Hobby Cheating 13 - True Metallic Metal Steel and Contrast

For this week's Hobby Cheating we dive into True Metallic Metals - Steel, and talk about how you can easily push the contrast to make your steel and grey metal look more realistic.

[@matthewknudson8610]

Been painting for 3 years now and no one taught me how to control metals with thinner. Thanks Vince, this stuff is a treasure trove. I’m trying tmm on my Iron Warriors and this is really helping me understand lighting.

[@VinceVenturella]

Thank you, happy to help as always. :)

[@wckdtrb]

I think this answered my question of "I zenithal primed my warjack, and I want metal bits and bolts, how do I thin the metal to allow the zenithal to assist in the shading?" - Thin with a wash! That's the best tip I have heard with metals ever. Thanks again Vince!

[@VinceVenturella]

Thinning metals with inks and washes is a fantastic trick for sure. You can use all sorts of colored inks and shades for cool effects and colored metal as well.

[@kendrickwhite4868]

Hey Vince, you're the goat, sir! Now I know why my metals separated so much when I mixed them with water. I'm 4 months into the hobby with 4k seraphon, 7k 40k ork, a leviathan box, a bunch of ogres, etc. My son is building Skaven and my daughter is building Idoneth deepkin. I have a problem... never played a game, only have 1 painted combat patrol and a dream. I want to play, but I am also reading the rule books and want to have my armies painted before using them. Im almost done building all my seraphon, then going to try and follow your speedpaint process for them. I want to do a scheme of shades of purple and green. Going thru all your videos is teaching me tons, and saving me tons of money 😂 it would be cool to see you paint some more recent seraphon stuff if you had any lying around. Thanks for all that you do!

[@VinceVenturella]

Awesome! Happy to help as always. :)

[@shewolfpup]

I love these videoes. Suuuuper informative. I keep rewatching a part to make sure I get it correctly. It's like school I like. :P

[@VinceVenturella]

+shewolfpup Glad to hear it helps! More is definitely on the way.

[@adraxagatone8480]

I really love and enjoy your videos ... Could please do a guide on TMM on something like a Grey Knight? Or any model in something like a plate armour?? I'm still trying and trying but never get to a acceptable end ...

[@VinceVenturella]

Sure, happy to add that to the list! Thanks for watching and commenting, it's very much appreciated.

[@RedJRyan]

great video. I will try that on my next batch of dreadspears

[@VinceVenturella]

+Dieter Awesome, I think you'll be happy with the results.

[@eetennak966]

Covid FINALLY got me, so i decided to watch all your HobbyCheatingVides from 1. But since my brain feels hammered, i am taking crappy notes and after that rewrite the notes in a notebook. All written by hand. So I wont steal any information or copy them dor others. Its only for me and every note is offline/,written by hand. In case you were wondering. The adventure continues 8) I also might to comment on every watched Video from now on to push the algorithm a bit. Your videos definitely deservering mote views lol

[@VictorQues]

Good tutorial mate!

[@VinceVenturella]

+Victor Ques (Neojarlaxe) Thank you sir.

[@orenfox4828]

Great video, although I am trying to use nmm more, it's always useful to know how to make tmm look good

[@VinceVenturella]

Glad it was helpful!

[@BrettDavis1991]

Hey Vince, how do you tackle a textured metallic surface? Specifically something like chainmail on a viking warrior? Base, wash, dry brush?

[@VinceVenturella]

So much the same way I handle the mesh chain on his back leg here. I would base it all in a mid-steel with a light touch, so as to leave dark. If I needed to give a dark ink overall to re-darken the sunken spots, I would do that as well. Then I would reinforce certain areas with deeper black inks and create a vertical light catch of highlighted steel. That might be tough to grok what I mean, so let's make this real. Imagine chainmail across a male chest. 1) Base everything (carefully) in steel, trying to leave the in between dark. 2) Optional - cover it in a dark black wash if I need to get the lower areas. 3) Reinforce the recessed areas with targetted black ink/shade (i.e. under the chest muscles, arms, anything that would be cast in shadow. 4) Use my original mid-steel and lightly draw it across all the areas that would catch normal light. Not drybrushing per se, but more light movement with the edge of the brush. This would be across the pecks and a line down the front of the abs. 5) Higher brighter silver/steel across the lower pecks and individual abs again, in the targeted fashion. 6) Optional - True silver light catches - edge of the pecks, vertical line across the abs to create movement. Hope that helps.

[@BrettDavis1991]

Vince Venturella wow thanks for the quick and detailed response. I'll try my best to follow your advice but yeah it's difficult to follow through text. I'll rewatch that part in the video.

[@maximilianrotter1314]

Hey, I really love your tutorials but what I really want to know is what miniature that is?

[@VinceVenturella]

It's the Chaos Giant from War Gamma, great miniature.

[@darwill7834]

Great video Vince :). Have you tried the metal colour Vallejo airbrush paints?? They are amazing even better than the game air mettallic's honestly give them a try your be surprised !!!!!

[@VinceVenturella]

+plastic sturgeon hahahahaha - I was SERIOUSLY just trying to find a place to buy them from online when I saw I had an email of a comment. I mean at this exact second. Yes, I am very eager to try them, I have heard they are easier to blend (a real challenge for metallics), any recommendations where I could grab them online?

[@darwill7834]

I'm in uk, but over here I got mine from snm stuff , i know it sound like a sex shop, but there range of paints and basically everything modelling is second to none hope this helps

[@MINEISALWAYSBIGGER]

Hi Vince. Do you have any tips on how to make thin line highlights with citadel metallics, or just metallics in general? I feel like they widen the tip of the brush too much for control, and if I get a nice point to the brush, the metallic paint dries instantly before I can apply it.

[@VinceVenturella]

Sure, but the answer is pretty much don't use Citadel metallics, as they are quite bad. PIck up some vallejo Metal Color (not model, not game, not air), Vallejo Metal Color, it's quite liquid but very powerful, you can easily do sharp thin lines with it.

[@MINEISALWAYSBIGGER]

@@VinceVenturella Thanks a lot for getting back to me. Looks like I’m going to have to switch paints. Are Scale 75 metallics also good? Or should I just stick to Vallejo metal colour?

[@Wijkert]

@@MINEISALWAYSBIGGER Vince doesn't like Scale 75's metallics. Some other great painters like them more. They are better than Citadel Metallics, but don't come close to Vallejo Metal Color IMO.

[@khaymaneights]

Interesting idea about thinning steel metallics with nuln oil. I haven't used P3's Armor Wash and was not aware it's glossy. Am I right to assume that if you like Armor Wash you also like where GW is heading with releasing gloss versions of Nuln Oil? I find it kind of weird that shadows can be glossy, don't you?

[@VinceVenturella]

So several questions there, let me take them in turn. 1) Yep, it's a great thinner to darken steel without losing any consistency. I should also say that if you are using Vallejo Metal Colors (the steel I moved to after this vid, it's unnecessary, as they blend like butter). 2) Yes, the gloss shades are basically exactly for that - they shade metals properly. 3) Not really and here is why. So painting is the study of light - if you have metal in complete darkness, sure, it would be matte black (as would everything else, it's complete darkness). But assuming we are talking about anything other than basically raw unfinished iron (which is nearly matte black itself) steel is solid and reflective. Every part of the steel is kicking light back out, just interacting with the light sources in a much different way than cloth or something. When light hits something like cloth, most is absorbed and only one part of the spectrum is reflected back, giving you the color. Metal reflects much more of that light back - (Steel's reflectivity is about 90%+, cloth, even the best cloth is 75-80ish%). effectively, you aren't actually painting a shadow in steel, you are painting where the steel is reflecting light in a different way. All of that being said, in your deepest recesses, it's not crazy to use a matte black and really darken it - I think that can totally work especially for darker steel colors. Hope all that helps. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@TheMuffinBagare]

Hey, I'm interested in switching to the Vallejo Metal colors, having used GW metals up until now. That range consists of so many different silver & steel tones though. Which ones would you suggest to start out with, for painting your average chain mail & swords/axes etc. Cheers!

[@VinceVenturella]

So you have about 3 you really need (they are totally worth it). I would recommend Gunmetal, Dark Aluminum and Silver if I was just going to pick three. They are the best metal paints ever, you'll love them.

[@TheMuffinBagare]

Vince Venturella Thanks for the help! Loving your painting videos btw. Just found you on here the other day.

[@deusvult333]

How do you make blue metal armor like that chaos rider has? You mix normal color with metal..do you paint the metal then color over it...very confused on this and there are not videos about it.

[@VinceVenturella]

The blue armor is all matte paints, its just through the airbrush and highlighted up. :)

[@HoovesofDoom]

Nice review Vince :)

[@VinceVenturella]

+Hooves of Doom Thank you sir, hope it helps.

[@HoovesofDoom]

They certainly do. Always a journey :)

[@darwill7834]

hi vince how did you get on with the vallejo metal colour was you able to find some????I came across them by mistake I wanted the Vallejo liquid gold set and got the metal colour instead and I love them . dr faust does a kind of review in his latest video so that might be helpful

[@VinceVenturella]

+plastic sturgeon Yep, that is actually where I had heard of them and was looking at them when I saw your message. He and I have very similar paint tastes, so I trust his opinion. I have them ordered from my FLGS and they should be in for pick-up this week.

[@darwill7834]

the aluminium and burnt iron are incredible, ive just started using the gold on my stormcast's and that's also really nice. did you get the gloss primer and basecoats ?? let me know what you think as I didn't order those

[@VinceVenturella]

+plastic sturgeon I grabbed the varnish, it didn't seem like the Primer was necessary as I am not using them for normal natural metal finish on like aircraft and whatnot. I will tell you how the varnish comes out.

[@brandonhuss350]

Very helpful video, thank you!

[@VinceVenturella]

+Brandon Huss Glad to help! Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@brandonhuss350]

+Vince Venturella no problem; by the way, did you do a video on how you painted the blue armor on the Chaos Knight you showed as an example. I'd like to achieve a similar color of armor on my Stormcast models.

[@VinceVenturella]

+Brandon Huss Yep, #2 in the series is about the glazing technique I use to achieve the basic effect. You can then highlight the glazed zenithal highlighting with some additional glazes. Vid is here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/aoupiYZ7brp7i68

[@brandonhuss350]

+Vince Venturella Awesome, I'll check that out, thanks so much!

[@iceking6987]

Request for next hobby cheating video. Bruising! I have a soon to be slave giant on my table and want to paint him all beat up by those mean ogres....

[@VinceVenturella]

+Ice King It won't be the next one, but I will add it to the list for sure! (I say that because I already have the next one recorded ;) )