Welcome back! In case you missed part 1 of Skails’ journey, you can find it here.

I am one week in on painting now, somewhere close to the 10-12 hour mark. The main focus so far has been getting the armor worked out and getting the areas painted that will be difficult to reach when assembled. My approach on the armor has been non-metallic metal. This technique requires some planning and thought to pull off convincingly. I have done a little bit of NMM before, mostly for last February’s Goonbowl Challenge. There isn’t a straightforward way to do NMM. The challenge of this technique lies in applying a consistent light source onto the model and picking the angles from where the ‘eye’ is seeing the reflections. In reality the reflections and highlight will move depending on where the viewer is in relation to the object. It requires the painter to treat the model like a two dimensional surface, and pick where the light will reflect strongest and apply it consistently across surfaces. Part of planning out this approach is to imagine a light source at four corners around the model, so that all the surfaces are lit regardless of the viewing angle. Some good resources for exploring this idea have been the blogs of Darren Latham and Gareth Nicholas. They are both great painters whose work I am using as visual reference. Richard Gray is another painter who does amazing NMM. He does a great job of applying light to his models. These painters each have different styles and takes on the process. Google Images is also vital to my process as far as visual references go. A search for ‘black armor’ led to a lot of good leads.

Part of my own strategy has been to use the photographs I took of the bare plastic model as a guide to how to apply light and reflections, using the same hotspots and general lighting help keep consistent lighting across the model. It doesn’t have to be exact either, they can be fudged a bit depending what looks or feels good.

That’s where I’m at currently. In future updates I’ll show off my painting progress as the model comes along, and talk about the techniques I’m employing and some of the challenges, so be sure to check back in a week or two. And if you have any feedback, hints, or questions, feel free to drop a note in the comments below or email the Goonhammer team at contact@goonhammer.com.