How to paint Magpie feathers?

[Magos Takatus]

Hey. I am currently painting something that is not board relevant but I'd like some advice with general painting techniques. (It's the Lizardman Blood Bowl team, just pretend I'm painting some Raven Guard offshoots or something! :p )

 

I would like to paint the feathers on the miniatures in a similar way to Magpie feathers but I can't seem to find a relevant tutorial for it. I think I remember somebody mention it here a few years ago but I can't find it.

 

I'm divided between trying to paint the iridescent effect manually or using some colourshift paints to get the effect. I'm just wondering if anyone has experience with this extremely niche request. I have a couple of spare headdresses to practice on but I'd like some advice before I commit to painting them.

 

Thanks for taking a look.

 

[Cleon]

I've wanted to try something similar for the little flies that are on some Nurgle kits, but haven't come up with something I felt confident I could pull off at that scale. Our local super painter explained doing something with a metallic base coat, then the green/blue inks for the desired shine colour, then a true black (not oil) ink over the top (also suggested the black contrast might be fun there, but she hasn't played with them yet) then a gloss varnish top layer, but that was just too much for the size of the things I was considering.

[Magos Takatus]

Thanks for the tips. I have decided the feathers will be black with an orange colourshift paint at the tips rather than the green/blues that magpies exhibit. It will keep the colours on my models a bit more restrained, otherwise they would be a bit too gaudy. I think the method you suggest could look pretty nice. I'll try out a few methods to see how it turns out.