Starting the Year with True Metal Metallics

New Year, New Outlook

January 1st, start of the new year—start of a new outlook on the channel. Hopefully today we’re downstairs with coffee and speed paints working on warjacks. I’m going to cut all the black in real quick off camera and try to finish at least one jack, hopefully all the big guys today. Starting the year off strong.

Cutting in the Black

We got the black cut in using Grim Black speed paint. It looks pretty good. In some cases I had to do two coats since this isn’t really how speed paint is meant to be used. I did a little bit over there which is going to drive me crazy, but it doesn’t have to be perfect.

The Silver Base Layer

Time to use Broadsword Silver—anything that’s going to be silver or gold, we’re going to hit with this. Two developments: that Broadsword Silver actually comes out pretty dark. I don’t think it’s the paint’s fault—I’m doing it over the green in a lot of places.

I’m abandoning the idea of getting everything base coated at once. I’m going to push these other guys out of here and just focus on this one. My goal this year is to actually finish projects. I’ve started so many even just on the channel in the last hundred-something days, and I want to change that.

Treating Metallics Like NMM

I’ve got that Broadsword Silver on everything that will be metal or gold. Now I’m grabbing Mithril Silver and the wet palette. We’re coming back in and hitting all these areas while keeping the recesses untouched. We’re leaving our shadows in.

With these parts, you can see how the light’s hitting it—really only the center gets super shiny. We’re just using the light from our lamp. It’s almost like we’re painting scratches, really. It’s pretty rough and we’re going fast.

Working with the Light

Right now I’m just moving around the model where the light takes me. This panel specifically is going to be brighter than those other panels. Make sure we’re painting the undersides too. When we come back with our final highlight, I’ll do a better job hitting these bottom edges of the circles. That’s what’s going to grab the most light.

Quick Shield Work

Let me show you the sloppy painting technique and how it’ll still look pretty good. It doesn’t have to be uniform. I’m keeping that area in shadow because of the shadow from the hub in the middle. I’m just working the paint off the brush, using the fact that this is a longer brush with thicker bristles.

Now our shield is almost reflective. You can see as the model moves with the light hitting it, you can see the different shading effect we created.

Dry Brushing the Back

I went and got a dry brush—a makeup brush. We’re going to speed through the back pretty quickly. The trick is getting a lot of pigment off the brush. I really just want those bright speckles in it. Now we’re just pulling it down from mostly the same direction, being careful not to hit any of our green.

What this does with true metal pigments is it almost buffs it out—the same kind of thing you get with an oil wash. It adds this matte kind of luster that you don’t get if you don’t dry brush. It’s like a polishing effect. The more we do this, the brighter that backpack is going to get while keeping the shadows in.

Fixing Mistakes with Water

That spot where silver got where I did not want it—I’m just working it out with water on my paintbrush. These pigment flakes are there so it’s going to look a little bit shiny. I dried the brush off on my shorts and I’m pushing the water away from this crack and off the panel, collecting those metal flakes. I’m glad I got to show you how to fix those kinds of things.

Adding the Gold

Now Excite Gold for the test. We’re going to start coming in. I think we’ll be able to finish getting him to tabletop level today, but we’re definitely not going to fully finish because I was starting to get all these other ideas about what I still want to do with him.

You can see how the top of the face mask is a lot brighter than the bottom. We’re just going to keep moving on and hope it comes together.

The Case for Airbrushes

I think if you’re serious about the hobby—go ahead and insert boogie gif—you’ll definitely get an airbrush. If you’re at the point where you need to paint an army, it’s probably worth it to pick up an airbrush. And if you can afford to buy a whole army, you can afford to buy an airbrush.

Even if you’re not using it every day to paint, an airbrush changes your ability to prime so much. Being able to get a consistent prime job done regardless of the weather outside, regardless of what time it is—knowing that I can go prime this model and get a smooth finish without a textured mess—that makes airbrush worth it by itself.

Three Hours to Tabletop

This guy is looking really good for tabletop level. The black took 20 minutes, but I did everybody—all the other jacks and everything. The airbrush work where I airbrushed everybody at once took about an hour. So on this one model to get to this point, we’re probably sitting at a two or three hour mark.

The sword I’m leaving alone because I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet. I think I might add a cool glow effect—I don’t think I’m going to keep it metal. But this right here is tabletop three-color. If you showed up to play a game at this point, a lot of people would be happy to play you.

Next Steps

We got to let all this dry. I’m going to mix the green we used with a pastel white for highlighting all the edges, nuts, bolts, arms, and shield. Then we’ll hit all the metallics with a wash and do one final highlight. And then I think we’re there.

Very happy with how this turned out. Happy New Year! I’ll see you guys tomorrow where we’ll definitely be able to finish this guy up.