Final highlight: Bright Orange vs. Dark Flesh

[appiah4]

Which do you think is the better accent highlight to Blood Angels Red? Which do you use? Post pictures of your accomplishments to prove your points.

Why? Because I'm returning to painting and my current painting methods take too long, so I'm streamlining some things; while I'm at it I may reconsider this step as well. Personally, I used to highlight with Bright Orange, because that's how the 'Eavy Metal studio used to do it circa 2e, and we all know Blood Red is orange..

But times are a changing and Bronzed Flesh seems to be in fashion, and I was wondering if it would net me more muted and more realistic highlights to complement my dark reds better..

[Blindhamster]

The eavy metal primaris use mephiston/evil sunz for base colour (specifically called out as a mix) and have a final highlight of tau ochre apparently.

[keeblerartillery]

Amarantha red for me. It's a red-orange

[Closet Skeleton]

I use white for the final highlight, but on top of bronzed flesh (as I still have a pot) which goes on top of orange. Going straight from red to flesh can look wrong.

Lugganath Orange is the paint made specifically for this and looks a lot like bronzed flesh. Bronzed flesh is technically a 'pale orange' anyway.

2nd ed studio blood angels look highlighted with bronzed flesh to me, so I think you're mistaken there. Early Third edition painting guides made that explicit.

I release this isn't helpful an image but honestly. I did use bronzed flesh and blazing orange on the edge highlighting for this model. Its just the glaze that makes the transitions hard to see.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Closet Skeleton

[Xenith]

What's your base colour?

I used to do mechrite base, blood red base, thraka green shade, blazing orange highlight, vomit brown

 

Now I do mephiston red base, agrax shade, evil suns broad edge highlight, wild rider red, fire dragon bright, ungor flesh.

 

A quick method with modern issue paints is to stop after evil suns above.

[appiah4]

I don't use GW paints but the craft paint colors I use are fairly equivalent to a method like the following:

 

Grey Primer

Evil Sunz Scarlet basecoat

Flesh Wash

Red Wash

Evil Suns broad highlight

Wildrider Red highlight

Trol Slayer Orange

 

Now, the use of washes is what I want to eliminate, as they not only give me a less than desirably smooth finish even though the color is fairly rich and deep.

 

I'm considering moving to Vallejo paints and doing the following:

 

Grey Primer

Heavy Red (Mephiston Red) basecoat

Strong Tone Ink (Agrax Earthshade) recess Wash

Bloody Red (Evil Suns Scarlet) broad highlight

Hot Orange (Troll Slayer Orange) highlight

 

I can't decide on the final highlight to be honest, either Orange Fire (Fire Dragon Bright) or Bronze Fleshtone (Ungor Flesh)..  This thread was supposed to help me decide but now I'm just interested in reading how others paint once again :)

[Xenith]

A big change for me was swapping an all over "wash" for a recess shade, using a fine brush. This doesn't interfere with the base colour and looks better, in my opinion.

 

Maybe skip the second red wash you do and only do a single recess shade with agrax or army painter mid tone.

[Brother_Mike]

I only do one highlight tbh. I really enjoy the solid red color you can get from mephiston red that is properly shaded and highlighted once. The follow is what I do:

1. Base: Mephiston Red
2. Shade: Agrax Earthshade (over all red areas)
3. Layer1: Mephiston Red, avoiding creaves and other areas shadows would be
4. Highlight 1: Evil Sunz Scarlet on all raised edges

It's on the simpler side, but I really enjoy the result.

[Blindhamster]

So I had the pleasure of Eavy Metal painter David Perryman responding to my query on how to achieve the eavy metal BA look.

base with a few thin coats of 50:50 Mephiston Red/Evil Sunz Scarlet
Shade with a 50:50 mix of abaddon black/khorne red
highlight with pure Evil sunz
highlight with pure trollslayer orange

highlight with firedragon bright

highlight with tau sept ochre

he also does spot highlights mixing some white into that last one.

Key thing is for highlights to be sharp and clean.