Lord Tyrant Hexeris: Struggles With My First Attempt At Gold NMM

I first started painting minis about a year ago when we started playing a game called "Battlelore". The minis in that game are small; measuring in at 22mm scale (contrast to the 30mm scale of Warmachine). Being so new to painting minis & dealing with such small models, I kept it simple. 

I watched a bunch of YouTube videos & learned about base coats, washes, & dry brushing. As I started painting up the Battlelore models, I continued to watch more videos. I learned about things like shading, highlights, glazing, etc and thought, "yeah...no".

There's no way I'd be able to pull that off on these little things at that time. Not that it was impossible, but more that it was beyond my skill / comfort level back then. It was multiplied by how small the minis were. I painted them all with base coats, gave them a wash, maybe drybrush, and called it done. I was quite happy with the results. The most adventurous I'd gotten was to attempt to paint stripes on the capes of the cavalry models, but I didn't push much as far as learning any newer techniques.

Then, I saw a video on this odd thing called NMM or non-metallic metal. "Why in the world would anyone even bother trying to paint that?"

It made no sense to me. I have this Leadbelcher stuff & this Retributor Armour stuff and I can easily just paint them onto my models then cover them with Nuln Oil or Agrax Earthshade. Simple. Quick. Looks good on the table. Done & done.

Donna & I play at home. The stuff I paint is for that. Casual games at home. I have no desire to ever paint for competition or display. Even though we have plans to eventually try to encourage new people to play in our area including having some of our armies be used as "loaners" for new players, a basic table top standard is all we need for that. 

By the time we started playing Warmachine, I had a few months of painting the Battlelore models under my belt. Given that the WMH minis were a more manageable size, I decided to push my painting a little further for the fun & challenge of it. 

I was still using the same 2 metallic paints, but instead of just washing them, I experimented with specifically adding more or less of the washes to metal parts of a model to accentuate or texture certain areas; like the exhaust stacks on Grand Scrutator Severius' arcane turbine.

On top of that, I started experimenting with painting specific shadow & highlight colors on the cloth & other non-metal parts of the model. A few more models in & I was starting to try out glazing to make these different colors blend a little better. Still nothing that's going to win any awards, but I was having fun pushing myself, learning new things, & trying to improve my skills.

That said, I still didn't see any reason I'd ever want to try NMM.

Then I saw this picture:

It's a Warpwolf Stalker painted by Jaden from Line of Sight (posted here with his permission). The blade of his sword hit me so hard when I first saw it. It's breathtaking. 

I didn't understand the first thing about NMM, but it was stuck in my mind now. I needed to try it out. I love to constantly push myself, challenge myself, & learn. Failure is nothing to be afraid of....but I fully admit that I damn near had anxiety at the thought of actually diving into NMM.

One thing that stuck out to me as a hurdle was that I have a trouble dissecting color in my mind. What I mean is that if I looked at a pic of an apple, I'd see red in different shades. There's so much more to it than that, but my brain just couldn't pick them out.

If I take that same apple & load it into my graphics software, I can use the eye dropper tool to grab the actual colors. When I do that, you can see that this simple apple has everything from very pale ivories to near-black browns. In between all of those, there are grayish-pinks, desaturated oranges, burgundies, and more.

Once I pick the colors out, it's obvious that they're there, but before doing that my untrained eye / brain just saw red, dark red, light red, blah blah blah...

Painting NMM well requires a better understanding of color since silver isn't just different shades of grays / whites / blacks. It has whatever is reflected from around it; whether that's green from the grass below, blue from the sky above, or whatever color the clothing or accessories are on the model holding the silver weapon or wearing the silver armor.

I decided to start small and start with something silver. So, I chose to paint the blades of Donna's Exemplar Bastions halberds with silver NMM. I painted all the rest of the metal parts on those models with metallic paint. I wanted to start small to try to learn a bit at a time.

Truth be told, I also was nervous about trying to paint too much of a model with NMM; worried that I'd screw it all up & have to repaint it. Donna was excited to get that particular unit to the table. So, I didn't want to drag out the painting time any longer than I needed to. Experimenting with the blades would be a perfect way to dip my toes in.

I kept the box the models came in close at hand while I painted. I used the box art as reference to get an idea of where to paint the darker & lighter parts of the blades. This was an "okay" cheat, but looking back on it, it wasn't the best method. For one thing, it kept me from getting a better understanding of WHY certain parts were darker or lighter. I was just copying what I saw on the true metallic paint job of the blades on the box cover. 

I posted WIP pics & got some great advice at the time; namely to edge highlight the blades to better sell the metallic look. Edge highlighting was a new technique in general for me. So, it was great to get my first attempt at NMM and learn a new technique that I could use on other things too.

When it was all said & done, I was happy with the outcome. It was far from perfect, but I really only had 2 goals here.

1. To get over the hump and actually try NMM at all.

2. To have it look at least somewhat like metal on the table in game.

With my next attempt at NMM, I decided to push a little further. It was for Donna's new Circle army; more specifically for her Lord of the Feast.

I was still sticking to silver, but decided to go beyond just the blade of his weapon. I'd also try to paint the chainmail of his loin cloth, his bracelets, & his sword blade. There was a certain mental "safety" with silver in my mind. It was mostly gray. I'd "cheat"...adding a glaze or filter coat a thin coat of blue after painting the silver with a midtone gray, white, & black. Again, I was just trying to replicate what I saw on the pics online of the model with the metal bits painted with true metallic paint. Again, my goal was to force myself to paint more NMM (as in more of the model than just the blade) and have something that looked okay on the table.

Again, I think I succeeded in having something that was passable for gaming, but I didn't really learn too much more as far as WHY different elements of NMM are painted the way they are.

As I painted more of Donna's Circle Orboros army, it really REALLY motivated me to learn NMM. The intricacy of the small shapes & curves in the raised parts of their armor plates was kicking my butt.

I fully admit that I have NEVER had much success getting a good consistency with the 2 true metallic paints that I've used (Leadbelcher & Retributor Armour, as mentioned above). It doesn't matter if I use any of several different mediums or just plain water. I don't have that problem with my "regular" paints, but with the 2 metallics I have, nothing I do seems to give me good smooth viscosity. It's either too thick of a goop or so thin it's annoying. Nothing in between. Granted that may be that I just got 2 bad / old pots of paint since they were from a game store that seemed loaded with Citadel / GW stuff that had been on the shelf for quite some time.

I had similar frustrations painting up my Skorne, but for some reason, it seemed so much worse when painting her Circle army. My guess here is that I put more care into the models that I paint for her simply because they're FOR HER and so I want them to look as good as they possibly can. 

Painting the metallic gold on the raised parts of the armor was a constant frustration of accidentally getting it on the recessed areas that were painted orange. I eventually learned that using inks for the recessed areas helped a lot, but it was still a pain in the neck trying to cleanly paint the raised golden areas.

Since several of my current paint projects are going to be adding a couple extra models to rotate into her Circle or my Skorne lists, there was going to be lots of gold and lots of tiny, raised, curved areas.

So, I decided to go full in with painting all the metal on Lord Tyrant Hexeris as NMM. Since it was one of my models, there was less stress for it to be "great", as opposed to if I was painting a model for Donna. This is an admitted cop out in a way, but I went into it acknowledging that. It took the anxiety away & let me just have fun painting.

The problem is that I wouldn't be able to just fake it like I did with the silver. I'd have to try to learn more about what colors were there despite my brain's inability to decipher it. I also wanted to start to get a better idea of why certain parts of metal were brighter or darker and not just copy a picture of Hexeris painted with metallic paint.

By chance, I happened upon a new video by an award-winning mini painter named Jon Ninas (Ninjon on YouTube). One of the main things he talked about in the video was the difference between highlights / shadows on metal vs on other materials. He mentioned that while the highlight on cloth or other materials would be at the peak closest to the light source, with metal the highlight is more along where you as the viewer would be looking at it. 

As point of example, here's a pic of a simple silver pipe. You can see the brightest part is at eye level / the middle of the pipe with extreme shadows adjacent to the highlight.

With this new bit of knowledge, I decided to jump into painting Hexeris' armor. The key point of focus for me was the gold on his shoulder pads. This was because it features intricate curves in thin strips of metal & was the top-most part of metal on the figure so it would be front and center in the viewer's eye. From looking at pics of gold, I could see some browns & oranges. So, I had a basic game plan to start with.

One of the headaches that I started with was that I envisioned a more bright gold. That is to say a more yellowish gold. The only gold metallic paint I have is a more dark orange gold; almost copper or brass, but not quite. So, as I painted it, I was fighting my own brain with what colors to use at times. 

I initially base coated the gold areas with Vallejo Orange Brown. Then, with keeping the "highlights at eye level with dark shadows nearby" idea in mind, I mixed some Vallejo Lemon Yellow with Ivory to paint where I thought the highlights might be. After that, I painted in where I thought the shadows would be using Vallejo Burnt Umber.

I posted a WIP pic to the WMH painting group on FB. The point of my post was that the lighting I use at my painting desk was throwing off how things looked compared to when I put the same model on the table. In order to see the tiny details when I paint, I use a bright LED light that sits maybe 8" - 12" from the model I'm painting, but it "washes" the model in light and gives an incorrect idea of how things actually look. 

It was just meant as an "Aha!" moment kind of a post, but it turned out to be a great learning experience for me.  The post got an overwhelming consensus in the feedback: there was an extreme lack of contrast in the gold. I guess I was subconsciously trying to be safe & keep to the same 3 colors I'd used without really darkening or lightening them at all.

Excitedly, I took this info & got back to the paint table the next day to see what I could do. I mixed some black in with the Burnt Umber and painted it in what should be the darker areas, leaving the other shadows to be the pure Burnt Umber. Additionally, I mixed up some of the same Lemon Yellow with white to paint brighter hightlights. Inside those highlights, I painted even smaller "dot" highlights of pure white.

Still not perfect by any stretch, but it "felt" a little more like metal. When I posted this updated WIP pic, I got even more great advice including a small bit that really helped to open my eyes in how to think about metal; especially as it pertains to the shape of an object: darkest near the light source on flat plane surfaces and brightest near the light source on curves surfaces.

I continued to work on it the next day, including painting a dark silver NMM on his weapon's blades. In that time, I worked on the gold more; looking to blend the transitions a bit more, push the highlights a little more, etc.

I could continue to work on this one for another week and make improvements, but I've learned that there comes a point in a project where I can only go so far. The limits of my knowledge & skill mean that pushing any further runs the risk of hitting a serious point of diminishing returns. Or even worse, it becomes a never ending project where I'm constantly trying to get it to be "perfect".

At the end of the day at this point in my journey as a painter, I just want it to look sort of like metal when it's 2-3 feet away from me on the table in the middle of a game. If it's not so bad that the look of it takes me out of the immersion of the game play, then it's a win.

As we were setting up the table for our regular Tuesday night game of Company of Iron, I decided to put Hexeris on the table, surround him with a handful of Circle minis that were painted with true metallic paint and snap a few pics from different angles under the lights I use for my batrep photos. 

The biggest thing about this attempt at NMM was that it pushed me to step outside of my comfort zone. Not only was I trying a "colored" metal (I know there are plenty of colors in silver, but I felt like I was able to cheat at it being mostly gray), but more importantly it forced me to paint ALL the metal parts on a model as NMM instead of just 1 or 2 bits.

The confidence I got from doing that will hopefully translate into even more learning, challenges, & improvements in models I paint in the future.

Speaking of which, I'm off to go paint a Machine Wraith for my Cryx with all NMM. The thought of painting all those cables once seemed like an impossible idea. I'm certainly not saying that I'm going to hit a homerun with it, but for a novice painter like myself, I'll take just having the confidence to try (and possibly fail) as a huge win.