How do you paint "iridescent"?

[jeffreythancock]

A number of the creatures in Cthulhu Mythoes are described as "iridescent".

How do/would you capture that effect when painting miniatures?

Jeff

[Cherno]

There are colors available to achieve this effect, similar to the color varnishes for automobiles.

Here is a Spinner from Blade Runer painted with "Chameleon Nanoflakes":

http://johnstoysoldiers.blogspot.de/2011/12/blade-runner-spinner-chameleon.html

[Momotaro]

You can indeed buy iridescent or pearlescent paints containing flakes of mica - Golden sells them.  You can also buy iridescent medium to mix your own - not too expensive from an art shop, Reeves do one IIRC.  Vallejo also make a metallic medium - mixing colours with ordinary metallics doesn't work so well as they have pigments in them already.

Cherno's picture uses colour-changing paint or interference paint, which flips between two or more colours depending on how the surface is angled to the light.  Golden makes interference paints, quite expensive.  You can buy colour-changing sprays from Humbrol or you could try places that sell car paints.  The effect is often quite subtle on minis - it might look better on big flat vehicle panels.

[6milPhil]

I've used iridescent medium on wings of SST bugs, it's an okay effect but not brilliant.

[jeffreythancock]

The interference paint is what I was thinking of, as the definition for "iridescent" isn't necessarily metallic, but changing colors/rainbow like. 

Do the interference paints have a metallic sheen in addition to the colors varying with the angle of the light?

Thanks, Jeff

You can indeed buy iridescent or pearlescent paints containing flakes of mica - Golden sells them.  You can also buy iridescent medium to mix your own - not too expensive from an art shop, Reeves do one IIRC.  Vallejo also make a metallic medium - mixing colours with ordinary metallics doesn't work so well as they have pigments in them already.

Cherno's picture uses colour-changing paint or interference paint, which flips between two or more colours depending on how the surface is angled to the light.  Golden makes interference paints, quite expensive.  You can buy colour-changing sprays from Humbrol or you could try places that sell car paints.  The effect is often quite subtle on minis - it might look better on big flat vehicle panels.

[Momotaro]

Do the interference paints have a metallic sheen in addition to the colors varying with the angle of the light?

It does slightly, yeah.  The stuff that Golden sells is quite thin - more of a glaze than opaque paint.

A search on chameleon paint or flip paint yields a lot of interesting finds.

Or those nano flakes:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Chameleon-Nano-Flakes-Smart-Material-5-X-5g-Pots-/161612369366?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item25a0d90dd6

[jeffreythancock]

I broke down and bought a green and a gold interference paint from Liquitex. Blicks has them 41% off right now online! I hope they look as good as the Blade Runner vehicle above.  Great paint job!

It does slightly, yeah.  The stuff that Golden sells is quite thin - more of a glaze than opaque paint.

A search on chameleon paint or flip paint yields a lot of interesting finds.

Or those nano flakes:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Chameleon-Nano-Flakes-Smart-Material-5-X-5g-Pots-/161612369366?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item25a0d90dd6