"Painting metallic lace" Topic

Does anyone have any advice on painting metallic lace on epaulettes, shabraque edgings etc.? In the past I have always just used metallic paint but I would like to try something a bit more subtle.

I use acrylics and I'm painting 15mm figures.

There are metallic acrylics, which work quite well dry brushed over a coat of brown or black.

Hi,

For a non-metallic gold you'll need medium brown, white and a medium yellow paint.

1) On a pallette mix some brown and yellow and put that down as your base coat. Mix enough so that you can continue to work with the paint on your pallet before it dries.

2) Mix in more yellow and a little bit of white to the base color to make it lighter and more yellow. Cover most the brown base coat leaving it only as a shadow.

3) Add even more white to create a light yellow highlight.

This should give you a pretty nice gold color with only a little bit of practice. Before I switched to 3mm this is how I did all of my gold eppaulettes, banners and such. It works pretty well.

Click on the pic of these generals to see an example (which I didn't paint, but it shows how simple the technique is).

link

It doesn't look like he added a final highlight though.

Here is mine:

link (gold)

link (silver)

Cheers,

Burkhard

Interesting that these issues are just presented in these new sets of Vallejo's:

beastsofwar.com/painting/paint-giraldez-vallejos-paint-setssubheadingstoneman1810

Here's my two cents. I prime with Tamiya's Fine Surface Primer (white). Anything to be gold is underpainted with Vallejo Desert Yellow or Golden Yellow. Then a coat of Brass. Then a wash of artist's oil Brunt Umber. Let dry. Then pick out the detail with Vallejo Gold. Then a few dots of Humbrol or Testors enamel gold (goes on very bright).

Here's a photo – don't know how much good it will do – still trying to get better at photos.

Regards,

John

link

I too have started paying more attention to painting metallic lace. I admit to not understanding paint references I don't use so I'll just say a dark yellow – almost brown and dry brushing gold over that. I wash the gold down (dilute I should say) for smooth surfaces (stripes on trousers etc.)to allow the undercoat to show through the gold coat. This appears to be working to my mind. I should say I undercoat the total figure in white – I can't work on black. I always finish my figures with an artists matte coat spray. I usually finish my metallic highlights after this application (weapon edges, gold and silver metals) but have discovered the spray coast dulls down the metalics but not completely – I think it achieves that mid-point effect you are looking for.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll experiment with them and let you know how I get on.

Metals alone should work, afterall gold and silver lace is quite bright.

Have thought about doing the none metallic metal for 15's but decided for the scale to much work for me. For silver work I use a coat de arms gun metal as a base then highlight with mithril silver GW. For gold there are a few deep brass colours you can use them use a bright gold. I do this on artillery barrel to give a little highlight in edges to.

A matt varnish will bring down the shine.
Cheers
Paul

Why "bring down the shine"? Gold is shiny.

"Bring the different shades together" instead of down if that sounds better? I'm working on Russians and Prussians so sometimes the gilds and silvers look pretty powerful against dark uniforms until I get the varnish on.
Paul

A personal technique that gives the results I like is:

Black primer.

Primary color (white for silver, yellow for gold).

Highlight in metallic color (silver or gold).