I'll sort of breeze through my painting process, showing pics of each completed stage. If you have any questions about what I'm doing, don't hesitate to ask.

Silver Metals

1. Base coat with a mix of 10:2:1:2 GW Boltgun Metal : VMC Glaze Medium (GM) : H2O : black or brown ink.
2. Once this is dry, lightly dab on Tamiya Smoke.
3. Let the Smoke dry for at least an hour, then wash the entire area with "Armor Wash". This is a 50 / 50 mix of blue and brown ink as described in Escalation.
4. Now drybrush with a mix of 10:3:1:3 GW Boltgun Metal : VMC Glaze Medium (GM) : H2O : "Armor Wash".
5. Highlight raised areas with a mix of 10:4:1:4 GW Chainmail : VMC Glaze Medium (GM) : H2O : "Armor Wash".
6. Tidy up black primer areas.

Other than waiting for the Tamiya Smoke to fully dry, this stage goes very quickly. I decided I wanted this Nomad to be fairly beat up and dirty looking, so I also applied Boltgun to various areas that would likely have chipped or worn paint to simulate battle damage.

The metals look really clean at this point. Don't worry, we'll dirty them up at the end.

Gold Metals

1. Base coat with VGC Brassy Brass.
2. Wash with a 1:1 mix of dark brown ink and VMC 181 Smoke. The Smoke helps the ink to stick to the paint.
3. Highlight everything not in a recess with GW Shining Gold.
4. Highlight raised areas and uppermost surfaces with VMC 172 Gold.
5. Highlight edges and the uppermost raised areas with GW Burnished Gold.
6. Tidy up black primer areas.

I'm aiming for more of a brass color than a true gold. If I want gold, I use the same steps but take the highlights one step further with VMC Metallic Medium.

The time has come to decide on a paint scheme. I plan on using this Nomad with Samantha McHorne and her Devil Dogs. I'm planning on using the paint scheme from my favorite football team - the Pittsburgh Steelers. (Sports teams can be a good source of inspiration when you just don't know what colors to use.)

Golden Yellow

1. Base coat with VMC 131 Orange Brown.
2. Base coat again with 1~2 light coats of GW Fiery Orange.
3. Base coat again with 1~2 light coats of GW Golden Yellow.
4. Apply a thin yellow ink glaze.
5. Apply a thin orange ink glaze.
6. Highlight using 2:1 GW Golden Yellow : GW Skull White.
7. Highlight upper areas and edges using 1:1 GW Golden Yellow : GW Skull White.
8. Tidy up black primer areas.

Yellow is a tricky color to get right, especially over black primer. I've found that VMC 131 Orange Brown is a great solution to this problem. It's opaque enough to cover the black in one pass usually, and it's a warm color to brighten up colors like yellow, orange and red. Give it a try.

Black

1. Highlight with a mix of 5:1:1:2:2 Gw Chaos Black : GW Codex Grey : GW Dwarf Flesh : GM : H2O, leaving black in the recesses, edges and shadowed areas.
2. Highlight further with a mix of 3:1:1:2:2 Gw Chaos Black : GW Codex Grey : GW Dwarf Flesh : GM : H2O, staying on the raised areas and upper edges.
3. Highlight even further with a mix of 1:1:1:2:2:1 Gw Chaos Black : GW Codex Grey : GW Dwarf Flesh : GM : H2O : GW Skull White, staying only on the upper edges.
4. Apply a mix of 1:1:1:2:2:2 Gw Chaos Black : GW Codex Grey : GW Dwarf Flesh : GM : H2O : GW Skull White to the hard edges and along the battle damaged areas, leaving a thin strip of black between this and the metal areas.

There's two things going on here. One, black is tricky to highlight without it looking too grey; and two, I want the paint to look a bit faded. The Dwarf Flesh in the mix helps keep the greys in a neutral balance and lets them look "softer". At the same time, it helps with the faded look. Ordinarily I would lean towards a blue black for my highlights and keep them sharper, but extending the highlighted areas helps with the worn paint look, especially around the damaged areas.

Weathering

This Nomad looks a bit schizophrenic right now. The black areas are worn and battered, but the metals look almost new. Lets fix that. I've done a lot of experimenting lately with Tamiya Clear as a medium to emulate the properties of their Smoke. Here is a mixture that I've come up with:

• 20 drops VMC 186 Transparent Blue
• 20 drops VMC 181 Smoke
• 30 drops VMC 182 Woodgrain
• a piece of pewter for an agitator

This makes an excellent dirt wash for just about any color. It turns out very similar to Smoke, but is a warm brown color instead of black. I apply this thinly to the areas I want dirty. In this case, pretty much the whole jack!

Base

1. Base coat with VMC 150 German Camo Brown.
2. Drybrush with GW Graveyard Earth.
3. Drybrush again with a mix of 2:2 GW Graveyard Earth : VMC 119 Green Ochre.
4. Add 1 drop of GW Skull White to the previous mix and lightly drybrush again.
5. Paint the rocks with various grey tones.
6. Paint the base ring with a 1:1 mix of GW Chaos Black : black ink.
7. Glue a bit of green flock in the recesses.

This Nomad is ready to crack some heads on the table! I hope you've enjoyed this look at how I approach painting a large model like this.

Until next time!

--YW7--