Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: Doc Twilight on March 02, 2010, 08:16:39 AM
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Hello, gang -
I have a bit of a painting dilemma on the horizon. Am in the process of finishing off a lot of projects, and one of them is to get some ships ready for Federation Commander (simplified version of Starfleet Battles). I would like to paint some of my beloved Tholians for the project, but I have a slight problem...
The standard Tholian scheme is, well, gawdy, in virtually every example I've seen it painted. In the illustrations, and some animation, of course, it looks fine, but in miniature form - blech. I had considered doing an NMM paint scheme, but I'm not sure that's a practical approach, and at any rate, I'd like to find a middle road - something that will balance a good look without having to spend hours on each miniature.
I would appreciate -any- thoughts you may have.
The basic color of all Tholian ships is supposed to be copper, with some gold areas depicting the more sensitive sensor/web casting equipment. There are some elements of green (a few hatches) and red in there as well (engines). It's the metallic bit I'm worried about. As I said, I have seen it done, and by some skilled painters, but it always ends up looking too gaudy to me. Is there some way to paint this stuff, perhaps a semi-metallic approach, or a simple NMM recipe for Bronze, that might work? Something else you'd suggest?
Your help would be gratefully appreciated, ladies and gentlemen.
Cheers,
Doc
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Use some black washes over them. I usually dull copper metallics down with that.
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Possibly tone done the shine with a flat clearcoat?
Usually people try to avoid this with metallics, but I've seen this approach on starship models in the past, and it gives a more "in-scale" look to the metal areas.
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GW Badab Black kills the shine quite nicely. Devlan Mud would perhaps be better for bronze, but it may look a bit dirty. Worth a try - brass base colour, wash of devlan, re-hilight with brass?
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I painted some Kroot equipment using GW Brazen Brass, over a grey undercoat, and dulled it down with a wash of GW Devlan Mud.
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=15080.0
It knocks back any shine quite nicely, and gives the metallic a better look, without giving to a non-metallic appearance (IMHO).
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What these guys say. Devlan Mud tarnishes metal very nicely.
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I concur. A bit of Devlan Magic here and Badass Black there goes a long way.
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Thanks much for the suggestions, mates. Much appreciated.
Picked up the fleet yesterday evening and shall do some experimenting. Everything appears to be there, with one exception - the main hull for the "Old" Dreadnought is missing, which is sort of a pain. Will have to rectify that.
-Doc