metallic black color

[troy]

Just an odd question really, me thinking out loud - but I'm doing some black dyed armour and wondered if their is a way to make the color look slightly metallic. I'll probably coat it with aussie conditioner which will give it a slight sheen but I'm wondering if any of the other leather type coatings avaliable may give me better results.

cheers for any help

Paul

[wildrose]

You might add a light "wash" of a silver or black metallic acrylic paint. Granted, it'll be over a large area (armor); but I use it on smaller pieces and it's nice.

[yan]

When you do black metal armor you usually try to get make it look as ''leathery'' looking as you can.

no reflection, as little shine as you can.

But I am doing the same procces right now (black leather shiny armor).

I am experimenting with a high gloss varnish design for canvas painting.

so far, the gloss is impressive and I am testing the water resistance this week-end.

I'll put picture of the finish piece probably sundays.

[Daggrim]

I've used steel wool on small pieces , trying to lighten some dye that was too dark. It took off some dye, smoothed the leather to a nice shine, and left a metallic sheen from the steel wool. Very cool, and something I've been intending to experiment with for my leather helmets.

Doug

[troy]

I like the wire wool idea Daggrim, I probably try that seeing as I'm notoriously useless with paint/dyes.

cheers every one.

[MADMAX22]

Allthough not exactly black I did get somewhat the effect you were after. I did a holster and used vinegaroon to dye it black but it was spotchy in places because of the leather. I dyed over it with feibings black and it came out a bluish/black metallicy color. Pretty cool.

Maybe something to play with if you are into the vinegaroon thing.

[LILYC]

if you want it looking nice with paint, make sure you only have a tiny amount of silver acrylic on the brush, wipe it on a tissue or somethin and then only lightly brush over areas you want to highlight. ITs called dry-brushing and is very good if you do it right!

[TroyS]

I have a friend that tooled a very nice Buffalo Head Nickel piece for his bike. It was a backrest. On the front of the backrest was the HEADS side of the nickel, and the back was the TAILS side with the buffalo. It turned out spectacular! He has real talent! He tooled it, then laced it with a Mexican Basket Weave and finally stained it with Mahogany antique gel from Tandy. It looked great in the house, but once the sun hit it, it just wasn't the color he was trying to achieve. He showed up at my house and after a few cocktails, (I do my best work that way), we ended up airbrushing it black. Well, that's the color we were going for, but because the piece had already been stained and sealed, the black dye didn't soak in like normal. After airbrushing several light coats of Feibing's Black, it looked like all was going well, then the dye started to take on a very odd hue. It started turning a metallic copper color! It was incredible! After it dried for a couple of days, it was the most awesome copper color you can imagine! It looked like an antique penny! I don't have pictures to show you now, but I'll get some and post them. Some of the coolest things happen by complete accident!