Gold leaf for figure painting ??? (1 Viewer)

[Wolfgang_UK]

Hello,
I have been experimenting with gold leaf for quite some time. I think it does look great on small areas of a figure to be painted but as for larger areas I am not to happy with the result. It is NOT easy to apply even though I managed get it working (more or less) on my first trials. Any real craftsman will certainly want to kill me for what I did to this figure but as I said it was more or less my first attempt. The figure is as you can see a hussite noble of the 15th century, 1/32 scale, painted with Plaka and Gouache and glossed with Plaka laquer. The gold is real gold puchased as leave gold together with some special glue. I got it a couple of years ago while visiting the chech republik. Even if the photo is not that fantastic I am happy for any of your feedback.
Thanks and regards
Wolfgang

 

[theBaron]

I used it on an unrelated project, and found it to be a royal pain in the Popo to work with. Paint is much easier for our application.

It doesn't look bad on your figure, but you can see areas around the edge of the gilding, especially on his cuirass or breastplate, where there is no gold, and with paint, you'd be better able to reach those margins.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Wraith]

I like it!
Would never have thought of doing that. Adds something a bit special to a figure and makes for an interesting talking point.
Cheers
Simon

 

[Mitch]

My wife has a lot of this gold leaf for her art crafting and, its a real pain and very messy but, you get some great results. I like what you have done to the figure
Mitch

 

[christopher]

Hello Wolfgang. I try it once with my school English. to great figures you can take with a blunt object such as a spoon and pull the tin smooth. then polish with fine steel wool. Try once glazes or resolved in clear gold pigments
greeting Christopher
sorry for my bad english:rolleyes2:

 

[blaster]

Hello Wolfgang,

Fascinating approach. I saw some of these sheets in a craft shop, comprising gold, silver and copper. Interesting possibilities.
Thanks for sharing.

Rgds Victor

 

[Wolfgang_UK]

Hello Wolfgang,

Fascinating approach. I saw some of these sheets in a craft shop, comprising gold, silver and copper. Interesting possibilities.
Thanks for sharing.

Rgds Victor

Hi,
thank you all for your interest and comments. One thing I would like to point out is that when takeing pictures of figures that where painted with gold paint the pictures seem to look way better than the real thing. Now I wonder what "Metallic" paints are used in the hobby and which can be recommended. As Brad rightly wrote gilding can hardly be the every day solution when it comes to painting metallics - truly too much pain for the popo to bear.
I got some Eckhard Gold bronze which is fantastic on larger areas but not too hot on small items such as buttons etc. The "Good old way" of doing metal parts has also be mentioned. High-polish your pewter/lead figure where you want the gold to go and than paint on with small portions of yellow/orange/brown spirit-colours. These colours still live on as Glas Paints today, but only the solvent-based brands are suitable. Unfortuneatly they are getting rare and are hard to find these days. Anyway if you find any give it a try and you will be rewarded with an unbeatable nostalgic Toy Soldier look. After all that is the way the "Old Masters" like HEYDE, SPENNKUCH and others used to work. Still not very practical on the small stuff.
Now if anybody likes to share a secret I appreciate any advise....
regards
Wolfgang

 

[theBaron]

Hi, Wolfgang, I use 2 paints for gold, such as gold braiding on uniforms. One is an ancient bottle of Testor's square-bottle gloss enamels, Copper, and the other is a jar of Gunze-Sangyo's acrylic Gold. I use 2 different kinds, because the Testor's Copper is a little darker than the GS Gold, so it looks like "red" gold or "old gold". The GS looks like bright polished gold. There are others out there, from other makers, too.

My bottle of Testor's is over 30 years old, too. It has gotten thick, almost the consistency of oil paint, but it never dried out.

Hope that helps, prosit!
Brad

 

[Malcolm Britain]

Thats a fascinating idea.

I dont have anything that would require a large area of gold leaf but the shine is fantastic - though it should be- its gold!

I can see one or two Imagi-nations wargamers Royal Guard regiments carrying a golden banner or totem in future

 

[Wolfgang_UK]

Thats a fascinating idea.

I dont have anything that would require a large area of gold leaf but the shine is fantastic - though it should be- its gold!

I can see one or two Imagi-nations wargamers Royal Guard regiments carrying a golden banner or totem in future

I will keep useing gold leaf on small items such as buttons etc. Got some acryllics from Golden,
very nice hues yet a bit difficult to apply. I guess I will continue to use solvent based bronzes, there are so many out there difficult to decide which might be best.
Wolfgang

 

[RPZ]

I have not used it yet but for those in the USA Krylon have a gold leafing pen. I have their silver leafing pen, as yet untried, for an upcoming project.