priming white then layer your silver on I personally use P3 Quick Silver for the metallic ( hopefully someone else has a Vallejo or something analog P3 unfortunately isn't common these day) after you get your metallic layer down hit it with a thin layer of a blue contrast paint, whichever you envision as the best then you can add more silver on top of you think your blue glow is to heavy. You probably could achieve the same effect with a wash glaze or ink in medium but I've personally liked the contrast over metallic look myself gives you a very easy metallic looking color I've used it for space Marines alot but alot for magic effect on fantasy minis. Hope that helps some and good luck on a truly classic mini

 

[almic85]

The GW paint app’s closest thing to shiny plate armour is basecoast leadbelcher, shade of drakenhof nightshade, layer iron breaker, layer storm host silver.

you can also try picking out their brightest silver (which I think is storm host) doing a base coat with a mix with black added, followed by a layer of pure stormhost, followed by a very think edge highlight or dry brushing of 1:1 stormhost and white mix.

Personally I think the shade of drakenhoff nightshade rather than a black shade is what really makes the silver pop.

 

[Ashmagnus2112]

This is a solid route as well tho I'd personally still go for a contrast or glaze over a standard color wash if you want that enchanted blue look going into crazy bright silver. I also think you don't want to wash the armor again if you want to go on the reference pic I think you get depth with the Blue and would have plenty of other non armor details to paint normal to get standard depth and layering but again that's just my opinion

 

[radulykan]

Buy some chrome paint? Check greenstuff world or similar

Chrome Paint

Chrome Paint

www.greenstuffworld.com

 

[Unslain]

My first thought would be to grab the brightest metallic you can, start with a little blue or indigo mixed into the first layer, rather than shading later, then add more of the metallic to that mix and layer on, and then do highlights with a white followed by the metallic again over top. The white underneath should boost the brightness, whereas mixing puts the large white pigment particles in among the metallic.

When you say you tried Vallejo, was that the standard metallics or the air brush range? Tabletop Minions put out a video just yesterday, singing the praises of the "metallic air" silver paints when applied with a brush. The finer particles in air brush paint might give you the extra shine you're after, though it's not something I've tried myself yet.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Thanks guys. I've bought a bottle of Vallejo Metal Color Chrome so I'll see how that looks for highlights to the Metal Color Aluminium.

I don't want to use Citadel metallics as they just aren't "metal looking" enough for this task.

 

[Fold]

I watched this video on YouTube yesterday and now couldn’t agree more that citadel lags the pack in true metallic paints. The metallics used here are stunning! If you don’t have any luck with the Vallejo paint, on the strength of this video I’d look at AK interactives true metal paints.

 

[Thorfinn]

That's a metal mini, right?

Back in the day, I would burnish some parts of metal minis, usually sword and axe blades with a metal tool I have and it would polish them to a mirror sheen. Too much detail to do that here, but you could have some success with a dremel tool and a polishing wheel with polishing compound. Then you'd want to rough up and prime the cloth and other non-metal parts with some vinegar and brush on primer.

Failing that, I think this is a really good project for you to try your hand at NMM. It's not like trying to do a whole army or even a unit. Its one guy, and I've found that these are really great pieces to try new techniques and learn new skills.

Failing THAT, use the silveryest, most shiny paint as a base. Use several thin layers of blue as a glaze to bring in those tones, and white as a highlight. Look at the picture of Lance-a-lot and break down what you see in small chunks. Make yourself a mask if necessary, by cutting a small hole in a piece of paper, so you're only focusing on small parts of armor. What colors do you see? Don't think of it as "silver". It's greys and white, with blue and green where it's reflecting the sky/trees respectively. Also, consider painting all the metal with a gloss clear coat when you're done, with the rest having a matte or flat clear coat. That way, the actual lighting will help sell the effect by adding actual glare and reflections.

And for what it's worth, Excalibur is a very stylized film, and the cinematography deliberately used really bright light and other techniques to push the reflections to 11. They were showing that as Arthur's golden age, where the knights literally farted rainbows - to contrast with the earlier war and the later quest and war, as well as the bad guys. All that to say that that may not be the best example to try to replicate in miniature, as you'll be painting a lot of white on it, and it may not read how you want.

No matter what, I'd love to see how he turns out.

Man I really need to watch this movie again.

 

[Thorfinn]

So is he done?

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[Stoof]

This is an old thread, but it's bubbled up again so in the off chance you're still looking, @radulykan did one of his TribeMeet Thundercube fighters in very very shiny chrome paint. It was impressive stuff. Perhaps he can say what brand it was.

That with a light blue thin wash and I reckon you might well meet your imagined effect.