Painting ancient bronze?

[Jjonas]

One thing to consider is that bronze dulls from contact with the oils in skin, But it doesn't rust or oxidise like pure copper, so you might have warriors on campaign fighting in armour the colour of tree bark with only recent weapon scratches or areas of heavy use being shiny.

This is exactly why I prefer the darker bronze tones. However, the Greeks applied lots of olive oil to their armor, shields, and weapons, and bodies. It was a protective finish and helped polish things to the level that "bright and shiny" Apollo would prefer. So in some cases I make things shinier.

Victor Davis Hanson offers a historical fictional impression:

"As the hoplites prepared their mess, dutiful Messenian slaves had taken out their sheepskin rags. They dipped them in olive oil, polishing their masters’ breastplates and greaves. Others brushed their horsehair crests. Still more braided the long tails of their masters’ hair. Amid them all, Antikrates now left the side of his father. He marched through the camp after an older and toothless red-cape Sphodrias, who liked to sneak into the enemy camp and slit the throats of the snoring. The two kept bellowing out as they stalked past the fires, “Get out your whetstones. Sharpen your cleavers. Our blades will go through these pigs as spits do fat pork. Sharper still. Always file your iron, men. Ready your iron for your king.”

- The End of Sparta, Victor Davis Hanson

These Greeks are slightly shinier than my usual efforts, and they have gold highlights mixed with silver.

[blacksmith]

Maybe this helps you. Here you have two bronze versions next to each other. The one on the left was painted with Vallejo 70.801 Brass, and the one on the right with Vallejo 70998 bronze. Both with the same technique: base colour (Brass or Bronze), dark brown wash and drybrush with same base colours.

[Jjonas]

Incredible kismet- this just dropped into my lap on another social media site:


Ancient bronze recreated

https://mistralmtn.blogspot.com/2018/01/true-colors-of-ancient-bronze-artifacts.html

[syrinx0]

Lots of great painting and ideas in this thread.  The replication article is interesting.