40k Thousand Sons metallic blue

[SickSix]

I am assembling a Rubric box and want to do a blue metallic paint job similar to how FW did their early Heresy paint jobs.

 

The plan was a silver base coat and then Tamiya clear blue over that. But now looking at how much trim is on these models, I feel like painting the gold trim by brush is going to take eons and be a grueling task. (Although I did buy a gold Sharpie to test out lol)

 

So I have a couple alternate ideas.

 

1. Paint them all gold then paint the panels silver then Tamiya clear blue over the panels. But how hard will it be to get even coats of the clear blue with a brush?

 

2. Paint them all gold an then paint clear blue directly over panels. But really don't know what the clear blue over gold would look like. Trying to find pics online but not many people are doing metallic paint jobs that I can find.

 

3. Same as #2 except buy an actual metallic blue paint and use that on the panels. (I found a paint somewhere online so I know it exists)

 

Looking for any insight or opinions on how to get lovely metallic blue Rubrics without losing my mind.

 

PS. I did consider doing pre_heresy colors of metallic red because the clear red goes over gold great but I do plan on a Heresy Sons army as well and don't want the same color scheme on 30k and 40k units.

[Tichinde]

first of all awesome!

 

secondly, I had a similar idea and have tried a few of the things you have suggested.

 

the trick is to get them looking like thousand sons rather than Alpha legion.

 

so far, I have tried tamiya clear blue over gold and silver bases, tamyia metallic blue spray with tamiya clear blue, the metallic spray with Ahkelian Green contrast.

 

if you really don't want to paint the trim then I found most worked fine with retributor as a base. I have moved on to leadbelcher with Ahkelian Green contrast to get what I think is a nice metallic equivalent to the thousand sons/Ahriman blue layer paint.

 

pics:

 

this was a test model, chaos black, retributor, Tamiya metallic (dark blue), Tamiya clear blue, retributor/liberator/storhost trim:

 

 

then I tried the lighter metallic blue spray (this pic before clear blue applied):

 

 

end result:

 

 

and his pals:

 

 

then I started experimenting with contrast (Ahkelian Green over leadbelcher):

 

 

and the rest of him:

 

 

now I am hoping to do some more this way with leadbelcher and Tamiya metallic spray as a base:

 

 

I still have to paint all the trim but its worth it for the end result.

 

hope that helps!

[Son of Sacrifice]

If you decide to go the brush route, I'd switch the tamiya clear blue for GW's Calth clear blue as it applies much better with a brush. The new GW clear paints are basically Forge World's equivalent to the tamiya clears anyway.

[Fajita Fan]

I’m thinking contrast paint over a bright metallic primer will give you what you want.

[JayeL]

Scale 75 have a great metallic blue, here :

 

https://scale75.com/en/metal-n-alchemy-range/294-cobalt-metal.html

[Ciler]

There is on warhammer TV a tutorial for a rubric marine in which Duncan does the entire model gold then fills in the blue panels :

 

Now obviously it's not a metallic blue but you can probably adapt the process to your idea.

 

Actually for what it's worth, a contrast blue over metallic gold may turn out all right.

[Fajita Fan]

When I put blue contrast (Talassar I think) over gold it become greenish turquoise because of the yellow in.  

[SickSix]

first of all awesome!

 

secondly, I had a similar idea and have tried a few of the things you have suggested.

 

the trick is to get them looking like thousand sons rather than Alpha legion.

 

so far, I have tried tamiya clear blue over gold and silver bases, tamyia metallic blue spray with tamiya clear blue, the metallic spray with Ahkelian Green contrast.

 

if you really don't want to paint the trim then I found most worked fine with retributor as a base. I have moved on to leadbelcher with Ahkelian Green contrast to get what I think is a nice metallic equivalent to the thousand sons/Ahriman blue layer paint.

 

pics:

 

this was a test model, chaos black, retributor, Tamiya metallic (dark blue), Tamiya clear blue, retributor/liberator/storhost trim:

 

 

then I tried the lighter metallic blue spray (this pic before clear blue applied):

 

 

end result:

 

 

and his pals:

 

 

then I started experimenting with contrast (Ahkelian Green over leadbelcher):

 

 

and the rest of him:

 

 

now I am hoping to do some more this way with leadbelcher and Tamiya metallic spray as a base:

 

 

I still have to paint all the trim but its worth it for the end result.

 

hope that helps!

Thank you for the awesome input and pictures! This definitely help me out a lot.

[SickSix]

When I put blue contrast (Talassar I think) over gold it become greenish turquoise because of the yellow in.

Yeah that's what I was worried about. Maybe I should get the Scale 75 metallic blue paint and just paint that into the panels after the gold basecoat.

 

Thanks everyone for the responses.

[Laughingman]

Alcad II metallics + candy coat is another option. Strictly an airbrush product though...

[Fajita Fan]

 

When I put blue contrast (Talassar I think) over gold it become greenish turquoise because of the yellow in.

Yeah that's what I was worried about. Maybe I should get the Scale 75 metallic blue paint and just paint that into the panels after the gold basecoat.

 

Thanks everyone for the responses.

 

If you're trying to avoid painting the trim then contrasts won't be the way to go but if you don't mind painting the gold I can tell you Talassar on bright primer is just gorgeous in person.

 

https://www.dakkadakka.com/s/i/at/at2/2019/9/17/297b8c31622fde1a6fa1b2a98786a19a_121471.jpeg

[Evil Eye]

Whilst it doesn't solve the trim problem, Tamiya's metallic blue is a gorgeous colour, though it works better by airbrush than by hand. Perfect for vehicles though.

[Gederas]

GW just posted Painting the Traitor Legions with Contrast and the Thousand Sons/Alpha Legion ones might be relevant:

 

Blood Angels Red over Retributor Armour

 

Akhelian Green over Leadbelcher:

 

Since you want to go with the current Blue scheme, I'd recommend Spraying the whole model with Retributor Armour, THEN painting the areas you want to be blue with Leadbelcher before covering them with Talassar or Ultramarines blue.
 

[Fajita Fan]

Has anyone tried that method? I don’t know if that saves a lot of time compared to spraying it silver, block in the contrast paint on the panels, then paint the trim another color.

[Tichinde]

No probs, I really should invest in an airbrush! The Talasaar blue is a lovely blue but I felt the akhelian green came out closer to the azure of the classic Thousand Sons. But given the number of different shades of blue in the codex of the various warbands pretty much every shade seems to be covered!

[Fajita Fan]

That's the color I'm planning to use for mine. BTW try the red over metallic gold paint...