Shiny black power armour?

[Emperor's Furor]

What's the best way to go about doing shiny black power armour?I want to do some pre heresy Dark Angels and I was thinking of spray them black, doing a normal layer of black, then perhaps a layer of Imperial Primer? or is there a better way, like through washes or glosses?

[Jarl of Wulfen]

GW just put out the glossy Nuln oil wash. I haven't used it, but it might help.

[Guiltysparc]

I have used the glossy nuln oil on a couple metalics and its definitely glossy.  it looks good in that applications, you could definitely try it over a black model and see what the effect is.  I can't say how much gloss it has on its own since i've only put it over metallics. 

[N1SB]

Hi Brother, I feel very self-conscious posting because I'm probably not the best painter, but it's also exactly why I looked for alternate techniques.

 

I actually use a Japanese brand, Tamiya, for their metallic spray.  Specifically, Metallic Black TS-40.  My usage was for my 30k Iron Hands.

 

The difference is all the glosses I've tried IMHO look exactly like that, like a gloss.  Metallic Black looks like black metal IMHO.

 

These pictures suck worse than even my paint jobs, because it's hard to capture on photo, but I really want to illustrate the effect:

 

http://oi67.tinypic.com/mvou0w.jpg

 

 

But here, this is a better example, comparing the Metallic Black with a Matt Black, side-by-side:

 

 

http://oi63.tinypic.com/2ls8s2w.jpg

 

 

The Boxnaught is Matt Black.  The Contemptor (my Cortus kitbash to show how the Iron Hands were having to juryrig stuff after Istvaan V) is Metallic Black.  There -is- a little drybrushing of silver on the edges, but it works for it because the Metallic Black looks like there's some silver mixed in.

 

The texture of this Tamiya Metallic Black TS-40 doesn't look like a gloss, but it's hard to describe.  It's like a dark graphite material, quite reflective.

 

The other trick I used was, just to offset against that very metallic look, I would deliberately find something on the miniature to prominently paint a matt acrylic colour, such as the white deathshead designs on their Mark III faceplates.

 

Because Tamiya Metallic Black TS-40 is a spray, to fix something if my hand slips while painting another colour, I would mix just a normal black paint with the Metallic Medium paint (something designed to mix for a metallic shade of any colour) to cover it up.  In my case, it's Vallejo brand Metallic Medium, it looks like a shiny white paint like fancy liquid soap.  Not all colours work well with Metallic Medium, but it happens it works really well with black mixed in.

 

To review, I happen to use for my 30k Iron Hands:

 

- Tamiya Metallic Black TS-40 spray as basecoat

- Metal Medium (in my case, Vallejo's) mixed with my normal black paint for fixing stuff

- then design-wise, incorporate some matt acrylic elements prominently to contrast with the metal

 

Just my personal approach, and I share this because I really wanted to try this with 30k Dark Angels.  Like take the Dark Vengeance marines, Metallic Black as the base, then offset with matt red for their Legion symbols and their guns, I thought it'd look really good.  I just happened to have chosen Iron Hands as my Legion.

[Lucio]

Spray black, drybrush grey, wash in the new Nuln Oil Gloss, then apply 'Ard Coat.

If you want to twist the spectrum a little, drybrush in a dark blue, wash in Drakenhoff and then apply the 'Ard Coat, it'll pick up the blue colour and give it a bit more depth than you'd get from a flat black.

[Khornestar]

Would love to see pictures of the new glossy Nuln Oil on top of a black basecoat. If anyone can make that happen, I'd be very grateful.

[Emperor's Furor]

Would love to see pictures of the new glossy Nuln Oil on top of a black basecoat. If anyone can make that happen, I'd be very grateful.

As soon as I get hold of some and the shoulder pads for my marines I'll deliver some pictures :)