Painting silvery vehicles?

[tvih]

So, I'm a bit bummered on how to proceed right now. My Adepta Sororitas army is Argent Shroud. The infantry color scheme looks fine, but the vehicles look... boring. My marine vehicles use the usual base color + highlight method, which may not be spectacular but is acceptable:

 

 

Then came the success of my heavily drybrushed Steel Legion vehicle scheme (based on Codex: Armageddon's original scheme) which ended up being far better than I hoped dream and much superior to my marine vehicles:

 

 

But now, especially in a combined IG+Sisters list the Sisters' vehicles look totally out of place out of blandess:

 

 

I was working on my Exorcist but gave up because it just looks so boring. Simply adding nuln oil in recesses and white highlight doesn't really do enough from my little tests, it'd need some... texturing?

 

I've seen some nice silvery tanks on Google searches but usually nothing to indicate how it was achieved. Something like these for example?

http://www.darkeyestudios.co.uk/Jay/Grey_Knights_Rhino_2.1_files/GreyKnightsRhino201.jpg

http://i439.photobucket.com/albums/qq113/Dk_suwit/GreyKnightsRhino203.jpg

[Khornate individual]

The first tank pic that you show from google looks like it probably had some diluted blue ink or watered down paint airbrushed onto it over the silver.  You see areas of silver with no blue on it that are a little jagged around the edges (really noticeable on the front exhaust cover).  If you've airbrushed on the watery blue, before it completely dries wad up a paper towel and dab it here and there.  That will take off areas of the blue and allow the silver to show through more.  You would want to keep using different sides of the paper towel as you do it so your not dabbing on more blue as your trying to take off areas of various size around the tank.

The mud and dirt around the bottom of the tank and on the tracks, grab an old worthless brush that has the bristles going out in every direction.  Use a brown color that you will use as your mud or mix up some brown, a little olive drab and a bit of black and that doesn't have to mixed completely because the small splotches of different color makes the mud look a little more natural.  Get some paint on your old brush, give it a couple of wipes on the back of your thumb or a towel and start tapping the brush straight onto the tank.  That way all of those bristles that go every different direction will be giving the paint a more splashed up splattered look.  Once it's dry you could do a darker color to make it look like dried dirt with fresh wet mud along the bottom.  On the second pic around the exhaust vents, you would do the same except using black and dark grey colors.

If you want a little more grunge (which I always like)  use a dark olive drab with another crappy brush (or small pieces of sponge if your not able to get a good effect with the brush), wipe pretty much all the paint out of the brush and that will make the paint on the bristles turn into almost a powder then hit the tank here and there all around, but not too much.  Do the same with some dark grey then some brown.  This will make it look like the tank has spent it's life outside.  It works really well on tanks that are black, but you don't want to get to crazy with all of it.  Some tanks might only get one small spot of olive smacked onto one side while another tank I might hit 3 random places.  You don't want your tank to look like some off colored tie die (eeeeyuck tie die!)

[NovemberIX]

My general solution is to layer multiple "silvery" metallics to give it a textured look. Like base black, layer leadbelcher (or a gunmetal), wash, layer a lighter silver like Iron breaker, wash again, then hit it up with Runefang steel or another bright silver, and one last wash to give it depth. When washing I prefer to let it get kinda messy because the tidemarks are what gives it a visual texture. You can give it actual texture when layering by messing with the paint as it's drying or priming in a way that gets you orange peel or . The other thing that could help is using a secondary (and maybe a tertiary) color to offset the silver. That red would look good on the front and rear indention areas or even on the smoke stacks. Honestly, I'd say your Exorcist looks like it's just a few steps shy of that last image, just needs some other metallics for detail work and a good couple of washes on the edges, corners, and rivets.

[Grotsmasha]

That silvery-blue is achieved with a 50-50 Lahmian Medium and Guilliman Blue mix.

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

If you want that bluish steel GK look in one easy step without risking pooling blue glazes and washes on your metal, get Forge World's Grey Knight Steel metallic paint.

 

http://skaystore.ru/images/detailed/83/Grey-Knights-Steel.jpg

[depthcharge12]

Otherwise, you could possibly stipple a lighter metal ontop.

[madscuzzy]

You could get the effect from the last tank (side view) from airbrushing (easily), you using a spray can of clear smoke (usually a transparent-ish greytone), but only spraying along the bottom and letting the spray create a gradient.  Of course canned sprays are not as easily controlled as an airbrush but it works well.

 

After which you highlight.

 

Clear sprays (or candy coats) are usually glossy, so it still retains the shine.

[Ovidius Incertus]

I'd suggest watching the Grey Knights tutorial video from Warhammer TV or any one of numerous GK painting tutorials on Youtube.  I'd suggest BuyPainted's GK videos or TheApatheticFish or the GK Dreadknight video from Miniwargaming.  You'll see different approaches that provide the effect you've shown on those two Rhinos.

 

I'm actually doing this know and just built up 5 GKs to test out 5 different paint schemes to see which one I like best using a variety of techniques.  More than a few ways to skin a cat here.

[Guiltysparc]

I may be off the mark on your question here, but i've hit on a very easy metal process if thats what you are going for.

Spray leadbelcher

All over nuln oil wash

Heavy drybrush leadbelcher

Light drybrush of ironbreaker

Very light drybrush of runefang just over some of the more pronounced edge

Stippling of runefang over the broader surfaces like the hip joints and such

Here is an exmaple of it on the knight i'm working on now. On this particular example i did a heavy drybrush of ironbreaker and runefang over the bits of the pistons that seem like they would move in and out of something to give it a cleaner look.

[tvih]

Guiltysparc, yeah that does look pretty good. I have on Immolator that is Leadbelcher rather than the lighter silver, so I have been thinking of trying drybrushing Runefang on it. Maybe nuln oil the recesses first. Of course even if it works, it means repainting my other two silver vehicles to Leadbelcher first :P 

[tvih]

Ugh, looks like the runefang drybrushing on leadbelcher just doesn't work. Not enough contrast and makes a mess in the end. Starting to wish I had done my Sisters in black color scheme after all, or at least the vehicles Such a shame, with the silver the infantry scheme being so easy. Looked at some of the GK tutorials, but I suck at this multilayer stuff for the most part.

[Grotsmasha]

Perhaps painting the front and back inserts either your red or white spot colours, as well as a stark fine highlight of white would help make it pop better?

[tvih]

I'll probably have to try the white highlight all else failing, but while I thought about the spot colours, I haven't even done that for my Templar vehicles after the first ones because no matter what it seems I can't get it smooth enough with a brush and it just ends up looking rather bad. Although once I get around to it I do intend to add more decorative bits on the Sisters vehicles to break up the silver monotony.