Metallic vehicle hulls (IW players hit me up)

[Urauloth]

Alright, so, I'm pretty good at painting metallics - decent, at least - and I'm getting better at weathering and battle damage and so on all the time, and I'm happy with the results. Problem is, most of the time I'm applying my colours to things that are small, angled, pointy or roughly textured - I play Mordor in Lord of the Rings, which is a bit like painting Dark Eldar blessed by Nurgle, and the rest of my metallics are armour banding on my CSM and the usual weapons, chainmail tabards, and whatever else you have lying around in a Chaos warband.

 

My point is that I don't have a lot of experience painting big flat open surfaces with metallic colours, and since I'll more than likely be doing a couple vehicles with iron coloured hulls in the near future, I want all the advice I can get to avoid any potential disasters. I painted a couple Iron Warrior test minis before, but those were power armour marines, and while the iron on those went well, that's... not even slightly the same as tackling a drop pod or a rhino. It seems like transfering the techniques I know and love will be really hard, essentially.

 

So, tips and techniques, if you could! Among the questions I have are: how do you stop your washes from pooling or tide-marking? How do you ensire you get the hulls dark and dirty enough that they match your army? Is there anything I need to know to avoid?

 

Oh, I'm asking Iron Warrior players in particular for advice because I want the dark, worn iron look that a lot of IW forces have, and to keep away from the clean silver look of Grey Knights as much as possible, but anyone with insight, please dump tips on me. Also, full disclosure, I don't actually plan to use this knowlege to paint Iron Warriors and I'd feel like a thrice-cursed traitor for gleaning the secrets of the IV by treachery. They've suffered enough indignities. :p

[NovemberIX]

I have bad painting habits so don't take what I say too seriously.

 

I start by basing in black, then using a midtone (chainmail or iron breaker) I'll do a fairly liberal dry brush, once I've gotten a good chunk of the edges and other random raised details then I'll bust out with my dark tone (bolt gun or lead belcher) and doing a straight dry application I'll fill in anywhere that still shows black until I feel like its sufficently filled in , but not uniform, I like a little subtle variation. To make it smooth I manipulate the paint until it's finally dry, by continual brushing in buffing motion.

 

Someone else better experienced in using washes will have better advice than I but I'll throw out that, much like paint, I'll manipulate the wash until it's dry and blended as well (badab black is my go to, nuln oil is a fair replacement). If it doesn't start setting how I want, a bit of water and a clean brush can remove any tide marks pretty handily. Dry brush highlight with a light tone (Mithril Silver /necron dry compound) to taste.

[Razblood]

You could try applying the Metallics with a sponge, say for instance - 

 

Start with Black undercoat.

 

Apply Warplock Bronze (Tin Bitz, Tinny Tin) unevenly across the surface.

 

Follow this with an equally uneven layer of Leadbelcher (Boltgun Metal)

 

Then another equally uneven layer of Ironbreaker (Chainmail, Steel)

 

Then mix up Agrax Earthshade ( Strong Tone, Devlan Mud), Nuln Oil (Dark Tone, Badab Black), Lahmian Medium (Glaze Medium) and water in a

50/10/30/20 ratio and apply all over, paying specific attention to any recesses/panel lines.

 

I did something similar on some Ork vehicles and it came out quite well, but it's just an idea :tu: