I like to try to improve my painting skills by trying new techniques on every army I paint. On my Bretts I tried cold white, which I think I nailed, but then I realised there are so damn many of them I couldn't be bothered finishing them. I also hate painting the same thing over aand over again, it drives me to tears. Finally I don't have time, between Beer, Travel, and work to actually finish an entire army to that level.

Which leads me to Warmachine, where pretty much every model is a new and different, which is just a godsend, and there aren't so many of the buggers. Both of which combine to make it perfect to try new techniques on.

So I wanted to finally try to paint NMM, something I've been putting off for ages. I also wanted to try something I've seen alot of top painters write about, which is to use the same base colour for everything. This helps to bring the whole model together and keep it cohesive. The theme for my Retribution Force is going to be Winter War, so I wanted to make everything whites/blue/greys to go for the whole stealth thing Retribution have going on. It also made cold colours a go, which I thoroughly enjoyed from my Bretts. This made the base color fairly simple, everything is starting at blue and going up.


Anyway, enough dribble, heres the WIP of my Mage Hunter Assassin.



I absolutely love this model. Obviously this is my first ever attempt at NMM, so I've just half of it before I finish everything. All critique is welcome. The rest needs a bit of a touch up as well, particularly the white needs another layer or two, but its the general idea.

Cheers
James

Really like this model, the metal chains look lovely and crisp and clear - how did you do them from blue? And the face looks nice and cold complimenting the blue-white body suit. Look forward to seeing more (and stealing tips).

Is that NMM on the chains and weapon? Awesome!!

Really good buddy, any tips?

Oh I just worked out NMM stands for Non-Metallic Metal! Excuse me I may need to go and touch up my highlights!

Quote from: cunningmatt on October 05, 2011, 02:18:05 pm
Oh I just worked out NMM stands for Non-Metallic Metal! Excuse me I may need to go and touch up my highlights!

Thank you Matt, I was feeling really stupid at not knowing what NMM meant and didn't want to ask anyone.

The colours all look great Jimbo, all you wonderful painters really inspire me to not look at my models as they are so horrible.

Ah, it wasn't just NMM-hype talk, you actually went for it. Nice job man, the chain in particular has come out very nicely.

Gorgeous.

So, two MHAs plus Narn by any chance? (You dirty dirty dirty bastard).

Quote from: Nick on October 05, 2011, 08:05:34 pm
Gorgeous.

So, two MHAs plus Narn by any chance? (You dirty dirty dirty bastard).

What? Me? Never! 

Sorry I forget that some people don't spend as much time reading about painting and staring at pretty models as me... yea NMM = Non Metallic Metal. I was pretty worried about doing it but it actually ended up relatively easy, it just took forever. I mean thats about 8 coats there, I think... Patience is key.

Matt, the NMM and the flesh aren't using blue, mainly because I want to get the basics of NMM down before trying to branch out. Blue flesh I could have tried but its tricky to do without getting some Zombie looking model and I figured the rest would make up for it.

Yeah, the chain and weapon are all going to be NMM, same for every elf in the group.

Thanks for the comments guys, I'll try to post up the recipes later, but its mostly blue + other colour -> lighter blue + other colour

As for tips Ol, holding the model under a light source (or at  least the same place everytime) is a great way to make sure the highlights are logical

That's some really vibrant work there mate, excellent stuff!!! :)