Thousand Sons gold

[Nym]

So like a lot of new TS players, I went with Ducan's tutorial on how to paint Thousand Sons.

 

Unfortunately, it quickly became clear to me that the colors used by Duncan and the ones on the official models are *not* the same. Ducan's recipe for those who don't know is Retributor armor > Reikland fleshshade > Sigmarite. On the box it says Liberator gold > Reikland fleshshade > Runefang steel.

 

Neither of these turn out like the bright silverish gold of official photos :

 

 

So my question is : did any of you find the real recipe to achieve this sweet result ??

[Marshal Loss]

Best bet is to ask some of the eavy metal painters on Twitter, as they'll have the recipe used for the official display models. Try Max Faleij?

[Zodd1888]

It has reddish tones. Maybe some brass?

[Raven1]

The GW paint app suggests Balthasar Gold, Sycorax Bronze, Reikland Fleshshade, and s

Stormhost silver. The example image looks fair close too. Download the app and you'll see what I mean.

[Prot]

I actually did both methods and I think what they put in the box is actually further from the recipe than Duncan’s method. I actually think the photos have a lot to do with it.

[Tamika]

Might be the camera?

[Nym]

I tried Balthasar > Reikland > Sycorax but I ended up getting a very orange copper.

 

It might have to do with the photos indeed. I'll need to do some more testing.

[Heliomanes]

It looks like balthasar gold highlighted up to silver. Try getting a brass color (like balthasar gold) and mix it gradually with silver tones on a wet palette to achieve the next highlight.

If you don't have a wet palette, that's pretty simple to make. Just need a lunchbox, some cotton and a sheet of parchment paper - like the kind you use for baking.

[Xenith]

It looks like liberator tinted red, maybe with a sepia?

 

I can't remember what colour fulgurite copper is, but it's more of a red gold than copper colour, might be something to look at.

[SkimaskMohawk]

If you wash it with reikland you're going to get an orange metallic. Warplock, sycorax and whatever new colour is essentially sycorax + mithril/runefang are the key components. Wash may or may not be important depending on how exact you want to go with it. A glaze of brown is what I think they use

[Nym]

If you wash it with reikland you're going to get an orange metallic. Warplock, sycorax and whatever new colour is essentially sycorax + mithril/runefang are the key components. Wash may or may not be important depending on how exact you want to go with it. A glaze of brown is what I think they use

Indeed, after some more testing it seems that Sycorax mixed with Runefang gives a close result. Kairic acolytes have a very similar tint and I think the recommended colours is Sycorax + runefang highlight.