Skip to content
Blog > Miniatures > Miniature Hobby > True Metallic Metal: Painting Chrome (An Experiment)

True Metallic Metal: Painting Chrome (An Experiment)

    Next month is a 40K event I’m putting on at Crossroad Games in Standish, Maine called Fratris Salutem. One of my many tasks is to get trophies made for the event. A friend of mine is casting parts for me and at the moment I have three of the eight I need.

    Yesterday I decided it was time to get started on painting them up. Normally we’ve done trophies where the “statue” part is just a single metallic color. There’s nothing wrong with that, and we’ve had some amazing trophies created, but I wanted to do something different. The event puts the Imperium against the Forces of Chaos so I wanted to distinguish the trophies between the factions. I’ll use the same piece for each type of trophy, so having a visual difference I thought was important. I decided to do the Imperial ones as weathered chrome and the Chaos ones a brassy color.

    Here’s a shot of the pieces base coated and washed. The wash is still wet as you’ll notice.

    Trophies

    As much as I want to lovingly paint these to an amazing standard and spend hours of them, because they are cool pieces, I don’t have the time. I could easily spend 2-3 hours on one of these but I have eight to do and I won’t have 16-24 hours worth of paint time between now and May 23rd. There’s just too much I need to get done. So, the below shot is something I knocked out in about 15 minutes, minus the drying time on the washes.

    True Metallic Metal - Chrome

    I also used this as a chance to work with TMM (true metallic metal), some more. I’ve played with it a bit previously but doing eight of these will really let me work with the technique. TMM is the same concept and approach as NMM (non-metallic metal), just using metallic paints. I honestly prefer the look of TMM over NMM as well. This was my first time trying to paint a chromed surface. I did a lot of searching around to get some examples and just went for it.

    So, there’s the first of eight done. I actually finished the other two you saw above as well but I do want to leave some mystery to the participants who read my blog.

    I’m extremely pleased with how that came out, especially considering how little time I put into it. The blends aren’t perfect, close up it’s a bit sloppy, but I still like it. It’s actually kind of liberating to work so quickly. Normally when I paint I usually way over think everything. Would light really hit the surface the way I painted it? Shouldn’t the shadow here be a bit darker? By giving myself a tight timeline I just went for it and didn’t complicate the process by questioning what I was doing. I just painted and let instinct guide me instead of critical thinking. I’m going to have to find a way to continue doing that on my army because it’s a lot less exhausting.

    Did I manage a convincing chrome? Any tips or suggestions?

    Thor

    Please Rate this Article

    Please take a second to rate this. It helps us deliver to you the stuff you enjoy.
    3/5 - (2 votes)
    Subscribe
    Notify of
    guest

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    21 Comments
    oldest
    newest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    TheRhino
    9 years ago

    Looks nice!
    Still up in the air on if I can make it or not.

    Tibbs Forge
    9 years ago

    I think that looks incredible. That pinkish reflection is actually from a real reflection, right? If that’s paint, then it just got 10 times more amazing. I also prefer TMM to NMM, myself. If done well it looks absolutely stunning, as this does here. I like how you’re all like: “These are so sloppy” but they’re way better than anything I could do. Great work! Can’t wait to see the Khorne symbol in the same style.

    Tibbs Forge
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Thor

    Fair point on the brass, but all that detail’s going to pop like crazy. On the pink, I don’t know if it’s even a good idea to artificially add a reflection like that, but there’s no denying it’s a cool effect for the right piece. Seems like it could take a lot of work, but this is actually one of the main reasons I love TMM. NMM will never pick up an ambient reflection like that, so it has to be painted on. Most people, even if they’re good at NMM, don’t go that far.

    greggles
    9 years ago

    Thor…that is an absolutely lovely job. It’s so good I wouldn’t think it wasn’t chrome to begin with…stellar work!

    NafNaf
    9 years ago

    Stunning work Thor. Really like the effect you have achieved on the chrome. Tutorial perhaps? ;)

    NafNaf
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Thor

    Dont be so modest :D. The one above looks great and I would like to know how you did it :)

    Warren Falconer
    9 years ago

    Man you nailed it looks fantastic.

    Kamui
    Admin
    9 years ago

    Hmmm…Looks more like nickel than chrome. Better luck next time ;)

    Dave G
    9 years ago

    I’m about to do some writing finally on metals, but DAMN if this isn’t one I’ll have to link to. I love that chrome. 15 minutes? Wow.

    o na
    o na
    9 years ago

    This looks amasing! It still comes up when i search TMM. Any more pictures you can share? Whats are the colors that you use? Im goıng to order some new paints and want to give this a try.