Hey, as many of you may know I am working very hard on my NMM-silver, I have a good understanding and capability to shadow/highlight, but the trouble I am having is with the curved areas of armor on my galadhrim...

so, what I am doing is transluscent painting, having very thinned paint with virtually no paint on the brush and am shadowing and highlighting like so. The only problem is that it seems a bit...scrappy or basically not fully blended.

I'm spending a decent amount of time on the blends, maybe I just need to spend more time.

By the way I use W&N series 7 00 for shadowing, etc... and I use GW paints.(just in case these could be the problem)

so, what's the best way you guys think about blending?? and how do you do it??

thanks

Are you painting your thinned down coats onto dry or wet paint?

I'm not sure if it's the right way to blend properly, but the few times I've tried to get a really good blend I've painted the base colour then painted the thinned down highlight whilst the first layer is still wet. That way, if you've got the consistency of both layers right, they'll blend naturally in the middle without spilling too far beyond where you want the colour transition to take place. Usually if it does go to far you can patch it up anyway, but it takes a bit of practice.

If you're painting onto wet layers, then my only suggestion would be to experiment with the consistency of the paint. If it's blotchy maybe you need the first coat thinned down a bit more to aid the mix?

Once again I've no idea if this is the correct method of blending, but the few times I've tried it it's worked out fairly well.

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I give up...

I am seriously really frustrated with NMM-silver. I just can't get it right, I have tried every kind of way in blending you can imagine...I have used every formula with greys involved, omg, it seriously is driving me nuts@^#^#@!!! I just can't make silver look like stinkin silver, it looks like CONCRETE!!!!

I'm going to move to NMM-gold, do you guys believe gold is easier than silver??

I've heard it should be the starting point where beginners on NMM should start, because silver is just a lot harder than gold, because you don't have to deal with that annoying color, WHITE, instead you just blend up to a nice and soothing bleached bone.

anyways that was my rant, what do you guys think,

oh, and some comforting words would be nice too...

feanorthenoldor

I agree, nmm silver is very hard, especially for beginners, like myself. But I wouldn't give up just yet, there are still a few things you can try.
One is you can search on youtube for "how to paint nmm gold" or at least I think that was it, and there should be a video on how to do nmm, both gold and silver, and even senmm.
Another thing that you can try is what this guy did.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/269470
The swords on the tyranids are done in nmm, and if you scroll down, he gives you a link to his website that shows you how to do it. The only problem is that it's in French, so if you can't read French, or have a translator on your computer, then I can tell you the steps if you want(no, I can't read French, but google chrome translates it).

Both of those options require non-GW paints, but work well. I think it would be a good idea to give gold a try though, as it is easier, imo. Also, nmm isn't something you learn overnight, it takes a ton of practice, and lots of experimenting. If you stick with it, I'm sure it'll get easier over time.
Hope this helps!

-Pow

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The best reference imo on coolminiornot is Alexi_z, nearly all of her models are painted in the NMM style.
I struggle aswell to get it perfect and feel like giving up all the time, but it's just in those moments you have to keep trying. (easy to say, I know...)

Best is to start on rather flat area's, such as a (straight) sword.
These days I usually start with some sort of Codex Grey (Vallejo's basalt grey), then highlight with Fortress Grey.
Next is very much watered down black to darken some parts, followed by a thin layer of Vallejo's 'Fluo Blue' (GW Ice Blue should do aswell). And then I end up with pure white.

I've tried this method for a long time meanwhile and am not at all satisfied with my work if I refer to the masters, but if I don't refer, I am pretty pleased with the way I end up. I also recently learned to put more contrast in my NMM...

The brushes seem no problem at all! I also use them aswell as Creative Models brushes (the 000-sizes seem to keep the paint wet much longer then any other brushes I have used in the past.

To get a good smooth blending, it's also important to end up your brush-stroke in the most concentrated area for that color, so you actually "push" the paint away from the blending-part between the two colors.

Any chance you could post pictures of where exactly you struggle?

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here is something i just recently worked on

COmments plzzz

it looks good, but like you said, it just looks like concrete. After I read this yesterday, it made me feel like messing around with nmm, and experimented a bit with silver. Instead of using just grays and white, I mixed some blue in, and it makes a huge difference. It looks a bit less realistic, unless you are an expert at nmm, but it looks pretty cool. I'll try to post a pic of it tomorrow.

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I think (for as much as I can speak...) the problem is that the white highlighted edge is on both sides (top and bottom of plate) equal.
I might look better if you make the top of the plates darker, and then just only the rim an ultra fine but sharp edge of white.

The position of the reflection of the light makes the NMM look good or not (mine usually don't...).
Here's a pic of Alex_Z's Haldir on www.coolminiornot.com which is a good reference for these Elf-figures:


Although it's not in silver as you would like to, it gives a good idea of where to put the light-reflections...

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The key to NMM is contrast which you have as you go from black to pretty much white. However you do not have a enough of your midtone in order for it to look realistic. This http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?44329-Matt-s-NMM-and-Blending-Article&highlight=Matt%27s is probably one of the best articles on NMM and blending there is. Very useful and you cant argue with the result.

I would recommend you use more shades as right now it basically looks like you are using 3: a very dark grey a slighly lighter one and then off-white. The transition from black to white needs to be smooth and in order to do that I would use something like what Matt uses in his article which is 7 shades I believe. NMM is alot of work where you basically add the lighter shades to slightly less area than the previous shade. SOmething like this:

-- 25/75 Fortress Grey/Skull White
----- (50/50 Fortress Grey/Skull White)
-------- (fortress grey)
----------- Codex Grey)
---------------- Adeptus Battlegrey
-------------------- 50/50 Chaos Black/Adeptus Battlegrey
----------------------- Chaos Black

Where the off-white is only on the very edges (you can use the side of your brush for this if it makes it easier) and then the slightly darker shade only shows a bit and so on until you get to black. Not sure if I have described it well but as I said have a read through Matt's article above and then this one here: http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/32050-how-to-blend-by-olliekickflip/? and you should get the idea of what I am trying to say.

Hopefully that helps.

EDIT: Forgot to add, alot of it is practice so dont give up. If its frustrating you go on to something else for a while and then come back to it. I find it becomes much more difficult to do something if you get frustrated with it. Also dont be afraid to just touch up parts, say there is not enough midtone as in your case, so just add more midtone to what you already have instead of starting over and keep doing so until you get a satisfactory result.

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...We need a "thanks for the post" button like they've got on some other forums...

I've not been as interested in NMM as most other people, but this is some good advice & good instructions. It actually makes me think that maybe I should give it a try.

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I realized that I didnt really address some of your questions and missed some points so I am re-responding. I want to point out that Buckland brewer has a good point and that your highlight placing is off and from what I can tell it looks like your paints are a little too thick for blending purposes. I actually think silver NMM is easier to get to look good than gold NMM as the colours for gold are tricky as is getting the contrast.

So now for some encouraging words, I think you are on the right track, but definitely need to work on highlight placement as that will make a big difference between it looking like concrete and it looking like metal. Pick a single light source and make sure all the brightest parts face it. The picture that BB posted above is a great reference but CMON has tons of others I am sure. You might want to try this on a flatter surface like a sword just to get the hang of it and get your confidence up as the curved surface you are trying now looks quite tricky and may be the source of your frustration.

Again, just red the articles I posted earlier, try a simpler/flater piece just to understand what I mean when i say highlight/light placement is key to making this look right and build confidence, use reference material, be patient, and have fun doing it. If you find it getting tedious then stop, this is suppose to be fun, and if you are just pushing yourself and not having fun then its going to be harder for you to achieve the desired result.

Oh and keep showing us your progress so that people can comment and make suggestions, its the best way to learn.

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wow thanks Noddwyr!!!

I actually did some NMMing last night, and I am quite pleased with the results, my last pic, I started with a basecoat of a very dary grey, honestly I don't like blending up, I like to move back and forth with shadows and highlights, so I started with a basecoat of codex grey and the result turned out pretty good!

I also used glazes to smooth out the blends,

oh, and I did read those articles before Noddwyr, thanks again, basically i have read every single article that is known to man about NMM, lol..

thats why I believe I am progressing really well!

thanks again, I'll post pics soon on my progress.

feanorthenoldor