Monument: Monument: Monument: Monument: Monument: Monument: Monument: Vallejo: Black

Bright Pale Bright Yellow Caramel Dark Green Dark Orange Orange Dark Green Surface Primer
Yellow Ochre Brown Brown Brown Brown Brown 70% +
Black 30%

Mix G5: Mix Mix G4: Mix Mix G3: Mix Mix G2: Mix Mix G1: Vallejo: Vallejo: Flat Monument:
G1 10% + G1 35% + G1 70% + G1 85% + Ochre Brown Ochre Earth Satin Black
White 90% White 65% White 30% Black 15% 60% + Flat Brown
Earth 40%

Monument Monument Monument: Monument: Monument: White Blue Grey Blue

Vallejo: Red Vallejo: Dark Vallejo: Pastel Blue Pastel Blue Pastel Blue Vallejo:
Vermilion Dark 85% + 15% 5% + 95% 20% + 80% Pastel Blue
Prussian White White White
Blue

In this tutorial I will use Pro Acryl paints from Monument Hobbies, but keep in mind that you can use any brand you like, just
try to find similar colors to those presented in the boxes.
If I wouldn’t use Pro Acryl, then I would paint this miniature with Vallejo Model colors, and you can see on the list
alternative paints to those from Pro Acryl.
In this tutorial I will use my own set of paints that I designed specifically for painting Golden NMM and you can get it directly
from Monument Hoobbies store if you are located in America:
https://monumenthobbies.com/products/signature-series-set-5-flameon-miniatures
And from Pk-Pro if you are located in Europe:
https://www.pk-pro.de/Pro-Acryl-Flameon-Miniatures-6-Paints-6x22mL_1
and from many other stores.
In this tutorial I will not make smooth color transitions between the layers of colors, but a video tutorial on this subject you
can watch here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/79786611
 Monument:
Blue Black

Monument:
Grey Blue

Monument:
White Blue

White Blue
80% + Grey
Blue 20%

Grey Blue
80% + Blue
Black 20%

Hello and welcome to the first tutorial about painting a converted version of a Custodian miniature, which I will
paint in chrome.
This is my own version of chrome in which shaded areas are painted with orange brown colors, and the main r
eflections are painted with strong contrast and pastel blue colors.
At this point I actually stopped caring about what looks realistic and what doesn’t, I decided to just paint in a way
that i like, and I find interesting. that’s why I recommend you to take this tutorial as it is, a presentation of painting
a miniature in an interesting way with strong contrast that share many similarities with chrome.
I took my reference photos in the same place where I take all the photos of my models, and thanks to that, when
I paint reflections of light in the same places where the light really reflects on the photos, I won’t have unplanned
shiny spots in places where I intended to paint a shadow. But during painting for this tutorial I didn’t look on it even
once because I had to figure out the reflections on my own, and you can also see where the light reflects on the
model during work, by just holding it in a similar position to the reference photos.
In the first step I painted his armor with Blue Black and ornaments with Dark Green Brown.
 Monument:
Blue Black

Monument:
Grey Blue

Monument:
White Blue

Monument:
Dark Green
Brown

Monument
Hobbies:
Burnt Red

On the previous page you can see a photo of my wet palette with the paints and color
mixtures that I used during painting this model. As you can see other then using these few
colors that I presented separately on the right side I made a few midtones, just to have
them for creating smooth color transitions between layers of colors.
In this step I painted big parts of the armor with Grey Blue, and later painted smaller,
brighter areas inside of them with White Blue.
Now you probably have a question why I know where to paint those reflections and what
shapes I should make. The answer is that I painted with blue all the areas that would be
illuminated by the sun, and only them. Shaded areas must have completely different color
to make this effect work. You need to look on your miniature, analyze the angles and
shapes of the elements, and paint with blue color everything that would be illuminated
directly by the main source of light and could reflect the sky, and with brown everything that
wouldn’t be illuminated directly. Think about that as about a mirror held on the outside.
 Monument:
Blue Black

Grey Blue
80% + Blue
Black 20%

Monument:
Grey Blue

Monument:
White Blue

Monument:
Dark Green
Brown

Now I mixed Blue Black with Grey Blue and painted with it midtones between those two
colors on the model in order to create less sudden color progression. Next I highlighted
Monument:
with Orange Brown golden reflections in the shadows. Orange
When you paint something like that you need to also keep in mind that the sun is never Brown
directly above you, its always between that and the horizon. For that reason when you will
look anywhere during a day the sky is actually the brightest right above the horizon and the
higher it is the darker it became (up to some point that is still bright though). Monument
That’s why when you paint chrome you need to paint the brightest colors on the bottom Hobbies:
edge, and then make the blue elements darker on the top. The same rule applies to the re- Burnt Red
flections in the shaded areas, and then wee need to have a very dark, clean line between
those two areas in order to create the effect that we are looking for.
On this model decided to go straight with black color for strongest contrast.
 Monument:
Blue Black

Grey Blue
80% + Blue
Black 20%

Monument:
Grey Blue

Monument:
White Blue

Monument:
Dark Green
Brown

In this step I actually didn’t add anything new, just fixed a few shapes, and painted the
yellow ornament with Orange Brown.
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I will paint his cloak as red, so I already had to paint the first reflections of red color on the Orange
armor. One of the rules of painting chrome is making super dark line in one place, then Brown
gently highlight the area from the top to the bottom in a slow way, like with a gradient, and
then paint super bright reflection above this line, and then also slowly create gradient like
smooth color transition going from the reflection on the bottom to the shadow on the top. Monument
This is how you paint the main reflections that you can see, an those are pretty simple, but Hobbies:
then you need to paint some reflections between them, in curved areas, where shadows Burnt Red
and lights became distorted by the curved shapes.
In places like that it’s good to paint one, or two lines that go with the shape of the armor,
and then to paint some circular reflections behind them, that would look in more regular
way like on normal NMM.
 Monument:
Blue Black

Grey Blue
80% + Blue
Black 20%

Monument:
Grey Blue

Monument:
White Blue

Monument:
Dark Green
Brown

At this point during painting, the model lost his head and both arms because they were
glued to him very gently, just allow me to make the reference photos.
Originally I planned to paint only one leg, but now I decided that I will manage to paint both. Monument:
Orange
As you can see this leg has a bit different position, so will reflect the sky and the ground in Brown
a bit different way (those legs have terrible position but I didn’t make this conversion, I
actually fixed almost everything on this model, before my work it looked even worst).
So now I was happy because I could paint different reflections on the second leg and I Monument
know that it will make it look much more interesting. his thigh is in a position that allows me Hobbies:
to paint on it only reflection of the ground, thanks to what I will have a big, Orange Brown Burnt Red
area in there which will create a very interesting composition with all of this blue.
 Monument:
Blue Black

Grey Blue
80% + Blue
Black 20%

Monument:
Grey Blue

Monument:
White Blue

Monument:
Dark Green
Brown

Now I painted with Dark Green Brown reflections of the ground on his leg, and with Burnt
Red reflections of the cloak.
When I painted all of this, at some point I understood that I don’t have to make those Monument:
Orange
reflections as really perfect, because after all nobody knows how light would behave on Brown
something like them. Don’t understand me wrong, I try to paint them as real as I can,
especially the big reflections, but the rest of them are so complicated that painting just
effective reflections with weird shapes and strong contrast will do the work. Monument
Very important thing when you paint chrome is also analyzing real chrome objects, and Hobbies:
works of other painters who painted something like this. My main source of inspiration is Burnt Red
Hajime Sorayama and his magical paintings:
https://images.app.goo.gl/jZKb34izgF2CU6zj9
Unfortunately I can’t upload his photos here directly because that would be breaking
copyright laws, and that would be very wrong from my side to publish them without
permittion, but you can always google more of them!
 Monument:
Blue Black

Grey Blue
80% + Blue
Black 20%

Monument:
Grey Blue

Monument:
White Blue

Monument:
Dark Green
Brown

Now I removed the front armor in order to have better access to the legs, and then I
highlighted the blue parts of the reflections with Grey Blue and after that I painted some
new reflections of the ground with Dark Green Brown. Monument:
Orange
Like I mentioned before, at this pint I decided to make a few reflections that would follow Brown
the shape of the leg, and then paint between them a few smaller, round spots of paint
which will later imitate small, sudden reflections of light.
Adding dot’s like that really adds more depth and make details more interesting. Monument
Hobbies:
Burnt Red
 Monument:
Blue Black

Grey Blue
80% + Blue
Black 20%

Monument:
Grey Blue

Monument:
White Blue

Monument:
Dark Green
Brown

Now I highlighted them with with Orange Brown, which will be the brightest color that I will
use in the most of the brown reflections. Monument:
I’m painting this leg with more brown colors which will only make the entire model look as Orange
more reflective and interesting. Brown
On the back of his leg you can see a small square of blue paint which appeared there
because most of the leg in there is hidden under the cloak, but it look to me as if one small
piece would be seen behind it and would reflect the sky. Monument
Hobbies:
Burnt Red
 Monument:
Blue Black

Grey Blue
80% + Blue
Black 20%

Monument:
Grey Blue

Monument:
White Blue

Monument:
Dark Green
Brown

In this step I painted with the White Blue paint the brightest reflections on the horizont lines
of the blue reflections.
Monument:
Orange
Brown
 Monument:
Blue Black

Grey Blue
80% + Blue
Black 20%

Monument:
Grey Blue

Monument:
White Blue

Monument:
Bright Yellow
Ochre

Now I mixed Bright Yellow Ochre with Orange Brown and painted with it one reflection on
his knee and one in his thigh.
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I tried to use Pure Yellow Ochre but it turned out to be too bright for that, because you need Orange
to keep in mind that those brown reflections must be darker then the blue ones. Brown
In this step I also decided to make the darkest shadows on the top of his feet painted with
Blue Black, then go to a small line of the mixture of Blue Black and Grey Blue and just then
to brighter colors, it just seamed more interesting when painted with a bit darker color on Bright Yellow
the top. Ochre 50% +
Orange Brown
50%
Now I started working on creating smooth color transitions between the layers of colors on
the model. To do that, I took the color from the brighter layer, added a tiny amount of color
from the darker layer to it, mixed them together, then I diluted it a bit more, applied it only
on the tip of my brush, removed most of it on a piece of paper formulating a pointy end in
the process and then I made plenty of tiny, thin, half transparent stripes alongside the
borders of the darker and the brighter layer using this mixture.
You can learn more about this technique from this video tutorial:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/79786611
That’s one of the reasons why I created the midtones, it’s a bit easier to create smooth
color transitions with them, but sometimes diluting a pure paint a bit more can do the trick
as well.
When it comes to creating smooth color transitions between the Dark Green Brown layers
and the black basecolor, for that I glazed the borders of these areas with highly diluted
Satin Black paint, and I applied those thin layers of glazes with the side of the tip of my
brush.
You can learn more about this technique from the video tutorial that I made about it:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/96601155
 Grey Blue
80% + Blue
Black 20%

Monument:
Grey Blue

White Blue
80% + Grey
Blue 20%

Monument:
White Blue

Monument:
Orange
Brown

Now I worked in the same way with layers of colors on this part of the armor.
There was no shortcut here, just a lot of my work, and painting those golden ornaments
Monument:
made my eyes very tired, so I had to use magnifying glasses for painting them. Bright Yellow
Ochre
 Monument:
Orange
Brown

Monument:
Bright Yellow
Ochre

Monument:
Bright Pale
Yellow

Now that I finished painting smooth color transitions I highlighted the ornaments with Bright
Pale Yellow. They might not look like it, but these details are crazy small, and my eyes got
really tired during painting them.
Making this smooth color transitions also took quite a while, this is not a quick job, but the
final effect is really nice.
Now I glued these piece of armor to the rest of the model and took the final photos of it. Just like on this photo I
changed the position of the model like that in order to allow more light to illuminate bottom parts of the model that
otherwise would be a bit darker.
That would be it for today's tutorial. I’m not gonna lie to you, painting chrome is pretty complicated, but I assure you
that it is also very satisfying to make, and I actually liked the process of painting it.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will try out my ideas on your own miniatures.
Kind Regards
Flameon
 Now I would like to thank my philantropists:

John Mccardell
Jacob Ho
Grant Black
Karl Viksnins
Jon
Gooselord28
Robert Howland
Mark Fisher
Axel Ohrstrom
Adam Sellew
Chan Ho Wai
Viko Benavides
Michael Sotiris
Jason McMaster
Joseph Harford
Lacheze Sebastien

OF COURSE A BIG THANK YOU GOES TO ALL OF YOU, THANK YOU FOR LETTING MY PASSION BE MY JOB!