Slitherine

Hi All,

I'm painting up some WOTR/100 Year's War generic bowmen. According to the painting guide in the box the Armour was "blued, mirror polished or painted." So, my question is that I really want to do as good a job as I can with these guys. Going to take a full year to paint them up.

Has anyone done 'blued or painted' armour for medieval? Does it look ok? My theory with painting armies is that often you have to avoid historical accuracy just so it looks 'accurate' in the eyes of the beholder.

"Blued" is easy-peasy. Even I can do it. Slap on a black undercoat then dry-brush the metallic steel . Games Workshop "Boltgun metal" or Vallejo "Chainmail" works for me.

peteratjet wrote:"Blued" is easy-peasy. Even I can do it. Slap on a black undercoat then dry-brush the metallic steel . Games Workshop "Boltgun metal" or Vallejo "Chainmail" works for me.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your view, but I wouldn't call that 'blued'. That would be how I would do 'mirror polished' or chainmail etc. I can do this easily, and often do (exactly as you stated). The trouble is that I find it boring. It looks like someone who painted their figure black and then dry brushed it metallic silver.

Here is a picture of 'mirror polished'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_grey_a ... otostream/

and here's a picture of 'blued'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_grey_a ... otostream/

If worse comes to worst I'll do it just like I have in the past, but I really would like to get some figure to look a little like the 'blued' picture above.

I would paint it "mirror-polished" first and then glaze it with blue ink.

Mehrunes wrote:I would paint it "mirror-polished" first and then glaze it with blue ink.

Hmm, that might have merit. Have you tried it?

I'll give it a go and get back to you if you haven't.

Someone posted some photos of blued armour not so long ago - the figures / effect looked really good.

Worth a trawl back through some recent posts if you have the time.

I have achieved an effect I like for blued steel as follows:

mix a medium blue into a regular steel at roughly 1 part blue to 5 parts steel

paint the base coat in this mixture

black wash

add a small amout of silver to the blue/steel mixture and dry brush SPARINGLY over the blackwashed figure.

Why not use engineers blue? Which I assume is what it was anyway.

philqw78 wrote:Why not use engineers blue? Which I assume is what it was anyway.

Hi Phil,

Nah, it wasn't engineers blue. It was actually a chemical process which changed the molecular structure of the steel so that it was not as likely to react to oxidization.

Good tip though, I might consider that one!

Misericordia wrote:I have achieved an effect I like for blued steel as follows:

mix a medium blue into a regular steel at roughly 1 part blue to 5 parts steel

paint the base coat in this mixture

black wash

add a small amout of silver to the blue/steel mixture and dry brush SPARINGLY over the blackwashed figure.

Thanks for the idea. I might play around with that technique.

ravenflight wrote:Hi Phil,

Nah, it wasn't engineers blue. It was actually a chemical process which changed the molecular structure of the steel so that it was not as likely to react to oxidization.

Good tip though, I might consider that one!

Chemical processes in the middle ages. What will they think of next. It looks like engineers blue.

philqw78 wrote:

ravenflight wrote:Hi Phil,

Nah, it wasn't engineers blue. It was actually a chemical process which changed the molecular structure of the steel so that it was not as likely to react to oxidization.

Good tip though, I might consider that one!

Chemical processes in the middle ages. What will they think of next. It looks like engineers blue.

Well, I'm sure they didn't know it was a chemical process, but that's what it was.

Dyeing is a chemical process too... they did that in the stone age