90mm Chasseur officer braid question.

[Paul Casson]

Evening,
i am just about to make a start on painting the above mounted figure by Andrea and i am not happy with my previous attempts to paint the gold braid on collars, cuffs, dollman and pelisse. I was wondering if anybody could offer some tips/advice on how best to achieve this tricky effect.
Regards
Paul

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Paul - you have several choices. You can just paint it gold but I don't like that approach.

You can use the non-metallic metals approach. There is a good example on site of a figure of Lord Uxbridge.

I prefer to use a mix of NMM and washes of metallic ink. I paint a base of yellow brown and then lighten by adding more and more naples yellow, to paint in the textures and highlights. I sometines sparingly highlight with ivory or white. Finally i cover the lace with diluted metallic ink or metallic power suspended in liquin or liquitex varnish - these products are all available at general art supply stores.

Good luck

Colin

 

[Paul Casson]

Colin,
many thanks for the advice...would agree that the NMM method is the best way forward. Saw the Paget figure, amazing work.
Cheers Paul

 

[Luis R.]

My approach to gold lace with Vallejo acrylics:
Undercoat with English Uniform. This is a mid-dark brown with some green in it, I'd say that little part of green is the key to shading gold lace, it gives the whole thing a more realistic look than if you used straight brown.
Highlight the base coat by adding flat yellow to the English Uniform.
Extreme highlights with Ice Yellow.
Dark shadows and outlining with English Uniform+Black
Once everything is highlighted and shadowed, overpaint with very, very diluted Gloss Varnish (some 10%varnish to 90% water). You can add some (very few) Metallic Medium or Gold to the varnish.

 

[Paul Casson]

Many thanks Luis, i'll give that a go.
Cheers Paul

 

[peedee]

I paint gold braid in the following way.
Acrylic
50/50 gold metallic and leather brown,
A 50/50 watery wash of purple and umber to shade.
Then highlight sparingly 70/30 gold metallic and sand.
This preserves the glitter as you turn your figure .
Here's a couple of bad phone camera snaps of an old clydecast figure 'in for repair'.
The buttons are waiting final highlights, but the lace is finished.

 

[Paul Casson]

Been a while but before i get the lightbox out here is a snapshot of how the braid came out on the Chasseur officer. Again many thanks for all the help.

 

[peedee]

Looks lovely paul
It's great as it is, and it may be too late to suggest this, but
I think you could if you wished to, add a touch more highlight to some of the braids.
(On the top edges of the tassells and flying flounders),
it would make them 'pop out' a little more.
Dappled grey horses are a brave move.
I'm doing one now in 120mm size.
It's not easy !
Well done mate
Paul.

 

[Paul Casson]

May thanks for the kind words. Agree with the highlights and there is always time to adjust bits...since i took the picture i have found a great reference for his sabre, which required a steel blue with gold inlay to be added at the hilt end of the blade. Would've preferred doing a chestnut but as the picture its based on is a dappled grey i had no option but to go for it. There is a cracking set of videos on Youtube on painting a dappled grey and these helped massively. Thanks again.
All the best
Paul

 

[peedee]

Yep seen those and I would commend them also.
P

 

[Wings5797]

Nice work Paul.
Cheers,
Keith