I've been asked on several occassions, how do I paint gold without using gold metallic paint. (from here known as Gold NMM [non-metallic-metal]) I use some older, out of production paints from Citadel. Coat d'Arms paint is the same thing, you just have to find the correct color matches. Brookhurst Hobbies has the complete line, and a color matching chart. For outside the USA, I cannot remember who has them. Sorry. Please excuse the really poor pictures, I was painting and trying to take pictures at the same time..and its much harder than it looks. I'm painting the 2 lion heads on the following model. Very important to remember, all my paints were thinned, so they flow very easily and that they will also lay down thin layers of paint. In this picture,you can see the progression of the paints from dark orange to white. Paints used in order... Snakebit Leather over white primer (very important to paint over white!) Flesh wash Leporous Brown (thats the orange looking paint in the picture below) Golden Yellow Sunshine Yellow White
For starters, I primed white and painted the areas I wanted to do the NMM gold with Citadel Snakebite leather.
The next step is to wash the whole area to be worked on with Citadel Flesh Wash. This will give the area to be worked on a nice rich brown color. Make sure the wash gets into the deepest recesses, to create a shadow effect.
For the next color, after the wash has dried, I used Citadel leporous brown. The trick to doing gold NMM is to shape the paint. By this, I mean, start painting areas and not the whole area. leave areas dark, work on the highspots, start working on where the reflections will fall.
On this step, I'm using Citadel Golden Yellow. This is a yellow paint, with a strong hint of orange in it. If you notice in the picture, I'm basiclly just hitting the highlights with this paint. the horns, eyebrows, nose, outside cheeks.
Now, please don't hurt me here. I cannot find the step where I used Citadel Sunshine Yellow. With that step I painted another layer of highlights going over less of an area. But, if you've tried this already, it all looks bad until you get to this point. Add some white to the Sunshine Yellow, so it looks like lemon chiffon. a real pale looking yellow. Now, sparingly hit the highest points on the area your working on. the tip of the nose in a small 'V', the eyebrows, the tips of the horns. Do not go overboard on this step. Use this stuff very sparingly.This is a list of the models I have used this technique on Onyx- on his sword Solitare-on the very tip of his sword hilt. Kelen-all over him. From his armor, to the thing holding his wings. Red Lioness-see above :-) Griffon Templars-Their plate armor Chaos Wizard-the trim on his robes Evil Cleric Chick-her crown I hope I've helped more than hindered. I discovered this technique one night when I was playing around with an idea, and I just put it into use. A word of encouragement would be.."don't be afraid to try something new, there is always the can of stripper :-) "