Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
A little blast from the past. I myself painted metals for the longest time just by basecoating a metallic paint, washing, and then highlighting with a slightly brighter tone.
But there is a similar, different approach that gives metals so much more volume, and that's just by using semi-transparent paints like washes, inks, or contrast paints from below as a filter, which works to colour the metal and shade it too. Especially easy if you have an airbrush on hand. Then just bring back the base colour, and you are golden (literally in this case).
The inks can be glazed from the bottom by brush too, but you could also basecoat the miniature with a darker tone of the metal you want to use, and then highlight with the brighter one. Try that out on your next project!
A little blast from the past. I myself painted metals for the longest time just by basecoating a metallic paint, washing, and then highlighting with a slightly brighter tone.
But there is a similar, different approach that gives metals so much more volume, and that's just by using semi-transparent paints like washes, inks, or contrast paints from below as a filter, which works to colour the metal and shade it too. Especially easy if you have an airbrush on hand. Then just bring back the base colour, and you are golden (literally in this case).
The inks can be glazed from the bottom by brush too, but you could also basecoat the miniature with a darker tone of the metal you want to use, and then highlight with the brighter one. Try that out on your next project!
