# WIP - Techmarine + Tutorials.



## moo (Aug 12, 2008)

Ok so keeping in line with my marine phase and trying out different techniques, i was asked to write a tutorial for how i painted my blue armour. I thought i'd try it with red on the techmarines armour.

Firstly was a watered base colour of scab red trying to leave the darker areas with as much black base colour as i could.










Then following the thin layers of scab red i added slightly more thin layers of scab red to the edges and the highlighted areas. Following this i added some blood red to my palette. Successive thin layers to the lighter areas.










After this i did pure blood red watered down and following even smaller areas of the red. Normally at this stage i used to stop but i know my painting needs more contrast so i added some bleached bone to the mix. The thin layers around the top of the knee pad and the top part of the armour.










Then finally some cleaning up of the blend using some watered down red wash and reapplying some of the bleach bone and blood red mix gave me my final look.










I hope this is helpful to people, any comments and criticisms are welcome. I've not finished the base btw  i always like doing the base partially in case i get some other paint on it, but i like having a feel of the atmosphere with a model so i do the base.


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## surreal-mind (Oct 11, 2008)

awesome, will come in handy for my army :3


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## kungfoomasta (May 8, 2008)

very nice and if you happen to have finished the marine i would like to see the finished product. it will look really good when its done


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## Damned Fist (Nov 2, 2007)

Excellent. I'm glad that you added your NMM talent to the tutorial forum. The one thing that you may want to add, however, is how you determine where your highlights are going to be. Light source is very important for this technique to work right so perhaps you can comment??k:

Great stuff Moo.:victory:


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

This is brilliant. I can't wait to try it out.

How many different layers did you do? And do you have any ideas over what colours I could use for gold? I'm getting sick of Tin Bitz, Shining Gold/Tin Bitz, Shining Gold, Shining Gold/Burnished Gold, Burnished Gold, Flesh Wash, Burnished Gold drybrush, Mithril silver drybrush. Something close to that would be helpful - NMM is amazing, but haven't had much success on my own. But the Royal Blue and Red you've just shown has really encouraged me to make a start. Thanks for the boost, once again - +Rep.


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## moo (Aug 12, 2008)

Thanks for the comments:

@kungfoomasta i will be finishing this model so keep your eye on this thread .

@Damned Fist, you're right i apologise about the lack of detail in this tutorial, i've never really done anything like this before. I guess when you've been doing for over a year you kinda lose the fact of how you visualise things. 

@ Vaz, in general each stage was about 5-6 layers, the mid layers using blood red took a few more as i had to build up the colour. Also to tidy things up after i had done the main of the colour, that usually adds another 5 layers or so, so in total its about 30-40 layers on each area. For example the knee pad takes extra layers due to higher contrasts.

With the highlights on nmm, i always visualise an imaginery light source or two from certain points on a model, in this case i looked at it using the corner of the base. Now all highlights will come from that one area, and the light in general travels in straight lines. The edges of armour in general pick up the lightest areas. When i first started doing nmm i spent hours and hours looking at other models and also "googling" pictures with shining metallic surfaces such as looking at bikes and cars etc. A key point with NMM is getting the blends smooth and in a small area to move from dark to light blends. Im not really sure how much of this makes sense, but in my mind it does lol. I will do two more followup tutorials on this techmarine for you all to see, one will be on steel NMM and the other is gold NMM, this will give you an idea of what to do with colours and spread of highlighting i hope .










Still need work on the wires trailing in front of his legs and add some shading to the skull and some writing on the little scrolls above the leg. I like the model, its all so detailed, so it should keep me busy painting. 

Anyway no more updates until next month for now, i'll be across the world in Hong Kong for a while  so enjoy the wip


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## DaemonsR'us (Jan 25, 2007)

moo im sending you my army and your painting it no questions :laugh: but seriously sweet job moo your painting doesnt fail to impress


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## LVix (Oct 18, 2008)

:shok: Now that is a way of highlighting armour I never thought of doing. :headbutt: Thanks for reminding me how rounded surfaces reflect light; kind of feel stupid myself for forgetting that basic principle of light. :fool:


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## jordan_darko (Mar 26, 2008)

Damn moo that blending is sublime and i love your style of natual highlighting amazing as usual. keep it up dude. JD


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## Selorian (Jun 17, 2008)

That looks amazing! Thanks for the tutorial its a lot easier to follow than a lot of other tutorials.


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## moo (Aug 12, 2008)

Ok so after a long holiday in Hong Kong i'm back and working on the rest of this techmarine. I finished off the torso and the trailing wires and conduits, and started one of the arms. Overall im happy with the model and trying to get back into the swing of things after 3 weeks of not doing any is actually quite hard, especially when jet lagged. Anyway progress is slow but its getting there.


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## Marneus Calgar (Dec 5, 2007)

I'm sorry I keep pushing you m00, but It's just too cool!!


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## Damned Fist (Nov 2, 2007)

Glad to see that you are back at it. I'm enjoying watching the progress on this immensely.:victory:


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## Digg40k (Sep 7, 2008)

That looks fantastic already, can't wait to see it finished. +rep already from me, think of it as motivation.


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## Dusty's Corner (Aug 25, 2008)

Good job Moo. 's coming along slowly (that's a good thing, wouldn't want to rush a nice mini like that) and steadily. This way the mini will finish more like how you're expecting. Just don't take too long before you start hating it for sitting on your table for ages. 
But still, you've demotrated your impressive painting skills, so some rep Moo, I'll give ya a bit more when it's finished!
Keep it going,
Dusty


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## Death 0F Angels (Feb 27, 2008)

dont know how you do it. i find myself drooling over your marines. You may just turn me to the dark side.


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## moo (Aug 12, 2008)

Ok some more progress, i finished off the arm and the small reader device in his hand. Im really happy with the small freehand detail i put on the display screen, the green really picks out the detail from the red armour.










The blue tubing and conduits also really help give colour to the model. Next step is working on the head and side armour to the head bits. I have started on it but still working on where i want the highlights.


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## Digg40k (Sep 7, 2008)

That is absolutely fantastic mate!


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## Mighty (Jun 8, 2008)

Great job moo!


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## bl0203 (Nov 10, 2007)

Outstanding work!!!


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## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

That is goign to be one stunning model Moo.


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## jordan_darko (Mar 26, 2008)

Unbelievable mate i love the NMM on him thats if they are NMM are cant tell they look sooo good ! cant wait too see the finished model. keep up the great work . JD


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## Red Corsairs (Jun 8, 2008)

Fantastic painting and brilliant attention to detail there moo!

This guy is going to look amazing! It already does!


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## moo (Aug 12, 2008)

I finished the bulk of the red on the character and im relatively happy with how he looks at the moment, im particularly pleased how the red and grey compliment each other so well. The hard task after cleaning this up a bit is doing the backpack and servo arms. I want to create a slightly different colour tone to the model with it, which doesn't take away the focus of him, so i might try and keep it a dark dark grey/blue nmm on it, but we will see when i next tackle the model tomorrow.


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## 10228 (Sep 8, 2008)

This is very very well done moo. Keep up the good work, cause I look to you and your amazing models for help!


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## Damned Fist (Nov 2, 2007)

> im relatively happy with how he looks at the moment


relatively? He looks stunning. The colour scheme is perfect!k:


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## Ordo Xeno Commander (Jan 17, 2007)

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant moo, I am in envy of your skills.


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## moo (Aug 12, 2008)

Ok for a big tutorial kinda. I apologise for the images initially, since photography has never been my strong suit. It does show my errors in painting but it can all be cleaned up. 

So i started on a brass/gold colour for the handle of the model. A base coat of scorched brown, don't worry about being too neat as you can always tidy up at different stages. 









This was then followed by several layers of bestial brown. Snake bite leather would be more prefereable for gold but i ran out and forgot to get some more.









Then i added some yellow to the mix, approximately a 3:1 bestial brown to yellow. Then i watered it down and put down a couple layers to highlight the shaft handle.









Another progressive highlight of more 1:1 bestial brown to yellow now.









For a final highlight i added some skull white to the mix and this gave me a nice bright colour. 









Now to make it more "brass-like" i watered down some brown ink and gently covered the handle to sit in the recesses but also put slight colour to my highlights, this gave me a brass colour.








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Then i did the grey nmm on the model. The problem i have always found with grey is that if you don't do it smoothly and correctly with enough contrast it will look more like stone then metal. This is something im still working on but i think im improving alot better. The first and initial prep work was to give it all a nice base coat of black to make it all clean and tidy. Then i mixed some adeptus battlegrey (foundation grey) with black ink. Applying this all over leaving a black line across areas, but don't worry too much about that because you can go back and use black ink on the edges etc.









The next step was to use a pure adeptus grey coat, thin the layers and apply gently trying to keep the blends as smooth as you can.









Then i added some codex grey to the mix and progressively increased the amount until i had pure codex grey. 









The last step is to use some skull white progressively in codex grey until you reach skull white. I think all in all each step was about 3-5 layers, i could have done more for a smoother effect. 









Now for an extra touchup, for more contrast, i watered down some black ink and applied very very watered down layers of it on the axe area near the blade edge, gently letting each layer dry properly and then applying more on the edge.









Then clean up the model as best you can and apply some finishing touches of detail and et voila, nmm moo stylie k::victory:
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I have decided on the backpack to make the back attachment itself red but the grey itself will be on the servo arms etc. Just so that there is more colour on the model.








Thanks to everyone who has been supporting me on this and the nice comments, its the little things which help motivate people and i hope this is as helpful to everyone who has commented on my work.


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## Scottdsp748 (Aug 3, 2008)

Great looking model, watching this thread has me wanting to to some stuff in NMM again. I experimented with reflective colors by glazing over grayscale NMM a long time ago, but never was really happy with the results. I think your technique is the answer I was looking for then. I might try the reflective reds on the new Khorne champion for fantasy or something, since mixing NMM into my Eldar would look odd since the rest are done with normal metallics.


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## jordan_darko (Mar 26, 2008)

I am utterly lost for words mate the blending on the highlights is perfect and the NMM are sublime one of the very best models I have ever seen, you need to enter GD sometime I think you could do very very well ! keep up the great work mate ! JD


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## Marneus Calgar (Dec 5, 2007)

jordan_darko said:


> I am utterly lost for words mate the blending on the highlights is perfect and the NMM are sublime one of the very best models I have ever seen, you need to enter GD sometime I think you could do very very well ! keep up the great work mate ! JD


Seconded!!


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## dirty-dog- (May 14, 2008)

Marneus Calgar said:


> Seconded!!


Thirded.

i definitly can't wait to see it completed, your work is always great, and i definitly aspire to that. +rep man, you deserve it


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## moo (Aug 12, 2008)

Well after a few more nights of painting this dude, i have reached a point where im happy with him alot. The grey NMM on the backpack i tried not to put too much emphasis on it so that the focal point isn't taken away from the main part of the model too much. I think its worked well. The whole effect of the model is nice and i've tried to improve my contrast in colours and i think i've learnt alot painting this mini. Constructive comments and criticisms are always welcome. :victory:


























Thank you everyone here for their support and help. I hope the tutorials have been helpful.


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## taLLis (Aug 22, 2008)

Great model here mate, really think you have done well keeping the central focus on the marine and not the servo arms or base.


Only thing that caught my eye is on the second picture the right side of the chest looks quite dulled down, compared to say the the models right arm, but it may be just the camera?


Either way this is a great model and your NMM is blended really well



All the best matey,

Tal


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## Damned Fist (Nov 2, 2007)

I had a lot of fun watching this develop. I'm planning on painting an Inquisitor in the Sky/Earth NMM soon and I will be referring back to this tutorial often I am sure. Thanks for your effort Moo.

Great work (+rep):victory:


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## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

While I dislike nmm for various reasons, there is no denying your skill at it moo. Truly a stunning display of skills.


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## Digg40k (Sep 7, 2008)

That is the best display of NMM I have ever seen. Ever. +rep my bovine friend.


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## Gothic (May 12, 2008)

great model moo since ive seen this while youve been doing it. Its defo came out greaat well done mate +rep for you


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

great looking model and amazing paint work


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## HorusReborn (Nov 19, 2008)

fantastic man!! Absolutely stunning.. I'm not a fan of NMM and to be honest the gear looks just grey to me.. While it may not represent metal in my eyes, it still looks great the way it is!! Great job on the power armour!!


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## Maverick421 (Apr 7, 2008)

Moo, long time...first off great model, you've outdone yourself yet again the red and nmm is great. I got to learn how to paint that technique. Great Job! :biggrin:


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## moo (Aug 12, 2008)

Thanks dude, has been a long time if you've only just dug this one out  lol. But like i always say its mostly just practice and i've only gotten my NMM to a relatively basic level, it still needs alot of work. Going to be trying SE-NMM when i've finished painting my armies which should be fun, tried it ages ago but with very poor results, this time i know what im doing tho .


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## Maverick421 (Apr 7, 2008)

Yeah well I've been out of the hobby for a few months so I'm getting back just a few weeks ago. But I really like your painting style, I can't wait to see more of your work man. :good: Cheers.


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