Mixing an ink or dye with a metallic base (mica flakes or aluminium) is basically how they make all the different metallic paint hues anyway, which is easy to see when they separate. Even the darker steels are generally just the same metallic base, with black added. Water-based/acrylic inks work so well with acrylic paint, that everyone should have some (and all paint ranges should probably include a set).
@@MidwinterMinis Lol I was entirely filled with anxiety working on that and took extra time to be extra delicate. That has to be the fiddliest model I've worked with yet.
The hobby community needs more videos like this. I've been exploring the world of artist grade inks and paints and it's actually astounding how much hobby companies take advantage of our lack of artistic knowledge. Scale 75 and Kimera make great efforts to merge these different forms of art, but everybody else (especially GW) wants to pigeonhole everybody into doing things a certain way and convince you that their paint is special and you NEED it to paint miniatures. I always appreciate videos like this, and basically everything Marco Frisoni puts out, to spread the good word about artist-grade products and help dispel these myths.
OOOHHHH THAT SILVER INK CHANGES EVERYTHING *scrambles to grab wallet. I think you had the right idea for the flamers, but you set yourself back by starting them off with a Zenithal highlight, I think if you just primed them white from the start and then did everything the same, you wouldn't be fighting against your recess shading to make them look hot. Fantastic Video as always
you can drybrush with inks, you just need to let it sit for a bit on your palette. It will thicken slightly as it starts to dry. Or us a bit of MDF or thin ply. It will absorb some of the moisture while leaving the pigment
@@MidwinterMinis Hi there, Guy! I've been subscribed to your channel for quite a while now, and I would like to ask: where can I buy the blue tac you use?
As much as I love Guy, I wish we got to hear more from Hatty. Or perhaps even a parallel series with her in the lead. She appears to be an extremely talented painter and sculptor, and she worked for GW - would be fun to see what she can do for real.
Thank you so much! That’s so kind of you to say. As Guy said, my first solo video is planned for October, and hopefully I’ll be coming to your screens more often after that!
One very small detail I would have added is a layer of gloss varnish to the black eyes of the demons as well, that would probably make them look even more empty and scary 🥺
I'm really glad to see one of my favorite creators using acrylic inks! My experience mini painting has been with printing my own and painting them up with inks, since I really couldn't afford those Warhammer prices for models or paint, and in a way it's really reassuring to see somebody I admire so much using the same methods.
I've been using primarily inks since I started painting again, getting good metallic really is fun. My usual go-to is washing a translucent Burnt Umber over top of silver, looks very nice and aged. Burnt Umber+white also makes for rather nice skin tones. Always great seeing more people playing with them :-)
Great result. I brush with inks quite a lot. They're great for quickly batching out uniforms on hundreds of historical soldiers. I strongly recommend applying a varnish over everything, whether it be matt, satin or gloss, as appropriate for the area in question. Inks look amazing but have next to no durability and will chip off very easily as you handle the miniatures in game.
i use liquitex inks a lot in mini painting. Through an airbrush they go on super smooth and brushed on they work a lot like contrast/speed paints. Drying time can be an issue sometimes and they have a tendency to reactivate with some types of mediums but apart from that they work great. Just painted all the Genestealers from 1st ed space hulk with just inks
I went to buy some inks and ended up with the starter set of liquitex acrylic gouache as well. Will never buy "mini" paints again, they are outstanding.
@@TheBatNaz they have the pigment density of heavy body acrylics, the fluidity you're used to with mini paints, and a matte finish nearly as smooth as airbrushed lacquer. It has a longer dry time that is outstanding for wet blending, but can be a set back if you're aiming to speed paint.
Love the experimenting. Agree with you that the flamers aren't quite there yet. My only thought on improvement is that there needs to be some more contrast in the shadows to make them less "flat". If you look at the big boss he seems a little uniform red to me. Well done for being daring!
Great video. I have been using inks for a while and totally agree that they make great ecconomic sense as well as provide a fast way to paint, but as you say, they are an additoanl tool, not an alternative. What has got me the most excited is news of the return of the death match! two thumbs up for that!
I really love using inks, since they're so potent and saturated. I've never used metallic ink and am so impressed by how awesome it looked. Next hobby buy for my thousand sons glow up!
DEATHMATCH IS BACK BABY! 🔥 So happy to see it arrive back in force, watching those matches is what started my own plastic crack addiction, and I cannot wait to see the arena back in action!
DUDE I was absolutely going to leave a comment about how amazing this was but how I wish you brought back the Deathmatch, and then BOOM RIGHT AT THE END. Ugh. My favorite RUclips channel right here.
looks great but I really hope you sealed these with an all over varnish, one of the major weaknesses of inks is they aren't as durable as acrylics, if you don't seal them there's a good chance of it coming off just from handling.
I think it was really cool seeing you try something different with the flamers, even though the result wasn't great. I really love the look of the screamers, fantastically smooth and vibrant.
I love Guy for covering this,I dont use minature paints as they are not available in my country and they're quite expensive to bring into the country so i use alternative paints and usually have to mix my own paint,and using Guy's tips I've been able to make some tabletop ready models,you dont need 40 paints and 30 brushes,although it would be ideal.
Somehow, despite watching every single step of the painting, I am still blown away every time by the wide shot of the full army. These turned out amazing!
One of the best painting video I've seen recently ! It's quite close to the style of paint I've been focusing on for several months now, as I mainly do the same steps but with Speedpaints instead of inks. Might try these inks myself though, these look really interesting and fun to play with :D Thanks guys !
Holy smokes this is a good looking army! I have an air brush but havent seen many videos on properly applying it to models besides just a base coating. I love Tzeentch and the weird funky horrors the army brings to the tabletop. Awesome video! Definitely going to be trying these techniques.
This video is what i have been waiting for. Feels like an instant classic. Lit my already burning passion for the hobby. Really appreciate you stuff Guy and Hatty. Thank you
I'm fairly new to Warhammer as well as creating videos on RUclips, but this video has got me really interested in going outside of my comfort zone (which is basically to stick with acrylics and copy the box art right now!!) and experiment with inks, as I absolutely LOVE what you've done here guy! Keep up the amazing work, you're a big inspiration for starting my own channel.
I loved the video, I think you were right about the flamers at the end, the spots added to model fantastically but the white reverse highlight didn't quite fit. SO EXCITED FOR DEATH MATCH
These look GORGEOUS. Well done, sir! Ink isn’t that much different than Contrast Paint, so it’s a really good reminder of how to use artists inks to get serious results!
He said 'moist tool' hehe. Looking awesome! Really love the screamers. Nice to see you using not only more inks, flow improver etc, but an airbrush again! One of us, one of us... 🤣
I love using inks. I think they are amazing. They are also so nice to use in the air brush. Using them to give things a very slight tint or to get really bright colours is definitely their star point though.
Dude you are killing it! In my humble opinion this is your best video yet. The decisions you made for the washes and highlights were especially awesome. Keep it up, Guy!
I painted most of that box (all except the chariot) using only inks and contrast paints (often mixing them together) over zenithal primer. The vibrancy of the colours is amazing...as befits Tzeench demons :)
Super fun stuff, love to see an experiment, and what a result! Those screamers are really head-turners. And that silver ink trick... Hoo... Resisting temptation to immediately purchase silver ink...
I'm no miniature painter, but one idea I had you could do to improve on the Flamers (where you tried to add white in the recesses) would be to use some kind of white wash (or a transparent white ink) and add that to where you'd normally add black wash for shadows. Then, you can go over those with transparent fire colors to make it look like they're burning up inside.
Awesome! I just had the same problem with a hot inside cool outside thing tonight. solved by painting with thined white ink and dry brushing grey and black. Then give a sloppy wash with the color (in my case pink for a magical glow) and streak it away with a cutip right afterward. Worked okay so far. After drying I "highlighted" the deepest party again with a thinned white ink to have a transition from deepest to mid deep sections. Then it was great looking :)
A really interesting watch. It's always been a question that needed answering in my book. And to be fair I am going to be exploring some of these inks in my own future projects.
YES!!!!! that silver to gold ink. Terrific idea and execution I also will have to consider trying this in the future, as always thanks for the continued inspiration!
Looking fantastic! I use a thinned white "wash" like you did on the flamey guys whenever I'm doing plasma weapons, which usually look best with the recessed areas being the lightest.
Re: metallic acrylic inks - FW and Liquitex both have the basics (gold, silver, copper, bronze, etc.) but FW in particular has a bunch of awesome interference (I think they call them 'shimmering') shades, ie. all the metallic shine but completely transparent, though the shine will be more overpowering on deeper shades. They're really great for your more magical models, especially Tzeentch and Slaaneshi weirdness. They're harder to find in person than the rest of the range but Jacksons Art has them all online
Absolutely loved this vid mate! Thanks! I better get about finding a set of DR inks. That silver to gold mix up was incredible, and the daemon colours very vibrant.
When the first few content creators initially brought up ink years ago it sent me down a path of using products from my local fine art store rather than things made for gaming. High quality paint and such with pigment type listed on the bottle, strange special effect paints, oil paint and other mixed media techniques. I basically don't buy any hobby shop paint and such anymore.
Loved the way the models turned out, on the topic of the flamers and what you were trying to do, I would suggest possibly using a mid tone for the recessed areas that face toward the flames, and then a darker tone on the ones that completely face away, while sticking with a very light version of whichever color you want to go for on the parts facing closest to the flames. It'd give more of an impression of the flames being the main source of light on the models themselves, which is what I think you were trying to go for here with the effect.
Turning that silver ink to gold looked amazing. Definitely going to be trying that in the future.
I know, right? Loved it!
I nearly stopped the video when he broke out the cabochons that ick me out 😂 but I’m glad I stuck around for this experimental discovery
Back when all I had was the basic 10-pot Citadel starter set, that's basically how I made gold; mixing Flesh Wash into Mithril Silver...
Mixing an ink or dye with a metallic base (mica flakes or aluminium) is basically how they make all the different metallic paint hues anyway, which is easy to see when they separate. Even the darker steels are generally just the same metallic base, with black added.
Water-based/acrylic inks work so well with acrylic paint, that everyone should have some (and all paint ranges should probably include a set).
Happy I was able to pop up and help out a little with this video! It was a ton of fun hanging out in the studio and chatting with Guy and Hatty.
Awesome having you here! Impressed you didn't snap off any bits from that Fateskimmer when you were drybrushing. I definitely would have.
@@MidwinterMinis Lol I was entirely filled with anxiety working on that and took extra time to be extra delicate. That has to be the fiddliest model I've worked with yet.
Came out amazing
The hobby community needs more videos like this. I've been exploring the world of artist grade inks and paints and it's actually astounding how much hobby companies take advantage of our lack of artistic knowledge. Scale 75 and Kimera make great efforts to merge these different forms of art, but everybody else (especially GW) wants to pigeonhole everybody into doing things a certain way and convince you that their paint is special and you NEED it to paint miniatures. I always appreciate videos like this, and basically everything Marco Frisoni puts out, to spread the good word about artist-grade products and help dispel these myths.
Yeah its kind of insane. I know people who refuse to mix colors.
it's also probably because hobby shops don't carry them.
I clicked on this video expecting a unique effect from the inks and ended up getting the coolest basing job I’ve ever seen.
OOOHHHH THAT SILVER INK CHANGES EVERYTHING *scrambles to grab wallet.
I think you had the right idea for the flamers, but you set yourself back by starting them off with a Zenithal highlight, I think if you just primed them white from the start and then did everything the same, you wouldn't be fighting against your recess shading to make them look hot.
Fantastic Video as always
well, also count in vince venturellas advice on "molten core" "hotter on the inside" paintjobs: "Don't do it."
@@MrMockigton I'm not familiar with his videos on this topic, so I'm afraid that goes over my head 😅
you can drybrush with inks, you just need to let it sit for a bit on your palette. It will thicken slightly as it starts to dry. Or us a bit of MDF or thin ply. It will absorb some of the moisture while leaving the pigment
Good to know! I'll give it a try next time.
@@MidwinterMinis Hi there, Guy! I've been subscribed to your channel for quite a while now, and I would like to ask: where can I buy the blue tac you use?
@@jamiekevingallagher365 basically any stationer.
Fun fact: all silver paints can be mixed with other colours to be whatever you want! It’s awesome!!
As much as I love Guy, I wish we got to hear more from Hatty. Or perhaps even a parallel series with her in the lead. She appears to be an extremely talented painter and sculptor, and she worked for GW - would be fun to see what she can do for real.
Agreed would enjoy that too but she may not like been on film too much
She's got a very cool project planned for October, so I can see this happening!
Yeah not everyone is happy in front of the camera! But she is cool
See I'm not fussed personally so if guy needs someone who may have an inflatable trex costume I may have one in a bag ready for skits
Thank you so much! That’s so kind of you to say. As Guy said, my first solo video is planned for October, and hopefully I’ll be coming to your screens more often after that!
The PVA/superglue bases are definitely a trick I'm going to try for my Nurgle daemons
Ridiculously impressed with the metallic!
One very small detail I would have added is a layer of gloss varnish to the black eyes of the demons as well, that would probably make them look even more empty and scary 🥺
Yeeessss! the start collecting deathmatches are back. I love the soundtrack used, gives off game-showy vibes... in space!
I'm really glad to see one of my favorite creators using acrylic inks! My experience mini painting has been with printing my own and painting them up with inks, since I really couldn't afford those Warhammer prices for models or paint, and in a way it's really reassuring to see somebody I admire so much using the same methods.
The vibrant colours of the inks definitely suit Tzeentch very well.
Finally Tzeench getting some love! I'm sick of all Nurgle videos out there. Great job Guy!
I've been using primarily inks since I started painting again, getting good metallic really is fun. My usual go-to is washing a translucent Burnt Umber over top of silver, looks very nice and aged. Burnt Umber+white also makes for rather nice skin tones. Always great seeing more people playing with them :-)
Great result. I brush with inks quite a lot. They're great for quickly batching out uniforms on hundreds of historical soldiers. I strongly recommend applying a varnish over everything, whether it be matt, satin or gloss, as appropriate for the area in question. Inks look amazing but have next to no durability and will chip off very easily as you handle the miniatures in game.
That gold effect with the orange wash looks *phenomenal.* Such a quick effect that looks incredible.
I've never painted minis and just enjoy watching the content, but I've gotta say thats the best metallic gold ive ever seen :D
i use liquitex inks a lot in mini painting. Through an airbrush they go on super smooth and brushed on they work a lot like contrast/speed paints. Drying time can be an issue sometimes and they have a tendency to reactivate with some types of mediums but apart from that they work great. Just painted all the Genestealers from 1st ed space hulk with just inks
Yeah, I see a lot of people using Liquitex stuff, I should try 'em out :)
I went to buy some inks and ended up with the starter set of liquitex acrylic gouache as well. Will never buy "mini" paints again, they are outstanding.
@@rodericklenz5030 Never tried the Liquitex Gouache before. i have tried heavy body acrylics and they take some getting used to
@@TheBatNaz they have the pigment density of heavy body acrylics, the fluidity you're used to with mini paints, and a matte finish nearly as smooth as airbrushed lacquer. It has a longer dry time that is outstanding for wet blending, but can be a set back if you're aiming to speed paint.
*Cries in Australian* $20 for a tiny bottle :(
thank you, guy, this video has made my day. we had to put down my dog of 14 years and you always make me feel better. thank you
Loved the metallic discovery and would enjoy a whole episode on uses you come across and if it works through an airbrush. Great work friends!
Love the experimenting. Agree with you that the flamers aren't quite there yet. My only thought on improvement is that there needs to be some more contrast in the shadows to make them less "flat". If you look at the big boss he seems a little uniform red to me. Well done for being daring!
Great video. I have been using inks for a while and totally agree that they make great ecconomic sense as well as provide a fast way to paint, but as you say, they are an additoanl tool, not an alternative. What has got me the most excited is news of the return of the death match! two thumbs up for that!
Those look absolutely amazing. Honestly some of your best work. When you turned that silver to the brightest gold I've ever seen... holy shit.
The color scheme for the screamers and the fire look 👌👌👌
This was seriously amazing to watch. That gold was legendary status alone! 10\10 should def do it again.
If it wasnt 1240 at night id be running to the paint store for that silver ink trick. Holy crap..such a badass trick. I love it. Great work as always
I really love using inks, since they're so potent and saturated. I've never used metallic ink and am so impressed by how awesome it looked. Next hobby buy for my thousand sons glow up!
I'm so doing these bases for my nurgle army. I love how flexible they are!!! Great job Guy!!!!
Great gold colour created using the inks. FANTASTIC.
Here before Tzeentch changes everything
Yes, at last the return of the start collecting death match. These inks are an amazing way to colour minis; I shall definitely be giving them a go.
Both your Nurgle and Tzeentch daemons look incredible. Totally and appropriately otherworldly.
DEATHMATCH IS BACK BABY! 🔥
So happy to see it arrive back in force, watching those matches is what started my own plastic crack addiction, and I cannot wait to see the arena back in action!
I haven't painted a miniature in 20 years, but this is absolutely fascinating!
DUDE I was absolutely going to leave a comment about how amazing this was but how I wish you brought back the Deathmatch, and then BOOM RIGHT AT THE END. Ugh. My favorite RUclips channel right here.
looks great but I really hope you sealed these with an all over varnish, one of the major weaknesses of inks is they aren't as durable as acrylics, if you don't seal them there's a good chance of it coming off just from handling.
I'll give them a handling test to see how they fare, but maybe after they've been in their battle report ;)
I was a 4 color printer for years, and new to painting and from the start I was thinking about inks, now I know they will work! Thanks
This video has the feeling of some of your most classic videos. It was a fun experiment to watch! The models were so interesting and wild looking too!
I think it was really cool seeing you try something different with the flamers, even though the result wasn't great. I really love the look of the screamers, fantastically smooth and vibrant.
Those bases are so, SO sic. I love them and love the bright colors. Well done!
I love Guy for covering this,I dont use minature paints as they are not available in my country and they're quite expensive to bring into the country so i use alternative paints and usually have to mix my own paint,and using Guy's tips I've been able to make some tabletop ready models,you dont need 40 paints and 30 brushes,although it would be ideal.
The return of the death matches! Emperor be praised, I’m looking forward to this. Cool paint job, Guy
Somehow, despite watching every single step of the painting, I am still blown away every time by the wide shot of the full army. These turned out amazing!
That is one of the prettiest armies I've ever seen. You are an absolute legend
That was inspirational. Particularly the metal ink transformation.
The deathmatch music gave me goosebumps. Let's GOOOOOO!
The colours are so vibrant, they're gorgeous!
I've just got into the ink market myself and have gone headfirst into 12 D&R FW inks, I love them!
I really like how colorful these are!
They're so vibrant and smooth, looks flippin sweet!
Those bases are a really inspired choice, very impressive
This has inspired me to grab my first Airbrush! Between the Sandstone necrons and this you're doing great introducing others into the hobby!
Man! I've been avoiding inks for so long... But now...
Thanks Guy!!!
Been looking into inks and thins is one of the best iv seen, mainly looking for shading purposes but love the vibrant skins!
One of the best painting video I've seen recently ! It's quite close to the style of paint I've been focusing on for several months now, as I mainly do the same steps but with Speedpaints instead of inks.
Might try these inks myself though, these look really interesting and fun to play with :D
Thanks guys !
Holy smokes this is a good looking army! I have an air brush but havent seen many videos on properly applying it to models besides just a base coating. I love Tzeentch and the weird funky horrors the army brings to the tabletop. Awesome video! Definitely going to be trying these techniques.
Great "Inksperiment" Guy, love them and thanks for settling a bit of the fear of going all in on some ink paint work ups.
I love brown transparent ink. 1 swipe over white primer is the closest thing to 1 coat leather I have used.
This video is what i have been waiting for. Feels like an instant classic. Lit my already burning passion for the hobby. Really appreciate you stuff Guy and Hatty. Thank you
I'm fairly new to Warhammer as well as creating videos on RUclips, but this video has got me really interested in going outside of my comfort zone (which is basically to stick with acrylics and copy the box art right now!!) and experiment with inks, as I absolutely LOVE what you've done here guy!
Keep up the amazing work, you're a big inspiration for starting my own channel.
I loved the video, I think you were right about the flamers at the end, the spots added to model fantastically but the white reverse highlight didn't quite fit. SO EXCITED FOR DEATH MATCH
yes the start collecting death march is back!
fantastic ink work but keen to see the death matches work their way to a conclusion 🤞
These look GORGEOUS. Well done, sir! Ink isn’t that much different than Contrast Paint, so it’s a really good reminder of how to use artists inks to get serious results!
Just wanted to say that your videos make me want to experiment more with my own projects and keeps painting fun for me, thanks for uploading.
those bases look disgustingly lovely! using inks was a genius move (and a fun challenge by the looks of it)! great job, Guy!
He said 'moist tool' hehe. Looking awesome! Really love the screamers. Nice to see you using not only more inks, flow improver etc, but an airbrush again! One of us, one of us... 🤣
Just not on the Titan! ;)
@@MidwinterMinis Damn it!
I love using inks. I think they are amazing. They are also so nice to use in the air brush. Using them to give things a very slight tint or to get really bright colours is definitely their star point though.
Dude you are killing it! In my humble opinion this is your best video yet. The decisions you made for the washes and highlights were especially awesome. Keep it up, Guy!
Damn, I just love this "turnament" track at the end. Also the bases are just killer
I painted most of that box (all except the chariot) using only inks and contrast paints (often mixing them together) over zenithal primer. The vibrancy of the colours is amazing...as befits Tzeench demons :)
Yo these came out amazing! Especially the metallic ink ✍️🧐
These colors are just so good I love them hope to see more videos like this
Those tinted metallics look outstanding! The bone / tusks color also looks really great.
Super fun stuff, love to see an experiment, and what a result! Those screamers are really head-turners. And that silver ink trick... Hoo... Resisting temptation to immediately purchase silver ink...
The Bases are so brilliant.
I'm no miniature painter, but one idea I had you could do to improve on the Flamers (where you tried to add white in the recesses) would be to use some kind of white wash (or a transparent white ink) and add that to where you'd normally add black wash for shadows. Then, you can go over those with transparent fire colors to make it look like they're burning up inside.
Okay, these look absolutely gorgeous
My paints will forever be gloopey chemical plastic gunge now. Lovely exploration video today!
Nice work, Guy! And really cool exposé on inks worth minis! Way to stay productive!!
Awesome! I just had the same problem with a hot inside cool outside thing tonight. solved by painting with thined white ink and dry brushing grey and black. Then give a sloppy wash with the color (in my case pink for a magical glow) and streak it away with a cutip right afterward. Worked okay so far. After drying I "highlighted" the deepest party again with a thinned white ink to have a transition from deepest to mid deep sections. Then it was great looking :)
The music at the end is incredible
A really interesting watch. It's always been a question that needed answering in my book. And to be fair I am going to be exploring some of these inks in my own future projects.
You guys do so much work and put so much effort into each video, it is crazy. I wish the algorithm would give you more views.
ooo i cannot wait for the battle report with these guys! they came out looking amazing!
YES!!!!! that silver to gold ink. Terrific idea and execution I also will have to consider trying this in the future, as always thanks for the continued inspiration!
Looking fantastic! I use a thinned white "wash" like you did on the flamey guys whenever I'm doing plasma weapons, which usually look best with the recessed areas being the lightest.
Damn that ink metal hack is something I'm definitely going to be using in the future.
All the skins look very vibrant. I'm gonna be using that too.
I love that purple metallic, definitely going to plan on using ink in the future
The metallics came out SOOOO good! That amethyst one was especially nice!
A warm inspiring video, as always. Thanks Guy!
Re: metallic acrylic inks - FW and Liquitex both have the basics (gold, silver, copper, bronze, etc.) but FW in particular has a bunch of awesome interference (I think they call them 'shimmering') shades, ie. all the metallic shine but completely transparent, though the shine will be more overpowering on deeper shades. They're really great for your more magical models, especially Tzeentch and Slaaneshi weirdness. They're harder to find in person than the rest of the range but Jacksons Art has them all online
Absolutely loved this vid mate! Thanks!
I better get about finding a set of DR inks.
That silver to gold mix up was incredible, and the daemon colours very vibrant.
When the first few content creators initially brought up ink years ago it sent me down a path of using products from my local fine art store rather than things made for gaming.
High quality paint and such with pigment type listed on the bottle, strange special effect paints, oil paint and other mixed media techniques. I basically don't buy any hobby shop paint and such anymore.
I love inks for layering colors on top of each other to make weird skin tones also for the Metallics I did a blue for ork armor and it worked great
Man, I Love how these turned out!
Love the metals. Didn't think you could mix silver to make a purple metal.
I also really like the Screamer and the chief
Thanks Guy! This was awesome! I've been experimenting with inks for a bit they are an awesome and powerful tool!
Loved the way the models turned out, on the topic of the flamers and what you were trying to do, I would suggest possibly using a mid tone for the recessed areas that face toward the flames, and then a darker tone on the ones that completely face away, while sticking with a very light version of whichever color you want to go for on the parts facing closest to the flames. It'd give more of an impression of the flames being the main source of light on the models themselves, which is what I think you were trying to go for here with the effect.