There is a vid by Juan Hidalgo posted about 8 months ago. It's painting black armour by dry brushing your highlights first, then using a contrast paint over it. Really good results, I'd check it out
I recommend this as well. Look at my Corsairs and my Crows.
It's black base, dark grey drybrush, white dry brush. Once that's cured use Gravelord Grey army Painter speed paint over all of the armor
Same. Manual edge highlights often look fake, dry brushing applies highlights to raised areas in general, creating a real illusion of light source and depth. And it's easy!
Instęad of highlighting traditionally or drybrushing, I take a corner of a sponge and stipple a metallic paint like leadbelcher, with more on the edges. Can send photos if interested. Looks like realistic worn/damaged armour and gets a highlight at the same time
I think you got a great foundation. To get it to the next level I would do a second edge highlight in a lighter grey. Maybe covering 50% of the previous and focus on the upper facing panels that get the most light. I’d attach a picture of how mine turned out but can’t post pictures in the replies.
Keep at it ,they already look great!
Highlight again and then give it a nice wash, you’d be surprised what a few layers of nuln oil or Agrax can do to add depth and variation to block colour.
I mean the model looks good already.
I tend to do highlights as a dry brush as I find it leaves a finer edge.
A few really light washes often come out better than one heavy one.
https://www.reddit.com/r/slavestodarkness/s/7mJrlwdJj9 heres what i did for black armor if it helps
Edit: Same thing just pure black https://imgur.com/a/q51X49S
I dont use black paint at all and i edge highlight with metic paints. I also find for darker armors oil washes really pull it together. But it looks like you are trying to do classic gw heavey metal painting so it will always come out like this with that black armor dark blue highlights. In medieval times knights painted their armor to avoid rust and other damage. The black is a paint covering a metal so the paint should show wear and tear revealing the metal below it.
I don't have the answer. I have the same problem with my sister's of battle. I find blacks to look really flat. I think the problem is black needs to be a mixture of maybe dark blues/greys to give it some interest. But yours looks wayyyy better than mine!
I cheat and usually apply a light drybrush of a metallic-y black over my normal black.
Probably not the best way, but I am not going for display/golden daemon level quality lol
I think the issue you’re having is your first highlight is too bright. If you mixed the colour you used to highlight it with the black base coat colour (around 50/50) you’ll get a smoother and easier transition into the highlight. Yoy could then do a smaller highlight of the colour you used here to get a nice looking blend into it.
Black is a lot of work to make look nice imo
I have been playing around with doing a base coat of really bright metallic silver and then spraying black Templar contrast through an airbrush to stain the metal black. It looks like black metal and not just black paint.
There is a vid by Juan Hidalgo posted about 8 months ago. It's painting black armour by dry brushing your highlights first, then using a contrast paint over it. Really good results, I'd check it out
I will check that out, thank you
I recommend this as well. Look at my Corsairs and my Crows. It's black base, dark grey drybrush, white dry brush. Once that's cured use Gravelord Grey army Painter speed paint over all of the armor
Same. Manual edge highlights often look fake, dry brushing applies highlights to raised areas in general, creating a real illusion of light source and depth. And it's easy!
I paint my black armout with leadbelcher black contrast, drybrush it with another metall color and Highlight the edges with stormhost silver.
Looking for a way without metal colors but I will keep that in mind, thanks
Instęad of highlighting traditionally or drybrushing, I take a corner of a sponge and stipple a metallic paint like leadbelcher, with more on the edges. Can send photos if interested. Looks like realistic worn/damaged armour and gets a highlight at the same time
I’d be interested to see!
Yeah I would love to see those results. Working with battle damage is always nice, thanks for the suggestion
I think you got a great foundation. To get it to the next level I would do a second edge highlight in a lighter grey. Maybe covering 50% of the previous and focus on the upper facing panels that get the most light. I’d attach a picture of how mine turned out but can’t post pictures in the replies. Keep at it ,they already look great!
Thanks, appreciate it. So a bit like the gw style? Lighter Grey half the way and one even lighter dot at the middle edge?
Yes pretty much, it will go towards the GW box art style.
Highlight again and then give it a nice wash, you’d be surprised what a few layers of nuln oil or Agrax can do to add depth and variation to block colour.
Tried that at first, but it looks kinda dirty. However iam probably not using washes right.
I mean the model looks good already. I tend to do highlights as a dry brush as I find it leaves a finer edge. A few really light washes often come out better than one heavy one.
https://www.reddit.com/r/slavestodarkness/s/7mJrlwdJj9 heres what i did for black armor if it helps Edit: Same thing just pure black https://imgur.com/a/q51X49S
Black?
https://imgur.com/a/q51X49S used the same recipe for black
I dont use black paint at all and i edge highlight with metic paints. I also find for darker armors oil washes really pull it together. But it looks like you are trying to do classic gw heavey metal painting so it will always come out like this with that black armor dark blue highlights. In medieval times knights painted their armor to avoid rust and other damage. The black is a paint covering a metal so the paint should show wear and tear revealing the metal below it.
That's a very good point actually
I have a tutorial on my Instagram page @AshWastesNomad for dark iron. [Link to my page.](https://www.instagram.com/ashwastesnomad/?hl=en)
I don't have the answer. I have the same problem with my sister's of battle. I find blacks to look really flat. I think the problem is black needs to be a mixture of maybe dark blues/greys to give it some interest. But yours looks wayyyy better than mine!
I cheat and usually apply a light drybrush of a metallic-y black over my normal black. Probably not the best way, but I am not going for display/golden daemon level quality lol
Mixture of black, gray. Painting black is really painting really dark gray, and then shade with black and highlight with normal gray.
I think the issue you’re having is your first highlight is too bright. If you mixed the colour you used to highlight it with the black base coat colour (around 50/50) you’ll get a smoother and easier transition into the highlight. Yoy could then do a smaller highlight of the colour you used here to get a nice looking blend into it. Black is a lot of work to make look nice imo
i just dry brush with dark greys try to vary per whatever on any variation on that dark grey i.e. zinc which is abit more bluish, etc
I have been playing around with doing a base coat of really bright metallic silver and then spraying black Templar contrast through an airbrush to stain the metal black. It looks like black metal and not just black paint.
Put some vanta black on them lads so that they devour the light of the world.