How-to paint tarnished copper doors

I made the questionable decision to ask my friend Totte (think he calls himself Widgren on this forum) for his opinion on how I should paint the doors on my fortified mansion and he came up with the great idea that they could be copper plated doors.
I thought, well why not, and started looking for a reference picture which you can see part of below.



Tarnished copper isn't that copperish

As you can see for yourself, old copper plated doors don't have that copperish feel to them. They're actually mostly turquoise and not that shiny. So I decided that I would only use copper and brass colors for small areas of the doors and decided to base coat the doors with a blend of Vallejo Grey Green and Vallejo Falcon Turquoise. Probably a 50/50 blend, don't really remember exactly.

I then added black to my mixed color and darkened the lower parts of the door with normal drybrushing technique, checking the reference picture for guidance along the way.



I continued with a mix of Vallejo Brassy Brass(the Hammered Copper is too red in my opinion), Green Grey and Black (can't remember if I also had some Turquoise in the mix...) – drybrushing it on carefully and again, looking at the reference picture for guidance.





Highlighting the doors

I used a mix of my base coat with more of the Falcon Turquoise and drybrushed it on in streaks along the door. Mostly on the upper parts. I added Vallejo Electric Blue to make it brighter and more saturated. For the last layer I added a bit of Vallejo Sky Blue for an even brighter color.



The tarnished copper doors completed

This is the final result(except that the hinges needs a wash). I must say I'm pleased with my first attempt at creating this effect. I would love to see if any of you readers have painted any tarnished copper and how you've done it, please comment as always. And if you think my effort looks like shit, please do tell




If you like stuff like this, please follow my blog – Marvelous Miniatures – http://mini.leblog.se

Ooo, pretty turquoise. Must paint some lizardmen.... or turquoise orcs? Hm!

Holy cats! I have been wondering a good way to do this myself!

I will be putting this into effect myself! After I am done painting my orcs.....

Well done! It looks WONDERFUL! You really were not afraid to start with the loud colors, and boy were you rewarded!

Very well executed Jorisch! The doors look very realistic, and vibrant! There is always a danger of painting stuff too muddy and or dull in the search for realism, but these doors really like tarnished, and at the same time crisp. You can't help noticing them - they just stand out. Excellent!

hehe. he didnt know know how much joyful work a simple "vad e´ den här dörren av?" (whats this door made of?)

looks great. it a joy to see thing painted in ways both realistic and aesthetic never seen before(by me).

will there be a blogpost on this?

Very useful tutorial - I'll use this technique on my fortified manor house, thanks!

Thanks for all the positive feedback

@Figgy Thanks man, the reference image was great to have, otherwise I would probably not have started with such a loud color.

@folketsfiende I agree, sometimes it gets too muddy and dirty when we try to create realism. I think I will use more reference images in the future, it helped a great deal.

@widgren This post was snatched from my blog, so there already is a blogpost on this. And it is a bit odd that we never seen tarnished copper painted on any miniatures.