How Do You Paint Bronze Armour/Weapons?

[Gibby]

Hi all,

I'm looking for some effective recipes for bronze armour and weaponry befitting of the warriors that fall within the Ancients genre - Bronze Age armies, Greek Hoplites, etc. I've got some stuff in my backlog that is of that nature, and am hoping that the Bronze painting isn't as difficult as I seem to have convinced myself it is.

Thanks in advance!

[tikitang]

My own technique, using Army Painter's metallic paints, is to use True Copper as the base layer, then drybrush over it, progressively, with Weapon Bronze, Gleaming Gold and finally Bright Gold. The drybrushing takes away the metallic shine which you get from those paints, but offers an interesting blend of "bronze" colours and gives a worn look.

I then apply a Strong Tone wash on top, to add contrast.

Gloss varnishing over all this restores the "gleam" effect, if desired.

[SteveBurt]

I paint with gold paint then put a wash of sepia ink on top

[Dags]

Black plus increasing amounts of Vallejo Bronze. Final Highlight of neat Bronze.

Here's some I did earlier...

https://cpmodels.co.uk/product-category/28mm-ranges/28mm-ancients/sumerians/

[tikitang]

Here's some I did earlier...

https://cpmodels.co.uk/product-category/28mm-ranges/28mm-ancients/sumerians/

Those are amazing, by the way!

[SteveBurt]

Here’s what the simple gold + ink technique looks like

[Thargor]

I use Foundry Bronze Barrel trilogy with a GW Seraphim Sepia wash and final highlight with Bronze barrel light.

 Hylas  , on Flickr

This guy had gold detailing added
Jason , on Flickr

For my skeletons, I added hairspray and sprinkled salt on, waited for it to dry, then painted black over the top.  Once dry, I used a wet toothbrush to brush off the salt, which took some paint with it.  Then I added some Vallejo Verdigris weathering.
 Denizens of Hades , on Flickr