Lord Uxbridge WIP part 4, non metalic metal technique gold

While I made some progress on the non metallic metal (NMM) gold for this set, I did not finish it, much like I had expected yesterday. Uxbridge only has the basic colour done, same as CPT Seymour (although he only has a little gold on his sash anyway), MAJ Thornhill has the second step finished as well and CPT Wildmann  also received his third and final step. Well at least on one side, since I wanted to go through the paces of NMM gold showing pictures of him.

Now the first step with NMM gold is simple… you need a base colour. In this case I chose Vallejo Panzer Aces “New Wood” (311) since I wanted a bright gold in the end. If I want one that is a little darker, I go for Vallejo Game Colour “Cobra Leather” (040) [Games Workshops old Snakebite Leather is the same colour]. Edit (2014): These days I use Cobra Leather as a base for both the bright and dark versions, as I found it gives either a more lively look! 

The next colour is the first highlight. In this case I chose Coat d´arms “Horse Tone Dun” (221). Again if I want a little darker gold I go for a different colour, Vallejo “Green Ochre” (914). This colour is used to pick out the highlights. So I paint the edges and raised points (folds or tassels) with it. Same goes if the fabric has a pattern stitched into it. In this case the belt for the cartridge box has interlocking triangles stitched on (which is unfortunately not visible from this angle), the sabretache a zig-zig pattern (better seen in the third step photo). Pick such patterns out with this colour as well. If you need to do some freehand patterns (like the cyphers on the saddle cloth) pick your spots where you feel a highlight should be, usually at spots where lines cross or make turns.

The final colours is used to give extreme highlights. In this case I used Vallejo Game colour “Elfric Flesh” (098). If I want a darker gold I go for a creme colour (unfortunately I can not give you a code here since I bought it without a label from Foundry). Go easy with this one. I found it best to paint besides the highlight from the second step or just put a dot at the end of such a highlight for best effect. If you look at the cypher on the sabretache, I overdid it there and painted most of the second step over, which resulted in a poor result since the contrast is too strong. I will have to go back to that one and redo it with some Dun colour. For small tassels you can make a line of small dots to accentuate the fabric.

Captain Wildmann
step by step NMM

Hope to finish the NMM gold today and start on the caps, fur trimming for Uxbride´s pelisse and the NMM silver.