NMM Painting Clinic

10870 Views 24 Replies 12 Participants Last post by BLADERUNNER, Feb 11, 2006

BLADERUNNER

Discussion Starter · Feb 8, 2006

Hey people, DJ Aun Kor again with a really good idea for those of you who are about
ready to step into the elite of painting, and also those advanced painters to help
out the newbies trying to gain new skills. I thought this would be a cool thread
to have NNM questions, like I've recently seen questions like "what colors do you use
for NMM gold?" and stuff like that, But with this thread I hope that we'll be able to
keep everything together, *ahem* (mod please sticky thread) Thanks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But to break the ice I wanted to figure out what NNM is used for, like what
kind of weapons, or armour, or even the whole model. And how does a NNM
painter pick his colors?

1 - 20 of 25 Posts

King Ulrik Flamebeard

· #2 · Feb 8, 2006

Having never done NMM I can only speak of what I have read;

NMM is used on anything metallic; swords, axes, shields, armour, rings... It is painting metal in none metal colours so you would use the colours that are closely assosiated with metals. Silver would be grey whilst gold would be browns and yellows.

KU

Cheredanine

· #3 · Feb 8, 2006

I have done NMM on my death wing army (with the exception fo the dread which I couldnt face doing the whole legs and back) and a lot of my =][= scale minis, happy to offer advice, but the thread seems rather prospective at the mo

XenomarinesKiller

· #4 · Feb 8, 2006

this is a great idea as i am about to start using these techniques, on Grey Knights. does anyone have tips as what to use for their silver? i am looking for a bluish tint, so i don't have to ink it. does anyone have specific colors?. i would prefer GW, but i might be able to get vallejo or whatever.

Commander Y

· #5 · Feb 8, 2006

Just a Recipe won't help much. The first step everyone needs to take is understanding the Theory behind how light reflects off different kinds of metal. It's different than cloth, different than leather, and way different than standard line-highlighting like many of us do on models.

Cool Mini Or Not has several very useful Theory of NMM articles in their... Articles section.

The second step is being able to get a smooth transition from one color to the next. Do wet blending, dry blending, mixing in increments of a lighter color, build up translucent layers, wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry... whatever -- the point is, If you can't make (for example) a Marine Shoulder pad go from Dark Blue on the bottom to light blue on top without any brush strokes, than you're not going to be able to hang with NMM.

So...

Understand the Theory of Light.
Understand (some form of) blending.
THEN try it.

Only asking for headaches, otherwise, on a technique that only some people really like, while others vehemently oppose it as only working for 2D images online (of course, I find that these are the same people that simply can't do it, so it's a bit of sour grapes I feel... but hey...)

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Reactions: 1

LictorInTheGrass

· #6 · Feb 8, 2006

Why make things hard? Our access to metal paints is great so... why NNM painting? As it may seem "elite", its more effective to define a surface to its fullest potential by just using silver and gold. Give some example so I'll understand.

Sithlet

· #7 · Feb 8, 2006

LictorInTheGrass said:
Why make things hard? Our access to metal paints is great so... why NNM painting? As it may seem "elite", its more effective to define a surface to its fullest potential by just using silver and gold. Give some example so I'll understand.

Oftentimes, metals on minis don't really look like real metals would. Sure, they look metallic -- but you don't often see more subtle shifts in color that are on a blade or reflections and such that you can do with NMM. Oftentimes, the difference between NMM and metallics will be negligible if you use a variety of metallics to highlight and shade still.

Personally, I like NMM more because I think it gives a "softer" look to the metal and seems to go more natural with the rest of my figures. It also lets you emulate a more realistic shades that aren't actually present but make sense for warriors on a battlefield (for example -- reflecting brown towards the earth and blue towards the sky -- sometimes referred to as SENMM for Sky-Earth NMM).

The main thing to remember when doing metallics on models, whether you choose to use actual metallics or a NMM approach, is to shade and highlight -- simply slapping a coat of Boltgun Metal or Mithril Silver by themselves isn't going to give a realistic metal. You need to paint it like you would any other section of the model, and use highlighting and shading techniques.

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LictorInTheGrass

· #8 · Feb 8, 2006

Still don't understand, my models look great, though I don't use highlighting much yet, their crisp and the highlight of metal goes as far as boltgun, chainmail, and mithril layered (some white time to time add).

BLADERUNNER

Discussion Starter · #9 · Feb 9, 2006

Lictor, dont forget you can also do chrome NNM, which means blending grey into
metals to make it look like theres a shadow in the recesses.

But okay so we got a pretty good reception, thats awesome.

Commander Y: "So...

Understand the Theory of Light.
Understand (some form of) blending.
THEN try it."

This forum is for those who mostly know the basics, I will point readers to our NNM guides
in light bending. I hopefully am trying to stamp out the questions most beginners have
by moderating this thread.

Okay, So KU has explained that NNM Is used on armour, shields, swords, boltguns, and
anything metal like.

The Colors of Metal Can be used from anything of the following.

Brass
Gold
Rusted Metal
Silver
(Assorted Gems)

Whats your favorite pick of flat colors for making these colors appear to look metal?

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LictorInTheGrass

· #10 · Feb 9, 2006

YOU still have not shown me an example of the NNM painting. I have a mild idea but not much of one.

NonstickRon

· #11 · Feb 9, 2006

In the painting sticky at the top I've got a post with a list of links. Theres at least one link to tutorials for NMM. Look through, them, some of them are links to a plethora of tutorials and theres even some color and lighting theory.

BLADERUNNER

Discussion Starter · #12 · Feb 9, 2006

Thats cool but were still going to keep this thread open and get those FAQ's answered
about NNM painting.

NonstickRon

· #13 · Feb 9, 2006

http://www.coolminiornot.com/go.php/go/articlephp/aid/300?
A tutorial with example photos

http://www.coolminiornot.com/article/aid/54
NMM Theory

Commander Y

· #14 · Feb 9, 2006

I just gotta point this out.

Non Metallic Metals

So...

NMM

Not "NNM."

As for examples, look at anything by the Rackham Studio. They never use metallic paints on any of their Confrontation minis.

The undisputed Master of Chrome- or SE-NMM is Arjay: http://www.arjayslotd.com/ and you'll find lots of examples there.

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Sithlet

· #15 · Feb 9, 2006

http://www.coolminiornot.com/112886

Great NMM -- he's worked the red reflections from the runes onto the armor and everything.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/111058

Another pretty awesome one.

Neither of the above ones are mine, but are examples that should show what can be done with NMM.

Zentradi

· #16 · Feb 9, 2006

I don’t really like to paint with metallic colors, so NNM seems like a interesting technique for me. I have just tried it once, and it was fun to paint. I have a picture of it some where in the Marine gallery I think. Its a Emperor’s champion. Most of you guys have seen it I guess.

Any way I have to try it out some more. The metallic colors seem to stand out to much from the miniature (most of the time any way). It can be great on some models but it don’t really fit my way of paining.

LictorInTheGrass

· #17 · Feb 10, 2006

Perhaps on showcase models, buy not on every individual model, you'd be painting forever.

Vindkall

· #18 · Feb 10, 2006

LictorInTheGrass said:
Perhaps on showcase models, buy not on every individual model, you'd be painting forever.

Not really true, what it's down to is how many minis do you have to paint and how much time do you have on your hands.
For example a Deathwing army it works to have all minis painted with NMM (Cheradine has this IIRC) also in games such as Confrontation, Rag'Narok, Warmachine and Infinity it works as you usually have less minis than in a GW game, so no, it's not for showcase only.

Edit : fixed the thread name.

Commander Y

· #19 · Feb 10, 2006

And, really... It doesn't take any more time to do NMM than it does to make metallics look good. Jakob Rune Nielsen, for instance, uses metallic paints and makes them look really, really good. By the time you're done with all the ink washes and glazes he uses... it's taken just as long as Non-Metallics.

Of course, if you do the "Boltgun-Black Ink-Boltgun-Chainmail" slapdashery, then sure - that's a lot quicker. But looks just as "unrealistic" as unblended, inaccurate NMM.

Zentradi

· #20 · Feb 10, 2006

Yes I agree to that. And on the subject, I don’t think that NMM take much longer then normal highlighting, at least not if you are using some layering or wet blending.

Sure if you just use a base color then highlight the edges or drybrush, then NMM will take a lot longer to paint the other stuffs on your model.

IMO you don’t need more layers on NMM then you need to paint a smote highlighted red armor.

If you are using the black base drybrused silver then its a fast way to paint, but to compare that to NMM is like comparing drybrush with wet blending or layering.

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