Striking Scorpion

Hi all,
I've just finished painting this classic Eldar Striking Scorpion for a bit of a hobby break. It was fun to do and quite fast as well, those old Eldar are still awesome minis!
Hope you like, Daz

Non Metallic Metals

Hi all,

I get asked a lot about painting non metallic metals, also known as NMM. In this post I hope to explain the theory behind the technique and also how I go about rendering this technique on a miniature.

To start with it's worth saying that the non metallic metal technique is basically a way of painting convincing metal effects on to a 2D surface. You will see this used on a lot of art when the artist has to paint metallic areas without the aid of metallic paints. This Blood Angel art by Dave Gallagher is a good example of this.

So with this in mind technically NMM should not really be applied to miniature painting as it is a 2D technique and miniature painting is a 3D art form. This certainly doesn't stop miniature painters from applying non metallic metals to miniatures because if done well it can create a pleasing finish.

Painting NMM is all about tricking the viewer into thinking that what they are seeing is real metals, to do this you need to observe how light reflects and reacts to different metallic surfaces. A great way to start to lean this is to look at art work. You can pretty much transfer what the artist has done onto your miniature, when I started learning NMM I painted a few sword blades and copied what I saw on the art onto the blade. My Death master Snikch is a good example.

When I approach painting a miniature in non metallics I first imaging 4 points of light around the top of the model. This help me to place my initial guide highlights over the model. I've found that imagining these four spots of light at each corner of the miniature gives me a good indication of where the light will be as I paint the model, it's easy to get confused and a bit lost when painting NMM so this keeps it simple for me. The amazing diagram below should help :).

Another trick when painting NMM is to change the tone of the colour when the surface you are painting changes angles. So if you are painting some gold armour and it has a corner change the tone from extreme light to extreme dark at this point. You can see in the image below how much the contrast changes in the armour surface as it changes shape, the foot is a good example of the colour going from light to dark to light again giving the illusion of a reflective surface.

What I've found helps a lot in achieving a realistic shiny metallic finish is a the last stage of reflection highlights that are added. When trying to learn this technique I observed that many painters didn't add this effect to their NMM and I started to experiment with it. The stages below on the Sanguinor which I painted show how this last stage can really give you that shiny reflective effect to the surface. Adding these reflection lines and hot spots over the surface in the correct places and on the edges can give you a nice effect.

Here are the paints that I use when painting non metallic metals-

Gold NMM

·         Basecoat Snakebite leather  (Balor Brown)

·         Highlight by mixing in Bubonic brown (Zamesi Desert)

·         Highlight by mixing in Bleached bone (Ushabti Bone)

·         Shade with Terracotta (Doombull Brown)

·         Shade with Terracotta and Black mix

·         Highlight with Bleached bone and white mix

·         Glaze the area with Lhamian medium and yellow ink mix

·         Glaze into the recesses with Lhamian medium and red ink mix

·         Pick out the reflection points with pure white

The stage that you add the glazes is quite important as until this stage they are can appear very wooden and lacking in colour. The glazes add a lot of richness to the surface and punch a lot of colour in for you. Doing it at the end of the highlight and shade process gives you a lot of control over the desired finish.

For NMM silver I tend to change the colours I use depending on the miniature. shades of grey, black and white will do you for pretty much any of this and once again you can add the colour you like with glazes of blues, browns at the end stages

The image of Ikit Claw is a good example of a few different NMM colours on one model,  I wanted to give him copper armour with steel claws and brass detailing. It was all painted using the same technique but by changing the colours I used.

The image of the Dwarf Lord shows the steel NMM technique next to the gold one. Notice the white hot spot highlights placed within the extreme dark areas.

The image of the Stormcast Lord shows the use of the glazes to add colour and then the use white to add the reflection points and final highlights.

Here are a few close ups of some of my miniatures showing the techniques I have described. I don't usually post such large pictures but I think it's important to see how the NMM technique is applied.

I hope this post has been useful for you and if you are thinking of trying NMM then hopefully it will help you along the way!

Thanks for reading, Daz

Skitarii Ranger

Hi all.
Here's my Skitarii that I painted a while ago. I designed this kit for the Adeptus Mechanicus release and thought it would be a good learning experience to paint one.
I kept the colour scheme quite simple but decided to go for bone coloured armour instead of the traditional metals.
It was fun to paint one of my own sculpts and a little strange as well!
I gave this miniature to Jes Goodwin after we had completed the project which he lead. It was a great experience and I certainly learned a lot!  :)
Thanks for reading.  Daz

Genestealer Hybrids

Hi all.
Here are a few of my Genestealer Hybrids that I painted from the Deathwatch Overkill game.
I was lucky enough to design a lot of the Hybrids in the game and knew that i would have to paint some up after. :)
I went for a retro sci fi colour scheme which i think suits them quite a lot, the bight orange boiler suits contrast really well with the off white armour and also hint towards the industrial nature of the mining suits.
I'm hoping to paint some more up in the future and i'll get some detail shots up soon if you are interested.
Thanks for reading, Daz :)

Bugmans Rangers Champion

Hi all.
Here's a quick post to share the dwarf that I have recently finished. It's the classic Bugmans rangers champion miniature which is still quite fun to paint!
It was painted as a gift for a friend and didn't take too long, it certainly was strange painting a metal model again!
I hope you like!
cheers, Daz

Ulrik the Slayer

Hi all, I've finally managed to finish painting my version of Ulrik the Slayer.
It felt like a long project with a house move stuck in the middle but i'm happy now it's done!
As far as painting i didn't want to stray too far from the original colour scheme but i did tweak it a little by adding a little more gold on the backpack for contrast.
When i scultped this miniature i always imagined him stood on a cliff top surveying a battle picking out the best warriors. I decided to theme the base around this idea, keeping it simple but giving him that setting.
I hope you like, cheers! Darren.

Stormcast Lord

Hi all,
Here is my Stormcast Lord that i have just finished. I started this project a long time ago and loved the miniature as soon as i had seen it. I knew that i wanted to try non metallics on this but was not prepared for how long it would take me to complete! It was quite a challenge and i think i'm happy with the final result, i hope you like it too and any comments are always welcome!

Ultramarine

Hi all. I'm sorry for the lack of posts recently. I've been mega busy with work and other things but I've not forgotten about the blog!
Here is a miniature that I have recently finished, I started painting it quite a while ago and it ended up as one of those projects that just sat there on the desk gathering dust. I got a but fed up with seek g it unfinished so I decided to get it done!
I went for a more washed out blue with the armour and a NMM approach. I was inspired by the Space Marine computer game that was released a few years ago.
I hope you like it and any comments are always welcome.
Cheers all! Darren.

Marauder Dwarf

Hi all,
This is a quick post to show you my fast but fun paint job of an old Marauder Dwarf. I painted this miniature as a gift for a work colleague who has a bit of a soft spot for the old range of Marauder miniatures. In terms of painting this brought me back to my very early days of painting lead miniatures, so often nowadays i'm painting mostly plastic miniatures. I was surprised at just how much detail was held within the casting especially considering its age 1988, the painting was a nice experience because of this.
With the colour choice i wanted to go for a bright renaissance look to match his dress, i also thought i might be just a bot of fun too! the choice of two close complimentary colours (blue and purple) with a strong contrasting yellow works well i think and you can apply this theory to any miniatures, just pick two close colours and add a contrasting spot colour in small amounts and you can't go far wrong. :)
With the base i wanted something quick and simple so i imagined the dwarf maybe guarding some barrels filled with precious gold and precious beer!
I hope you like this fun little piece, thanks for looking! Darren.

Wolf Brothers

This is my 2014 Golden Demon Open Competition entry which was awarded silver on the day. I enjoyed this project a lot, Space Wolves are one of my favourite 40k armies and i had this idea for a vignette for a while.
The theme is that the two Wolf Guard Terminators are brothers from the tribe on Fenris who both where inducted into the Space Wolves chapter. One of the brothers is older and wise who is covering his younger brother is wild and head strong as he charges into battle. Together they are aiding the Cadians from a Chaos Thousand Son incursion.
I wanted a more modern feel when painting the miniatures, that means no bright reds and less of a baby blue colour for the armour. The painting itself took a long time to complete but i'm happy with the results.
I was very happy with my silver trophy, it was a great event on the day!
I hope you like, any comments are welcome.
Cheers! Darren

Iron Hand Captain Stronos

Hi all,
This was a fun little project in which i converted the plastic web exclusive captain into an Iron Hand. There are a few changes to the original miniature, i added a servo arm to the back pack, gave him a bionic leg, carved off all the little skulls from the cloak (that was a nightmare). I also repositioned his right arm and gave him a combi melta, then with a simple head swap the conversion was complete. The paint job was quite quick and clean to do with the main challenge being that Iron Hands only really use black and white as their colours so i had to find ways to "inject" colours here and there.
Hope you like!
Darren