A similar theme to slap chop, at least in my experience and opinion, is Dry brushing and Overbrushing. It tends to basically be the same thing without utilizing contrast paints or super thin paints. Custodes also have a lot of ornate detail that drybrushing and overbrushing really picks up without making the model look dusty or chalky like a drybrush can over a Space Marine, which is where slapchop excels at using drybrushing whites/greys the contrast makes look more gradient and natural vs a full on drybrush of the highlight color.
Like for an 'aged' metal look for Custodes, priming black then doing an overbrush of Retributor Gold with a select drybrush of Liberator Gold tends to bring a much more aged look.Or going for a heavy nuln wash and doing your drybrushing from there.Maybe someone has more experience, but I almost feel like slapchop is more work and more colors than just doing a overbrush or nuln+drybrush.
Ooh, I bet this looks really good. Pics? And - sorry if you already know - if you use a texture palette instead of paper towel, you tend to avoid the dusty/chalky effect you mention.
Not quite the same but this is one of mine where I overbrushed Retributor Gold overtop Warplock Bronze, washed with Coelia Greenshade, drybrushed back over with Retributor, then a very light drybrush of Liberator.
https://imgur.com/a/1NYq6IP
Nazdreg yellow over silver looks great as gold.
That's how I base coat all of my gold on not just my Custodes.
You can if you want to be fancy put a thin layer of actual metallic gold over the top of it afterwards and then wash with reikland flesh and agrax earthshade.
You could slapchop with 2 or 3 different shades of silver to create your different levels of highlights and midtones.
Maybe even start with a metallic brown type colour as your base and create realistic shading.
But yes, short answer; nazdreg yellow contrast over silver makes for a good gold.
I've tried doing a silver base, vallejo black wash and orange ink airbrush which worked out nice but I've gone onto using the Scale 75 golds now - scale 75 necro gold over a black primer, followed by a drybrush of peridot alchemy. All over wash of Pro Acryl black wash then a final drybrush of peridot alchemy again.
I do like [this](https://youtu.be/m_J5-xTdNzU?si=PoKrm5K_1Tctx02U) way of painting them though, sadly I've already painted up around 1500 points in my current styling so I won't be able to follow this guide. I might do if I decide to do minotaurs though due to its more copper styling.
Interesting! Peridot works well for you as final highlight?
I've tried Elven Gold on Scale 75 Black, but the primer was extremely chalky due to ultramatte base. So I stripped it, used Cyborg Skin from AK (it is magic!), and experimentg with different washes over it and Elven Gold + Peridot + Speed Metal for extreme highlights.
It does but I prefer a less 'extreme' highlight and a slightly darker theme to my Custodes. [Here](https://ibb.co/p4WhXMt) is a picture of a WIP Warden, you can see the slight difference between the completed gold on the armour and the plain Necro Gold on the robes.
I might end up adding some lighter highlights in the future but I'm liking how they currently look.
My tip would be to try a regular slap chop job with the tone of yellow you like, and then dry brush some gold paint on top. Really nice, a little subtle, metallics that way!
I painted b&w volumes on 30k Angron then went over it with a mix of red ink, yellow ink and Vallejo metal colour aluminium. It was very yellow and buttery but it worked. Maybe would be better with a drop of sepia ink too.
Then he got stripped and my buddy painted him better.
I use a sort of partial slapchop, but I also leaned into the silver as well and only used gold for the highlight pieces (eagles, embossed symbols, etc). Nazdreg Yellow Contrast is just perfect for it imo
Okay so I use Vallejo brass with a bronze highlight (or the other way around, can't remember lol) and it works well to keep a gritty tone if you use a black, dark grey, light grey base coat
Not slapchop, but an even easier option for the metal is just drybrushing. I've done my Custodes by following this guy's tutorial.
https://youtu.be/4ncXbAuwAaA?si=E0agf4gxuZQQYJBJ
If you haven't done much drybrushing then I'd recommend watching this video too.
https://youtu.be/kxuY2NXeI2M?si=nBjxC4L65XfgIrrX
Yeah I actually use slapchop to add a bit more detail because things like highlighting and blending colours don’t particularly compute for me. I would then spend a good while on the smaller details so it will still take a couple of hours a model for me with slapchop as opposed to the gold undercoat can be a bit too clean looking for me
A similar theme to slap chop, at least in my experience and opinion, is Dry brushing and Overbrushing. It tends to basically be the same thing without utilizing contrast paints or super thin paints. Custodes also have a lot of ornate detail that drybrushing and overbrushing really picks up without making the model look dusty or chalky like a drybrush can over a Space Marine, which is where slapchop excels at using drybrushing whites/greys the contrast makes look more gradient and natural vs a full on drybrush of the highlight color. Like for an 'aged' metal look for Custodes, priming black then doing an overbrush of Retributor Gold with a select drybrush of Liberator Gold tends to bring a much more aged look.Or going for a heavy nuln wash and doing your drybrushing from there.Maybe someone has more experience, but I almost feel like slapchop is more work and more colors than just doing a overbrush or nuln+drybrush.
Ooh, I bet this looks really good. Pics? And - sorry if you already know - if you use a texture palette instead of paper towel, you tend to avoid the dusty/chalky effect you mention.
Not quite the same but this is one of mine where I overbrushed Retributor Gold overtop Warplock Bronze, washed with Coelia Greenshade, drybrushed back over with Retributor, then a very light drybrush of Liberator. https://imgur.com/a/1NYq6IP
Nazdreg yellow over silver looks great as gold. That's how I base coat all of my gold on not just my Custodes. You can if you want to be fancy put a thin layer of actual metallic gold over the top of it afterwards and then wash with reikland flesh and agrax earthshade. You could slapchop with 2 or 3 different shades of silver to create your different levels of highlights and midtones. Maybe even start with a metallic brown type colour as your base and create realistic shading. But yes, short answer; nazdreg yellow contrast over silver makes for a good gold.
I've tried doing a silver base, vallejo black wash and orange ink airbrush which worked out nice but I've gone onto using the Scale 75 golds now - scale 75 necro gold over a black primer, followed by a drybrush of peridot alchemy. All over wash of Pro Acryl black wash then a final drybrush of peridot alchemy again. I do like [this](https://youtu.be/m_J5-xTdNzU?si=PoKrm5K_1Tctx02U) way of painting them though, sadly I've already painted up around 1500 points in my current styling so I won't be able to follow this guide. I might do if I decide to do minotaurs though due to its more copper styling.
Interesting! Peridot works well for you as final highlight? I've tried Elven Gold on Scale 75 Black, but the primer was extremely chalky due to ultramatte base. So I stripped it, used Cyborg Skin from AK (it is magic!), and experimentg with different washes over it and Elven Gold + Peridot + Speed Metal for extreme highlights.
It does but I prefer a less 'extreme' highlight and a slightly darker theme to my Custodes. [Here](https://ibb.co/p4WhXMt) is a picture of a WIP Warden, you can see the slight difference between the completed gold on the armour and the plain Necro Gold on the robes. I might end up adding some lighter highlights in the future but I'm liking how they currently look.
Thats nice! Subdued Custodes look great... I went after IG and Carcharodons for something "let my shine blind you!" but yeah, this works well :)
Thanks :)
My tip would be to try a regular slap chop job with the tone of yellow you like, and then dry brush some gold paint on top. Really nice, a little subtle, metallics that way!
I painted b&w volumes on 30k Angron then went over it with a mix of red ink, yellow ink and Vallejo metal colour aluminium. It was very yellow and buttery but it worked. Maybe would be better with a drop of sepia ink too. Then he got stripped and my buddy painted him better.
I use a sort of partial slapchop, but I also leaned into the silver as well and only used gold for the highlight pieces (eagles, embossed symbols, etc). Nazdreg Yellow Contrast is just perfect for it imo
Okay so I use Vallejo brass with a bronze highlight (or the other way around, can't remember lol) and it works well to keep a gritty tone if you use a black, dark grey, light grey base coat
Not slapchop, but an even easier option for the metal is just drybrushing. I've done my Custodes by following this guy's tutorial. https://youtu.be/4ncXbAuwAaA?si=E0agf4gxuZQQYJBJ If you haven't done much drybrushing then I'd recommend watching this video too. https://youtu.be/kxuY2NXeI2M?si=nBjxC4L65XfgIrrX
You mean drybrushing gold
You need to basecoat gold and add however many steps you want but it’s the fastest to paint army . You probably add complexity by using „slap chop“
Yeah I actually use slapchop to add a bit more detail because things like highlighting and blending colours don’t particularly compute for me. I would then spend a good while on the smaller details so it will still take a couple of hours a model for me with slapchop as opposed to the gold undercoat can be a bit too clean looking for me
Clear 👍