Send me a Hero!

[Harry Faversham]

Cogitating on Heroes and skirmish gaming, I've had another bright idea. Homer's Iliad's full of proper big hitters knocking the crap out of each other, the ideal blokes to have at it in a skirmish. Chariot or two, couple of archers and half a dozen bronzed terminators a side and't job's a good 'un!
I do believe this excellent blog article has been posted on here before, it's a perfect example of what I'm on about, Hero/figure wise. There's an awful lot of bronze though. So my first question would be how to paint it, and who makes the best and most varied shades of bronze paints. I'm kind of thinking swords and spear points a different shade to armour and helmets. Any advice bronze paint wise would be most appreciated.

http://wabcorner.blogspot.com/2016/03/redoubt-trojan-war-characters.html

 

[2010sunburst]

Darkstar do a nice bronze triad…..

[Major_Gilbear]

Painting lots of bright shiny bronze on models with lots of bright shiny bronze:

1) Find a nice gold spray paint in Halfords. Whilst you're there get some grey primer too.

2) Spray the models grey, and after they are touch dry (about an hour or so), re-spray with gold. Set aside somewhere warm (but not hot) to dry overnight.

3) Wash the model with something like Citadel's Reikland Flesh Shade. Needs to be a medium-brown wash, with a bit of a red-orange tint to it. Use the gloss version of this if you can!

4) Highlight up with a broad highlight in a suitable warm gold. (If you're buying from Citadel, may as well get a gold paint whilst you're there - Balthasar Gold or Retributor Armour would be good choices).

5) If you're bothered, you can do a final edge highlight using a bright silver, mixed with a tiny bit your previous highlight colour. Congratulations, you're done with the bronze, and you can now paint up the rest of the model as you would normally. 

You might have noted the paints I've suggested are mostly golds - if you use paints with more bronze-y sounding names, I find it usually ends up looking too brown/coppery for polished bronze, and so therefore a warmish gold is usually a better choice. However, if you prefer a more coppery colour, then skip step 4 above and do step 5 instead.

By the way, if you do use any of the Citadel paints, they have a handy guide to lots of different ways of doing this here. (Scroll down a bit, and click on the styles of gold you want to reveal the stages and colours that were used). Even if you prefer to use Vallejo or Foundry, or P3, or whatever other paints instead, the info on the GW site is a helpful starting point to guide you on what sorts of colour combinations end up looking like.

[Harry Faversham]

Thanks for that chaps, your advice is much appreciated.

 

[Cubs]

I had to muck about with the different shades when doing Runequest stuff, or it would have all looked incredibly samey. My rule of thumb was to go for 3 different bronze types:

1) dull verdigris bronze for old stuff, or bits that might not get a lot of polishing (the odd bit of armour or helmet) which is greeny grey-ish.

2) mid bronze for most bits, which is like a mid brown.

3) shiny bronze for posh bits or blades, which is yellowish.

For example, this Bad Squiddo Amazon here conveniently shows all three, with dull verdigris bronze on the breastplate and helmet, mid bronze for the abdominal plates and buckles, and shiny bronze for the sword blades -

[Harry Faversham]

That's the kind of thing I'm after Cubs, pulling it off's another matter!
I'm guessing a Hero's underlings would keep his Bronze armour and weaponry in very top order, every part burnished and gleaming, that though might look a tad daft/samey on a 28mm figure on the table?