Making black interesting.

[GrandMagnus]

Hi brothers/sisters, I'm currently on hiatus but when I return I'm considering working on some Black Consuls. But I'm really not good at painting black power armour and I have a big problem with making black miniatures look interesting.

 

So how do you do it? How do you make black look more than just... black. And how do you paint black?

[infyrana]

That was my problem with wanting to paint BA:DC or LotD mini's many moons ago.  My first technique, instead of using silver highlights and damage etc, was to use a brass metalic colour for dry brushing over the mini.  Thereby making it feel older just as we get that impression whenever we see a lot of historical brass instruments.

 

The next time I plan to paint straight black, I'd like to try for either a black chrome or a coloured glaze.  Were I a skilled painter, NMM sheen or a softer deep gray NMM highlight would be awesome.  If I find the mini I'm thinking of, I'll link it here later.

[GreyCrow]

Painting primarily black for the Raven Guard, I've noticed that 4 things really make the black stand out :

1) A base of a very constrating color

2) Very thin highlight of a light grey color or metallitc color. Typically, these days I highlight with Ironbreaker.

3) Brightly coloured gear elements. I go for metal with a black wash for details, but it helps show the black

4) Except for vehicles, a black wash all around the model gives out a matte finish which is quite enjoyable. On vehicles the very flat surfaces makes the wash pool and look bad. I typically to the wash after the metal highlight to blend everything in. The shininess of the edges is still there, but not quite as stark as without the wash so it doesn't look out of place.

[GrandMagnus]

OK, all good advice. I'm thinking a matte black, it seems to fit the Black Consuls chapter. I'm not too sure about the metallic drybrush for weathering as you have suggested, do you have any example pictures?

[infyrana]

No examples to hand I'm afraid.  If you have a section of sprue with a raised name or date somewhere on it, just paint it black, let it dry, then lightly drybrush some metallic brass/bronze (warplock bronze/tin bitz) over it, darken with a wash.

[GrandMagnus]

Sadly I'm away from home until July so I don't have a sprue at hand. But I will make a note of it and try it when I get back.

[GreyCrow]

Hey ! It's not a drybrush but a line highlight I'm not the best painter but I'll post a pic of a model when I'm home

EDIT : That's the best image I could take of a model primed black, edge highlighted with Ironbreaker, and washed with Nuln Oil. Prior to any embelishment

The fun bit with metal highlights is that they only show from your viewpoint with the light, so it gives a very 3D lighting to the model in my very humble opinion (I'm not the best painter by far and I have no desire to be, much like Race below, I want models to look decent on the table but I don't plan to compete for Golden Daemon ).

You can see the Chainsword and Bolt Pistols haven't been highilghted and thus appear a lot flatter than the rest of the model. The other thing I like with metal highlights is that it serves as weathering as well :p (Im a lazy bastard).

I find this relatively easy to do in about 20 minutes per model for this step. Then level of details depending on how much time you want to put in.

[Race Bannon]

In my humble opinion, if you want models people will pick up and scrutinize from 6 inches away, then there are a lot of guides to give you what you want. 

 

For my part, I want to play with the models thus, I went for a reasonably fast style for table-top quality, then GreyCrow's advice is close to what I'm doing, yet my black is straight-up not highlighted/washed/layered.  It's just black.

 

I use P3 brand ^_^  It's not as thick as Citadel Paints and has more paint in the pot.

[NovemberIX]

I'm gonna suggest looking up Honda's stuff in the BT forum, I've seen it in person and it looks amazing.

 

The basic crux is that you're not using a pure black, it's all varying shades of dark grey. The models have depth and details, and avoid that "only primed" look that black can have.

[deathspectersgt7]

I do a plain straight up black with a black/blue wash.

[Strength 10]

I've been researching colour schemes for a possible Ravenwing army. As far as I can tell there's a few ways to spice black up, one is to highlight / speckle or do battle damage with a metallic colour and perhaps weathering powders and dirt etc, and another technique is to use a soft grey or blue grey highlight on the larger patches of black,which probably requires an airbrush. Another thing to do is perhaps add OSL to any potential light sources but it depends on whether you like the effect or not.

I made a pinterest board for bike armies / Ravenwing (there's a link right at the bottom) - here's a few of the ones I like best from the pics I found. The first pic is my favourite, it might just be the photography but it looks great with very few colours. Hope this helps a bit, cheers!

http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics16/img5332a9643f085.jpg
http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics16/img53ee218124736.jpg
https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/l/t31.0-8/1519489_573803986030898_833522302_o.jpg
http://www.spikeybits.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_9416-copy.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X7w0q5OTMZI/Vm9gDnA1myI/AAAAAAAAEjE/ZYtj4q89P3Y/s1600/Ravenwing%2BDarkshroud%2Blandspeeder%2Bb.jpg

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t31.0-8/12977228_971059409638685_357105542358795720_o.jpg

https://www.pinterest.com/markrayner500/bike-armies/





 

[GrandMagnus]

OK, more great suggestions. In truth I don't care so much what other people think when they see the mini, I care more about my own opinion because more than once that has made me stop a project in it's tracks. Also I like to try and get a high quality when I paint.

 

But now that we have talked about the armour itself there is another problem and that's making details stand out adequately so they dont 'disrupt' the model. For example, what do you do about the soft armour? Paint it black (which is my personal favorite on all power armour), grey, metallic? What about other colours such as shoulder trims and metallics, I've found that when I experiment with black the trims and other colours tend to be much lighter than the armour itself and so makes the black kind of invicible, in the sense that people focus more on the other colours. (Not sure I'm making sense here...? :P)

 

- Strenght 10: Thanks for sharing those images.

[Kizzdougs]

Weathering can be great for adding some character/depth to black armour. When I painted my Raven Guard legionnaire I replied on weathering powders and sponging to achieve the look I was after. For a cleaner 'black' fine highlights can be good.

 

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/kizzdougs/DSCN4298_zpsqrdloj0x.jpg

 

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/kizzdougs/DSCN4246_zpsgmn4dnli.jpg

[Interrogator Stobz]

I too use light grey edge highlighting then a metalic super light drybrush to weather the black. I start with a black wash to flatten the hell out of the paint first (Nuln oil is fine), then bring it back to life with varieties of grey/metals.

Biker:

It's not the most interesting black but the other colours are there to bring the mini up and make it eye catching.

Vehicle:

Another really valid technique is to start from the H/L grey and add progressively more dark grey or black (paint or washes) and other stains to darken up the lower bits. I don't do that because I started with a normal method and I'm not changing now

Stobz

EDIT: I take it all back, go and look at HooYs' Deathwatch project in Hall of Honour..... go man, GO!

[Xenith]

Do not just go with flat black undercoat and call it a day.

 

The Chaos black undercoat is very flat, so go over it with Abaddon black to get a deeper more glossy black.

 

Decide to highlight with greys, or maybe even blues.

 

Edge highlight everything so it doesnt just look like a mass of black.

[Arkaniss]

I can't remember the new paint name but Charadon Granite (ugh now I'm not 100% sure this is even the right name for the old paint!) was my go-to for Death company. It's dark enough without being black so it still allows you Black paint for things like soft armour and for there to be a noticeable difference.

[GrandMagnus]

Kizz and Stobz, your black templar and land speeder (respectively) are how I'm imagining the black for the Consuls marines. Good examples. Kizz, the chaplain is abaddon black base coat I imagine, but what highlights did you use?

 

Arkaniss are you saying to use the charadon granite for the soft armour, or to use it on the power armour and then darken it with black washes? 

[infyrana]

But now that we have talked about the armour itself there is another problem and that's making details stand out adequately so they dont 'disrupt' the model. For example, what do you do about the soft armour?

 

You could distinguish between hard plates and soft shell armour with metallics and grays.  I would be inclined to use a soft dark shade of gray with minimal gray highlights on the soft armour under the plates and between the vambraces / back of knee.  Then for the hard plates I'd look at using the metallic approach making it shine and contrast more obviously.  It'd be pointless me quoting colour names since I use a lot of OOP stuff still.

 

Just my two pennies worth.

[Kizzdougs]

Kizz, the chaplain is abaddon black base coat I imagine, but what highlights did you use?

I used Mechanicus Standard Grey for the highlights on the Black Templar. The first highlight was a mix of Abaddon Black and Mech Standard Grey and the second highlight was pure Mech Standard Grey. The most important thing is to keep the highlights really fine.

[Aqui]

All good ideas for my Valorous Heart Sisters!

[Arkaniss]

GrandMagnus I meant use Charadon Granite (new paint is called Stormvermin Fur) instead of black for the armour. I recommend a Nuln Oil wash afterwards for sure. Save actual black for soft armour/guns/etc...

[WarriorFish]

Charadon Granite is great. I've used it in two ways:

 

1) paint it as the base coat and build up layers of black wash. Lets you control how black you want it as well as giving a good shade.

 

2) prime black and build up dry brushes of Charadon Granite - this was my original method and I reckon could be improved upon with the new washes, so a black wash on top might give it a dark appearance while avoiding the void of "true" black.

 

I've found both of these methods effective and reliable at achieving a nice black without too much effort :)

[GrandMagnus]

Arkaniss, thanks for replying. I'll save that as a note and give it a try. I reckon Dark Reaper could be used as well for a blue-black tone, so I'll try that aswell.

 

Warriorfish, thanks for the suggestions.

 

So far I have gotten far more answers than I would have thought :D So thanks to all of you for replying.

[Zujara]

For my Raven Guard, I do an Abaddon Black basecoat, highlight with Eshin Grey and then highlight corners/higher edges with Dawnstone

 

http://i1006.photobucket.com/albums/af182/Zujara/Raven%20Guard/chargersupport_zpsyou3vtmd.jpg

[abadizzle]

I always do an abaddon black basecoat- then a wide edge highlight of dark reaper- followed by a thin edge highlight of fenrisian grey... Looks pretty electric for armor plates! Softer black (cloth, etc) can be done w a blend of abaddon black, eshin grey (or dark reaper) and dawnstone. Try those out!