That's right, I'm back, and this time, I wondering how everyone painted their famous droids? Please include colors, techniques, and whatever else you think would be helpful. Thanks everyone!

I primed my 3PO with Vallejo Black Surface Primer, then base coated it with the out of print GW Calthan Brown foundation paint(I'm sure they have a current equivalent, the important thing is to have a solid medium brown base coat to paint gold over. It does not paint well over black primer.) Then for the gold I used Vallejo Metal Color Gold. It's made for airbrushing, so it's very thin and has insanely fine metal pigment so it comes out looking very shiny and smooth. After this I'll simply add a very thinned down wash to add contrast to the body panels, thenpaint his belly and wires as close to movie accurate as I can and then seal the model with gloss varnish to make him extra shiny. All steps for this model other than the belly I do using a gravity feed airbrush.

Thanks! This can of course be done without an airbrush right?

I've painted mine quite a while back so I'm not 100% certain of the paints I used.

I need to retouch C3PO's eyes as his eyes have lighting so they illuminate his eye sockets and thus they shouldn't be dark like they are in the picture. But other than that, I like how he turned out.

I used Citadel paints to paint him.

3CPO

Base Color

I primed him black, used Balthasar Gold as a base color everywhere expect the area around his waist which I left black. Balthasar Gold, brown or bronze are good base colors if you paint over with gold. I happened to have Balthasar Gold so I used that. I then painted over with Auric Armour Gold. I left Balthasar Gold in some spots like the arm pits, crotch and other shadowed areas. But if you used non-metallic color as a base for Auric Armour Gold (or other bright gold color), paint those as well.

On the right leg I used Ironbreaker.

Wash

I used Agrax Earthshade mixed with Lahmian Medium in 50/50 ratio to make the first wash. This strengthens the shadows. If necessary, strengthen some shadows as a second layer.

When the Agrax EarthShade+Lahmian Medium mix had completely dried, I used Druchii Violet undiluted to wash the figure again. Now, this purple wash is amazing on gold and gives it richer color and some tonal variety.

The right leg I washed with Nuln Oil.

Highlights

First, I highlighted all upturned places with Auric Armor Gold.

Second, I mixed in a little of Runefang Steel, which is a very bright silver color, into the Auric Armor Gold. I used this to highlight a smaller area inside the upturned parts and some raised edges (and fingers). I should have painted the eye sockets with this too.

Third, I watered down some pure Runefang Steel and feathered this on the top of his head.

The right leg, I highlighted with Ironbreaker and then some Runefang Steel on the raised edges.

Finishing Touches

I picked some light red (Evil Sunz Scarlet) and light blue (Caledor Sky) colors and used those to paint the wires on his abdomen.

Paints

Balthasar Gold, Auric Armour Gold, Ironbreaker, Runefang Steel, Caledor Sky, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Agrax Earthshade, Lahmian Medium, Druchii Violet

R2-D2

Base Colors

I primed him white and then painted the top with Ironbreaker. I then painted the top blue parts with Caledor Sky. I used Caledor Sky for all the blue parts and Ironbreaker on the metallic parts.

Wash

Nuln Oil for the metallic and white parts. Don't let it pool too much as you don't want to make the figure too dark. If you want to play it certain, make a mix of 50/50 Nuln Oil and Lahmian Medium.

Drakenhof Nightshade on the blue parts.

Highlights

Reapplication of base colors. The white parts are a bit of a pain to get right but I found a larger brush to help spread the paint evenly and in thin layers. I used Ironbreaker on the top again and then Runefang Steel on the very top as it's lighter metallic color.

I mixed in some white into the Caledor Sky and highlighted the folding arms on his front with that.

Finishing Touches

I used Hashut Copper on the tubes on his legs, washed with Agrax Earthshade and highlighted with Hashut Copper again.

I painted the eye black (Abbadon Black) and put a small white dot on the upper part to simulate a lens.

R2-D2 has a red light below his "eye" so I used Mephiston Red to paint the light, painted smaller area inside it with Evil Sunz Scarlet and then put a small dot of Wild Rider Red in the middle of it. I can't remember if I used red glaze (Bloodletter) on it or not. But if it looks like a light like that, don't do anything else to it. Glaze might help blend in the layers though but you don't want the glaze running anywhere.

Left to the red light is a small projector. I was really lazy with this but as it was painted over with Ironbreaker I just used blue glaze (Guilliman Blue) on it to simulate a light source. I think it looks ok even though it's not quite uniform.

The small blue rectangular lights to the right of his red light, I painted with Lothern Blue.

Paints

Caledor Sky, White Scar, Abbadon Black, Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Wild Rider Red, Ironbreaker, Runefang Steel, Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade, Guiliman Blue, (Bloodletter), Hashut Copper, Lothern Blue

Anyway, that's how I painted the droids (well, how I remember it anyway). Like I said, I'm not 100% of the colors. I may have used Macragge Blue where I said I used Caledor Sky. It's a darker shade of blue. Caledor Sky feels awfully light but then again wash darkens the areas too.

I hope this rambling guide/painting log is at least a little helpful on planning on how you want to paint your figures.

That helped a ton, thanks so much!!

Just a random tidbit. I have not painted these particular models, but my favorite way to get a dirty gold look is to paint silver and do a lot of thin layers of sepia wash. If requested, I could post photos later tonight or tomorrow as to what this looks like.

Sure, that would be appreciated.

http://imgur.com/gallery/54Da5dO

this is a repaint I did of a tie. That is formula P3 cold steel with a lot of citadel seraphim sepia washes over it

3-PO GW balthasar gold, brown wash, Vallejo old gold and dry brush with GW gold dry one, lower leg i did gun metal and nuln oil

R2 white primer, nuln oil, vallejo white then pick out details with dark blue and done

Thanks for all the tips, I might have to do some experimenting to see which I like the best.

I used the following paints for my R2-D2

Citadel Runefang Steel for the Dome and other silver type parts on R2

Blick flat white for body

combination of Reaper Amethyst Purple 9024 and Model Master Clear Blue 4658

Model master gold 4671

Model Master Flat Black 4768 for various other parts.

Reaper Light Blue 9264 for the two dots

Model Master Guards Red 4632

Vallejo Gloss Black 70.861 for lenses

The two colors for the blue panels on R2 was done with purple placed first then the clear blue. Looks really close to R2's color. Here is the link to my R2-D2

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l557/supersayian/Board%20game%20projects/20151029_210517_1.jpg

I did my C-3PO using alclad paint. This time I got it right and in my opinion he looks really good.

The list of stuff used:

Alclad gloss black base

Alclad aqua gloss clear coat

Alclad Transparent yellow/gold

Alclad Chrome for plastics

Alclad airbrush cleaner

I still have to put a final coat of clear on him and do the mid section.

I haven't painted mine yet, but my only tip is to remember his right leg is silver from the knee down, as seen in the pictures posted above. Some people seem to neglect this for some reason.

When I paint my C-3PO, I'll either base in medium silver, then drybrush shades of gold, and finish with a black wash for a "gold chipping off a silver frame" look. Or a basecoat of medium brown and drybrush layers of gold over that, finishing with a light brown wash for a dirty look.

Edit: I also agree about the silver leg and I'm considering the red arm, as well.

Yeah I try to paint the original characters as close to the movie as possible. For the other I try to get as close to their character card art as I can.