Shading Metallic Gold

Welcome back! Just a quick-tip today about how to shade metallic gold successfully.

I love the NMM (non-metallic metal) effects, but I am not good at created them, so I enjoy creating the NMM with actual metallics and shades.

The wings, etc., are unfinished on this model, as this is a WIP and I am trying to use it to test this technique. 

Essentially, I laid down Vallejo Polyurethane Grey Primer, and then put down a base coat of VMA Mahogany. Following that, I put Vallejo Liquid Gold Alcohol-Based paint (Old Gold) everywhere, except for in the cracks/lines.

I did edge highlight a little by putting some VMC Silver and Brass, mixed 1:1 where it needed to be.

The fun part, however, was shading.  I used one large drop of Liquitex Glazing medium (I'd say it's around 10-15 "normal" drops worth), one drop of my water/flow-aid/retarder mix, and a size 3 brushload of the ink that I wanted to use to do the shading. The great part about this is that it can be painted on flat surfaces (and not move), or pooled-up. It's fast, clean and effective.

The down part (that I don't mind) is that you need to do successive layers. It's so subtle that you can barely make out that there is any color in the glaze, until the glaze dries.   I keep a hair-dryer (or, if I am taking a break, I put the mini in front of the air purifier I have in the room) handy to quickly dry things so that I can put down the next layer. All-in-all, it still only took around two hours to do the shading.

Leave comments when you can, and thanks for looking!