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Painting Gold


Kierdale

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I don't remember having this trouble when I was into the hobby ten years back (then again, back then we didn't have foundation paints, washes, etc)...I'm painting again now and having trouble with Burnished Gold going on top of Skull White. It seems so thin! It's taking three or more coats before it seems solid, which is infuriating when it comes to painting detail (tripling the risk of wobbly-handedness!).

 

Does anyone have any advice?

Just get on with it?

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When painting over a white undercoat, I basecoat in a dark, flat colour first, like Scorched Brown. I make the first metallic coat after that Dwarf Bronze before using either Gold, then highlight all the way up to Mithril Silver, with several washes along the way (Leviathan Purple in the recesses, Gryphonne Sepia).

 

Be sure to thin your paint - this seems counterintuitive when it doesn't cover well to start with, but you need to build it up in multiple layers, and thick paint will look terrible.

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I often use yellow as a basecoat under the gold parts of a model. Makes it more even and vibrant.

 

 

Yes, in this case Iyanden Darksun Foundation paint is your friend.

 

My recipe: Base coat the surface you want to paint in Iyanden Darksun then apply a thin layer of Burnished Gold, then a wash of Gryphone Sepia.

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I always base in black and then do several thin coats of GW Shining Gold(like 5 or 6) to build up a nice, rich color.

 

Next, I do a thin overall wash with the now-discontinued GW Chestnut ink, followed up by washes in the recess shadowed areas with chestnut and a dash of GW Purple ink. For really dark areas or a place where I want high contrast, I will add more purple for successive washes, but I always keep these thin to maintain control. Since these inks are no longer available, you could get inks from another company, or if you wanted to go with the GW Wash line, I would suggest Gryphonne Sepia and Leviathan Purple.

 

Once I have it shaded, I will then come back in with a thin wash or two of Shining Gold if I got it too dark in the previous step - and when I say thinned, I mean where it looks like gold colored water. If I don't need to so that step, I will then thin down GW Burnished Gold until it looks like water with a few sparkly flecks in it. Now, it might looks like it's thinned to the point of separation, but it if you use this like a highlight, hitting raised areas and edges, it's quite noticeable. If it's not bright enough with a coat or two, add a few more or just a tiny dot of paint to the wash.

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Have to admit here I started by just appling the gold in a thick layer.

Fisrt few tries are terrible, now most are okey.

But it pales besides the layers, Recently I use the layers, I too started with brown and then applied a few layers of gold. It looks very rich and actualy burnished.

Might take a bit more time and effort, but those are models I am content with. I am now pondering if, and how to redo the first models I painted.

 

So yes, I advise it is worth to layer.

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After having seen a Heavy Metal Painter painf a shoulder pad on an Ork in gold in around 10 mins I have to say well worth the effort. He used shining gold, shaded with scorched brown and highlighted with burnished gold then mithril, with leviathan purple wash to add depth.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I think the Sepia is closest to the old Chestnut ink color and it does a good job of bringing out the richness in the gold paint. The purple, in my experience, works great for shading, but you have to be careful with it, as it's very easy to go overboard.

 

I can probably whip up a tutorial of how I do gold this weekend. Well... my weekend, Sunday and Monday.

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just something you may want to experiment with, but a friend of mine worked on the set of clash of the titans and when they painted anything gold they base coated with red?! When told this i was sceptical but i assure you it works very well. I use tamiya 'primer red'.

 

Dont mean to throw a spanner in the works or overload you with different info. This base coat will make the gold brighter than a darker basecoat.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Oh you should check out my blog: http://atticwars40k.blogspot.com/

 

I've got an article specifically about Gold... I went crazy and tried just about every gold before I dared to paint my Sanguinary Guard haha...

 

Nice run down on the golds! I've recently grown to live the Vallejo metallics as well, and probably won't be going back to GW.

 

And it's funny that you mention GW painting guides being lies. I know practically every one of Neil Green's painting guides were complete BS and wouldn't produce anything near the scheme they were supposed to.

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Ah! Brown! :devil:

Thank you, Sgt Satio, Lucien, Hemal and Brother Nihm. Thank you all so much.

 

I'll give that a go this weekend.

Consider this statement repeated in it's entirety.

 

Gentlemen, you've just saved me from painting some excruciatingly thin layers. ^_^

Many thanks!

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This is driving me bonkers. I can’t seem to get a nice, even gold no matter what technique I try. Even when I thin the paint with water, it tends to collect at the center of the surface I’m painting (talking about flat surfaces here). Also, the brushstrokes from my 1:1 scorched brown / shining gold basecoat always seem to show through the layers of shining gold.
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@Brother Chaplain Kage - Thanks! ...yeah I do agree, it seems that nearly all of the GW tutorials are misleading. I am quite sure that some of the team does not even use GW paints. Anyway, GW Mithryl Silver is probably the nicest silver / metallic paint available, but the GW golds are just crap imo.

 

@Deschenus Maximus - Dude I know exactly what you are talking about. Check out my gold blog (see my sig) and read the 'general impressions' paragraph. Basically I discovered with metallics that if you let them almost/half dry you should NOT touch them. If you want to add another brush stroke of paint, do it right away, when it's just wet, or then after it dries completely.

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