Painting Sisters: Black or White Armor

[Rommel44]

Debating which way I want to go when it comes to painting my Sisters of Battle and just wanted your guy's personal opinion. A lot of people are suggesting I go with White Armor, as Sisters of Battle Models would look amazing with that, but at the same time I am horrible at painting and Black would be a lot easier to do lol. That being said, what would you think would be cooler or the best way to go. Was considering a Dark Blue, Khorne Red, or a Rich Purple for the Robes with Gold Trim.

[vonny]

if you go for dark blue robes, the armour would look better with a light color as a contrast.

 

and hey, there's always a time to learn to paint white ;)

[Sororita Katya]

Unless you have confidence in your skills don't go white, it is very difficult to get right although with the new spray (corax white) it's apparently a lot easier.

If you're going rich colours I generally like white better for the armor for if you went with deep purple or red.

 

Although red does work with the black as well and dark blue with correct highlighting really pops with black.

 

In the end it's up to you. Test out each scheme, look at them and think three things:

 

- do I like how it looks

- am I happy that my skills are to a level to pull this off army wide

- am I happy to paint this scheme 100 times or more

 

If you say yes to each one well then you've found your scheme :)

[Naminé]

As someone who has white marines and black sisters, I would say black. Black with gold trim can look amazing and it's very simple to do. The robe colours you suggested will all work with black and more then anything, black is much faster to paint.

I would advise people only paint white if they really want to have white.

[sedibear]

white is difficult, i agree. an off-white looks really good with sisters though. 

 

When doing white, your options with shading is quite limited - cold blue, grey for a neutral-ish white, and tan/brown for an off creamy white. This will dictate what color the robes will be. Trims are easy to make great with white armor though, because it goes with anything except maybe a really light silver or gold.

 

Black is moderately difficult to get correctly, except when you go with a metallic black. on the plus side, you get to match it with almost any color robe, and any trim color will look good with it. you also solve the nook and cranny problem that Sisters tend to give - they are deceptive with the amount of detail they have on the model.

[Blagon]

Voting for black. Don't make it harder for yourself. You want to keep it simple so you'll have a better chance of finishing the painting.

[wako1302]

I used just an off black with a light dry brusk of silver - Gave a better finish than pure black

[apologist]

Black works well for Sororitas models, as the contrast between the bare face and armour is eye-catching (assuming light skin tones, of course). The same is not always true of black-armoured marines, where the majority of models are helmed. Here, it's more challenging – though very possible – to get a good focal point.

 

You might also consider a quartered or halved scheme? 

[tvih]

Corax White? Huh. I guess I should look into that. The previous white spray is absolutely useless for, well, anything.

[ValourousHeart]

I find that black is probably the worst color to use as the primary color for any model. There is so much detail lost when you go black. And as has been poured out by others sisters have a ton of detail.

 

Try this technique, it took me from being a terrible painter (which I still am) to having a great looking army (without the hassle of getting good at painting).

 

This is all about letting the paint paint for you.

 

Prime the model black

Dry brush the whole model with a very light grey or pale blue (they used to call it space wolf grey).

 

This creates a negative and will create an effective shading from just your main color.

You don't want a grey model, you just want grey on all of the details but none of the recesses / crevices.

 

Next step is to pick your armor color.

You need to go with a paint that will be somewhat transparent.

This is easy if you avoid the foundation paints and most dark Browns.

Just about every other color will work, if you just don't slather it on like BBQ sauce.

 

At this stage point I'll use an ink or wash to help call out the contours.

The nice part is you put it on lightly and let it settle.

 

Then for your robes you reset the black and grey as above and this time don't do the wash.

Instead use a darker color and trace the crevices.

 

With my army I went with a bone color and a brown wash for the armor, red for the robes, bronze with silver details on the weapons.

 

Then to draw attention to certain models I added sky blue for the wax on the purity seals, tassels and cords.

[Duke Danse Macabre]

I personally say white is the best option, do a couple practice models first, easy to strip metal after all if your unhappy.

Now there is a great painting guide to do white with the new paints.

 

The Guide is a GW on, they brought it out with the new BA Sanguinary Priest model.

Go give it a look. :)