The BEST Metal Techniques for Miniature Painting EXPLAINED

so i did something i never did before i painted the same figure twice why let's find out what's up pikmin pushers first video as a full-time content creator what a fancy word let me start by saying thank you for the outpour of support all the positive and supportive messages all the comments this was the video with the most comments i ever had and thanks to all the new patrons that decided to back me up on this new endeavor if you want to know my release schedule and get an update on everything that is planned check out the video i uploaded three days ago i'm excited to do this and hopefully you are excited for lots of new videos so let's jump right into today's topic a french company called rackham decided to have non-metallic metal in their box arts because it allowed them to control where the highlights go on the armor and the weapons instead of having to rely on metallics to look interesting on photos and it also allowed them to have a completely distinct art style to set their game apart from other competitors in the wargaming community of course this is not a new concept to arc because metallic pigments were not around forever and painters had to recreate properties of metal with non-metallic pigment but this is not the ultimate guide to non-metallic metal so let's jump right into the experiment i painted really similar figures in the past but i could never bring myself to paint the exact same figure a second time for this video however it made sense to take the same figure and to paint one of them in metallics and one of them in non-metallic metal i made an effort to even make the bases look similar so i took some cursed city terrain molded it and put two similar pillows on each of the bases wanted to paint these with rather similar principles but not necessarily identically which wouldn't even make sense because a lot of the properties of metallics and regular acrylic paint are different and it's not always possible to create the same effect or even a similar effect and from a composition standpoint sometimes a non-metallic gold will look way different from a metallic gold and won't fit the composition and vice versa of course also this is not a video about which one is better if anything it is going to be a video about which one i like better because how do you even objectively identify what is better but there is a small problem which is i use all these techniques unconsciously already so i wanted to take a step back and pay attention to what works better in one approach or the other and why and make a list about everything that comes up while i paint a good exercise to understand light on a figure and its volumes regardless of which approach you want to take is always to prime the model with a satin black and study how the reflections behave it gives you a good idea where to place your highlights and shadows and you can even learn a lot about primary and secondary reflections or bounce lights for metal parts which doesn't work that great with sanital priming because especially when you do non-metallic metal you will want to paint more than one big reflection you can play with directional light by lighting the scalp from one side or use different light setups to get some inspiration you can then just snap a picture and use it as a reference so let's start with the metallic version i applied one coat of bright metallics because i always shade down metals with regular acrylics anyway and this way i can apply a lot of layers without making the metals too dark in the mid-tone area once the initial code had a consistent coverage it was time to shade the areas but also to bring a bit of liveliness and color into the metals unlike with non-metallic metal you can get somewhat good results with metallics quickly with inks and washes and oil paints but to really make an impression we got to create areas of lights and darkness and adding non-reflective pigments as shades adds an additional layer of contrast because reflective parts and dull parts contrast nicely against each other i went over how different contrasts work and how they can complement each other in this video a while ago the color i used to create these reflective and non-reflective patterns on the sword and the armor was a blue grey and for the shield the goal was to use sepia tones to create more like a brass feeling i prefer to do materials other than steel this way instead of starting with brass or gold metallic colors because i have more control over the final hue this way and generally the colors look more lively and intense i was adding a yellow ink to shift the tone of the shield more towards the brass or gold color and i did the same for the chainmail patterns to add variety and then also added some more black to the gray base mix and tried to create deeper shadows with the chainmail it's enough to cover the recesses on the shield i paid attention to the larger volume which is a flat dome and i shaded the lower half foam so as i continued with the steel parts i kept defining the shapes by deepening the shadows with the gray mix and i try to create interesting reflection patterns that is really similar to how we would paint non-metallic metal we do this because we want to have control over what's happening to set up the rust we need a darker red brown that represents the rust slowly creeping into the metal before we can apply the typical red orange color of rust i usually try to stick to a controlled chaos pattern variety is key to create credible rust on some areas like the sword i'm also tinting the reflective areas to add additional variety and to represent something that is really rusty then using scrag brown i was mixing a consistency that allowed me to control exactly where the paint would go in small but opaque amounts as you can see on my thumbnail and i established the orange brown rust areas applying all of these layers over the metallics can obscure and dull down some areas that we want to be reflective instead so what you see here is me preparing a layer of metallics to bring back the shine but avoiding transitions that are too harsh as much as this is possible with metallics for this i get rid of most of the paint until the layers that the brush leaves are thin and rather dry i brush it over the areas with different pressure on the brush as you can see here depending on the result i want using a mix of black and turquoise i created a vertigrease similar to the way i did with the rust which means i'm establishing a darker layer before i added some white to the mix and covered a smaller area with it i'm also using a bit of turquoise to add a blue tint to the armor in the mid-tones to make the steel look a bit less boring i always take a step back and analyze my results after each finished element so after the armor was finished i thought that the shield was looking a bit too similar so i prepped my brush to be able to apply a couple of thin layers of the white aluminium again to make this major reflection a bit more visible then i took a yellow ink and tinted the metallic area and blended the colors together with a last layer of flesh wash which is similar in tone to the burnt sienna used to achieve the color of the shield for the non-metallic metal we need a nice base color that is not too boring so i use ross gray which is a desaturated blue and mix it with black and i've built these initial layers with transparent paint so the black can still shine through in the areas i want it to be darkest the shapes of the metal parts dictates how i hold my brush like on that rounded edge of the blade you can see that i use a different line pattern than on the straight parts one thing that using normal pigment that isn't metallic pigment is that you can create really smooth layers and transitions which actually is closer to how metal reflections look and you can't quite do that with the bigger metallic pigment so at this point we can already assess that neither non-metallic metal nor metallics are optimal ways to create representations of the real thing both are just compromises gradually mixing in more rust gray i start to add layers that cover less and less area using a combination of stippling to apply more opaque colors and then blending the layers together with thinner layers and pigment pushing what i want you to realize through this is that painting is not about just using one technique one brush stroke from start to finish but you can see that i vary both the color consistency and the way i apply the paint as i build the gradients and textures a last layer of pure white is important to sell the effect of metal reflections here's another example of a secondary reflection or rim light that will help us sell the illusion of metal in the final pictures so both these results are about the same time investment and i haven't even applied any weathering to the non-metallic version at this point so initially metallics look a lot quicker and effective but if you really want to make your metallics look interesting and sophisticated you can sink a lot of time into them like you can try to add more color shifts and color variations make the transitions as smooth as you can and increase the contrast some of these initial observations are what i think led to an interesting idea within the community but that is often due to the fact that yes you can apply one coat of metallics slap a wash on and have a somewhat decent result in a few minutes and then a lot of painters try to do the same thing with non-metallic metal and of course that's not going to fly because you're not really imitating any of the properties of metal and of course if you're going to call that non-metallic metal you're going to hate it so what they really hate is bad non-metallic metal for the shield again i wanted a brass effect so starting off with a base coat of english uniform by valeo and black i'm adding a desaturated mid tone of bayla brown to create these initial reflection patterns and i also add some green to vary the color tone slightly and add more richness this is what i mentioned before it's so much easier to add different hues to a non-metallic metal to make it more interesting it makes me feel a lot more artsy for sure using a saturated yellow for the first layer of a brighter reflection and then gradually transitioning into white i'm establishing the main reflection some orange brown adds even more color variety in the mid-tones and the verdigris is exactly the same approach i used for the metallics for the trim i'm adding more of a sound and copper color for the trim i'm going for a more salmon or copper color i got a more in-depth guide how i do that in my ever chosen entry video applying rust to non-metallic metal is tricky you want to make sure not to cover the white that represents our reflections because the orange brown or white areas makes everything look funky and not credible so unlike with the metallics i focus the rust areas on the dark parts other than that i use the same colors and gradually build up the typical orange brown rust color i finished the miniatures out by painting the bone in a dark beige scheme and the rags in a desaturated orange what i found interesting was that i felt like a cool blue would suit the metallics version better probably because of the red rust already taking up so much space of the mini and it would look too monochromatic what was left to do at this point was to paint the base and to wrap everything up by cleaning up the base trim i won't show all of this because it doesn't really have a relevance to the topic of the video but as always you can see each step from this video more in depth on my patreon page where i usually upload full guides to all figures i paint so if you want to understand more in depth how i did these metallics or the non-metallic metal or the clothes or the bone as well as accessing all my back catalogue of guides why not join the patreon and level up your painting so which of the two do i like better if i look at the result i'd say i like both but i guess i just enjoy the process of painting the non-metallic metal a bit more because it feels a lot more like painting to me while true metallic metals feel a bit like technical paints with the alternating application of metal pigments and then the washes and the rust and so on i feel like both have their place in miniature painting and certainly in my miniature painting and i don't want to miss either of the two approaches especially when it comes to weathered metals i feel like metallics are more suited and more credible for the topic both non-metallic metal and true metallics have to create contrast and with true metallics it's more about creating a contrast of reflective areas versus dull areas while with non-metallic metal you're mainly working with value contrasts but with true metallics you still have reflective surfaces even in the shaded areas so you will always have a few artificial highlights as you move it around the reflections will follow you but that can of course be a desired effect non-metallic metal allows for an approach that is closer to how illustration works you can control how big the reflections should be how many there are like you can work in a rim light or secondary reflections and you can decide to have the surroundings reflected in non-metallic metal too since it's easier to create more vibrant colors within the reflections all of that is not really possible with true metals that said i absolutely love how this area looks where i painted highlights with scratches on a dull surface and as you turn it around light plays on it and it just looks gorgeous and you can never do this with more metallic metal but because the pigments of metal are so grainy even with the smoother color like the velia airbrushed metal colors you will never get the smoothness you can achieve with non-metallic so there's many pros and cons to each of these techniques and like with so many aspects of miniature painting it becomes a matter of choice and decide end result and it's up to you to pick which one is best suited for your project personally i feel like with non-metallic metal i have more compositional options like i said it feels a bit more like illustration and interpretation becomes a factor while true metallic metal typically feels a bit more realistic maybe and better suited for knitty and gritty themes and gets trickier and more difficult for polished paint jobs one thing i found interesting is that with the true metallic metal i thought using red on the clothes would be two monochrome which is why i went with the blue instead while the red choice for non-metallic metal worked really well so that means using one or the other will have an influence on the rest of the color composition and which colors you choose as i already mentioned there is slightly less time investment so you get a decent looking metallics non-metallic metals initially take a bit more knowledge and a bit longer time to get right basic metallics look good even with just a base layer and wash approach basic non-metallic metal done this way usually it does not look good and this is where i think a lot of animosity towards non-metallic metal comes from perfecting metallics however takes a long time too i hope this video was interesting to you and hopefully you learned a few new tricks for your own painting let me know in the comment section what the most helpful aspect was because i always like to see what resonates the most with my audience to make the videos even better don't forget that leaving a like and a comment helps a lot with spreading the word and with growing the channel and of course you can also support the creation of more videos like this by joining my patreon campaign which has tons of extra rewards like full discord access and all the in-depth guides that's all i have for this video keep pushing that pigment and don't be afraid it's only paint you

Channel: Trovarion Miniatures

Views: 54,468

Keywords: miniature, painting, miniaturepainting, miniatures, warhammer, warhammer40k, ageofsigmar, aos, non metallic, non metallic metal tutorial, non metallic metal, non metallic metal gold, non metallic metal brass, true metallic metal, true metallic tutorial, nmm tutorial, tmm tutorial, metallics tutorial, nmm vs tmm, comparison, how to paint metallics, how to paint nmm, how to paint nmm steel, miniatures weathering techniques, brass metallics, how to paint tmm

Id: nEca6dEauYk

Length: 18min 39sec (1119 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 17 2021