[Minis] Painting Hot Metal?

[Andrew D. Gable]

One of the minis I have lined up to paint soon is the Reaper Vadorendra Demon (aka Marilith). I thought it would be nifty to make her weapons somehow look hot - as she'd be spending a lot of time in the Abyss and all. Is there a way to do this? I was thinking to water down yellow and paint that over the blade (similar to watered-down red to replicate blood).

 

[Drakmar]

well.. when a sword is hot enough to go red.. pretty much the whole blade is red.. what I would do is make the sword red and then blend to yellow then white on the edges.

 

[Gizzard]

I'm thinking of a mini I saw recently; I think it was a Fire Elemental from Rackham? There was a lot of work with fire on the base; I noticed that the artist used a lot of white/pale yellow to make a very realistic fire effect. Perhaps someone remembers this miniature? I'll take a look and see if I can find a link.

 

[Gizzard]

OK, here is the figure, but not the paint job. This one shows how painting with reds and dark colors works out though. I took it from the French Rackham site, so I am sure it is (c) by them etc; unfortunately there is no way to link directly that I can find.

Anyway, I think the armor has a decent "hot" feel to it; I think what sells the effect is the blending up from dark metal to dull red and orange. Look especially at the near shoulder armor.

 

[Gizzard]

And this is the figure I was really thinking of. I think the fire here is really amazing. Its also interesting that the interpretation of the figure is so different that the original paint job.

One thing that I find interesting (technique-wise) is how nicely the little firey bits of the Elemental himself stand out agaisnt the green armor here. In the original pic (above) the guy isn't as striking because a lot of his detail is lost in a blur of the same few colors.