Jester on NMM Painting

THOUGHTS ON NMM (Non-metal Metallics) PAINTING:

I often get asked "how do you do NMM" or "what colors/paints do you use for your NMM" from people. I would like to post an in-depth tutorial on the subject, however I wrote a tutorial on NMM for Darkson Design's Painting Minaitures Volume I, and that's soon to be published. So, for the meantime until I clear up a few things, we'll have to go with the generalizations below:

However, here are a few images you can use for reference in dealing with NMM painting:

Now, the idea with NMM is to have the reflection on top and shade down on the plane of the surface to another reflection. That's the gist of the matter... however many other factors come into play, and too many to discuss at the present.

So, I will talk about my techniques in general. First on Steel, and then on Gold NMM.

STEEL:

There are many colors you can use, any number of greys, grey-blues, etc. that can work. What I find most often is that I go back to one set of colors more often of late. It works well enough for me, and while I'm perfecting another coloration, this one is good enough for the time being.
#1 - The entire area should be painted white... you really want to have the area painted white.
#2 - Now paint on a coat of VGC Wolf Grey. I like the lighter coloration on this grey with just enough of a blue tint in it, and it is easy to do the final white highlights over the Wolf Grey.
#3 - Take the Reaper Master Series Paints: Snow Shadow, Twilight Blue and Midnight Blue. You'll need to thin these out to about 1 drop of paint to 3 - 4 drops of water. The Master Series Paints thin really well, and have a nice emulsion in them so they don't break down immediately.
#4 - Decide where about you want your shadows to start and paint from where you are going to have your lighter area up to the edge where your dark areas will be. One of the keys to NMM is the contrast between light and dark and the smooth transitions. Now, it may take some time to build up the color just a bit, but be patient and let each layer dry.
#5 - Once you start to see the Snow Shadow coloration on the surface, then go ahead and switch to the Twilight Blue. You'll need to find the area about 1/3 of the way in from where the Snow Shadow color starts and paint/wash in the Twilight Blue towards your darkest areas. Again, patience and letting the layers dry is a key. After about two passes, you should start to see the color change as you paint it in. It doesn't take me much more than 3 - 4 passes to be happy with the color change at this point.
#6 - Now it's time for the Midnight Blue. You'll start about 1/3 of the way from the edge of your final shadows - this is a small area, so paint with just a bit of paint on your brush - and in about two washes/strokes you should see your deepest shadows appear. If you need to, make a couple more passes just UNDER the area where your highlight is going to be to place almost a dark line in there.
#7 - If necessary, clean up the main color a bit with a glaze (8 parts water to 1 part paint) of the Wolf Grey to even the colors out a bit.
#8 - Mix 50/50 of Wolf Grey and VGC White and thin properly so you can now paint from the Wolf Grey towards your highlight/reflective areas. Remember in this case, you are painting from the dark to the light, so paint accordingly.
#9 - Thin out some VGC White, and hit those edges that are the reflective parts. Maybe take a couple of passes, but you'll see the white edging start to show.
#10 - To really bring out the highlights, use Liquitex Titanium White along those white areas in a very thin line. It willl take quite a few passes to bring the Titanium White up to full strength, but you can use that to your advantage to give some really bright and intense "hot spots" out of just pure Titanium White. Remember, this is tube acrylics, so it needs to be thinned or you will end up with chunks of white paint on your brush and mini!!!
#11 - SEAL THE SUCKER!!!

Now using the above colors, you can do all kinds of adjustments to the coloration. If you want it darker NMM, increase the coverage areas on the surfaces with the Snow Shadow, Twilight Blue and Midnight Blue. If you want it lighter, decrease the MSP colors and use more VGC Wolf Grey and White.

For two examples of the work see the Space Marine Commander's sword and Mi'Sher's swords. It all depends on the angle of the surface planes and the direction of the light sources.

GOLDS:

Now, I do the same with golds as I do with the steel. I work only on a white surface and establish my mid coloration, shade to dark, re-establish the mid-color and highlight from there. Here are the two breakdowns by color:

GOLD #1 - Old Golds:
#1 - Midtone of VMC Green Ochre
#2 - Shade #1 - VMC Green Brown
#3 - Shade #2 - VMC English Uniform
#4 - Shade #3 - VMC Burnt Umber or VMC Smoke
#5 - Rework the Green Ochre as necessary with layers/glazes
#6 - Mix Green Ochre and VMC Light Yellow in a 50/50 mix for first highlight
#7 - Next highlight using 1/1/1 mix of Green Ochre/Light Yellow/VMC Ivory
#8 - Add in about 1 - 2 drops of Ivory for next highlight if necessary
#9 - Final mid-hightlight of pure Ivory
#10 - Top hotspots are with VGC White or Liquitex Titanium White (depending on the size/coverage that I need)

Examples: Butcher of Khardov's axe and Goreshade the Bastard

GOLD #2 - Bright Golds:
#1 - Midtone of VGC Plague Brown
#2 - Shade #1 - VGC Cobra Leather
#3 - Shade #2 - VGC Beasty Brown
#4 - Shade #3 - VGC Charred Brown
#5 - Rework the Plague Brown as necessary with a layer or a glaze
#6 - Mix Plague Brown and VGC Gold Yellow in a 50/50 mix for first highlight
#7 - Next highlight using 1/1/1 mix of Plague Brown/Gold Yellow/VGC White
#8 - Add in about 1 - 2 drops of White for next highlight if necessary
#9 - Final mid-hightlight of pure White
#10 - Top hotspots are with White and/or Liquitex Titanium White (depending on the size/coverage that I need)

Example: Space Marine Commander's gold helmet, trim and all other gold NMM on the miniature.

Now, you can adjust all the areas of the shades/highlights to suit your tastes and the necessary coverages/shadows/placements. I hope this helps out some of you, and when I do get time, I will try to step by step the colors in some images for you to view.

By the way, If you want to do a more "bronze" look, substitute the Green Ochre with Ochre Brown in Gold #1 and Plague Brown with Scrofulous Brown in Gold #2. Those are enough of a change to make a difference. At least in my book.

Thanks and good luck with your painting!!!

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