Black Tutorial

[Lucumon]

As promised, here is a picture tutorial of how I accomplish my 'black'. The biggest problem I have with painting black is how flat it looks. If you look in some comic books, they will use a dark blue as a black so that it is not a mass of black pages. That was the same idea here.

I use four colors, and all of them from some craft store from years ago. Rather than using a sharp contrast in the highlights, the point here is blending, but in a lazy way. Water is an awesome aid.

Step 1: A normal black is used as a base coat... more often than not its a flat black primer from a spray can.


Step 2: The second coat is called "Charcoal Grey." Probably any Dark Grey will do (75% black, 25% white or darker). This dark grey will be painted on all the raised surfaces so that blacklining is the intended effect. If grey makes it into the cracks where black should be, I grab a bigger flat brush if the paint is still we and brush it out or repaint black in the crack. Neatness counts for me. Note that this is not a dry brush unless it is for the finer details and/or I am feeling lazy. I usually skip this color for very fine details like the little chains or the place where the marine's mouth would be on his helmet. Basically anything that requires a 30/0 size brush to get to, skip step 2.


Step 3: The third color used is a grey-blue, oxford blue. I forget the name off the top of my head, but this is a blue-grey. I will get back to you on the specific color. But this grey-blue is mixed 50-50 water/grey-blue at least. The high amount of water will make the paint somewhat translucent so the blending is easier without having to mix it with the dark grey. Also, instead of painting parallel to the edges, try to use the brush to apply the paint in perpendicular lines so that the highlight isnt obviously the same length away from the edge. All raised areas and edges get 2 or 3 fading highlights. Another way to say it is that you are trying to blend the dark grey into the grey blue so that the blend is seamless from a couple feet away. I also put one or two coats where the light shines off the mini. If you put the mini under a lamp, you can see that the light reflects from certain raised areas. I will put a single, watered down, coat where the light shines to highlight the... well, highlight. If you look on the upper legs, you can see the grey-blue streak.


Step 4: "Hippo Grey" is the final color, about 50 to 75% white and 50 to 25% black. This is the only color that is used a highlight in the sense that it is painted only on the top edges where light would reflect, and even then sparingly because it is in such sharp contrast to the other colors you would use. I do not water down this and use the flat edge of the brush so the highlight is very thin and subtle.


Here is how it will look when other color is added. I am still working on the mini, but painting furiously to finish it tonight or tomorrow so you can see the final effects:


I hope this helps.

Edit: To match the colors used with the Citadel Colors:
Hippo Grey = Fortress Grey
Oxford Blue = hmm, you have have to look this one up, looks like a mix between codex grey and shadow grey. anyone know about colors?
Charcoal Grey = a little darker than codex grey
Black = um, Chaos Black

Edited October 14, 2020 by Jolemai

[Lord_Maggot]

Wooo great tutorial. I shall have to give it a go. Any idea what a possible match to GW colours would be?

[nik0]

thanks

but the tutorial pics look a lot greyer then the almost finished one

and the grey-blue, is it similar to shadow grey, could i use that, or should i mix enchanted blue and codex grey together? or what

[Demoulius]

hey that actually looks pretty good :D

 

im to lazy to do it myself though <_<

 

black is black in my book :P

[Firebird]

I really like that tone. I'll have to try it next time i paint some black.

[The Bart Man]

Looks really cool!!! Verry nice!! No hard tabeltop highkites witch I don't like.

 

BTW I guess that red eyes would suit the model better. And leather for the pouches looks better with the black armour and red parts! But thats MHO

 

Keep up the good work!!

[Cherub]

I love your black. Seeing as how i'm going to do a new 1500 point ba list I think i'll try painting my DC that way. Thanks for the tutorial.

[Tyrannicide]

Awesome tutorial on a different, yet effective style of painting DC, Lucumon.

[Lucumon]

Thanks for the compliments, I will try to have this model finished tonight or tomorrow.

 

The Bart Man: I agree with you. All my other DC have brown leather pouches, but I ran out of the two darkest citadel browns so I had to use the greens. I would say because lots of militaries use a camo green... but, we are talking about space men who dress in red...

 

nik0: There are three reasons why the tutorial pics look a lot greyer then the almost finished one:

(1) I used testor's dullcote before I glued on the arms. This is an awesome overcoat to protect your models as it changes the color somewhat but in a good way. Purity Seal is horrible stuff, dullcote is the answer.

(2) The other color added to the details may distract the eye from the grey.

(3) Camera settings. My camera skills lack, so I took 10 pictures for each step and tried to choose the best and the one that had the same lighting.

[nik0]

can you tell us the citadel equivelents to the paints you said

[Lucumon]

Hey all, here is the finished product:

nik0:See the end of the first post.

Thanks all for your encouragement!

[Cherub]

You set the bar pretty high there Lucumon.

[nik0]

that looks exactly the same as what i about to finish, except it hasnt got the nice grey effect or the power sword or the cross under the shoulder skull

[Demoulius]

@ Lucumon: what sword did you use? it looks awesome :thanks:

 

so does your grey...i mean black deathcompany :whistling: he looks very nice :whoops:

[Lucumon]

Demoulius: The sword is from the Ravenwing Battleforce. It comes with 6 bikes, one attack bike, and a landspeeder with three dark angel sprues. Eac sprue has two of those swords, 2 assault cannons for landspeeders, and an assortment of other things, mostly DA icons and such though. It was uber cheap on ebay... and I wanted to make a bike squad.

[Demoulius]

ahw, abit out of my league then (no way im gonna spend that much money to get one sword :P)

 

the sword looks awesome though ;)

[Lucumon]

Well, the Ravenwing Battleforce is a very cost effective way to get the models if you are going to use them. Look up the cost of the Battleforce on eBay, and then look up the retail price for two biker squads of three bikes, one land speeder tornado, and an attack bike...