Non-reflective blades

[golfdeltafoxtrot]

I want my Raven Guard to carry non-shiny blades - I’m going for a stealthy aesthetic that very shiny knives don’t really fit. As such I’m planning to paint their combat blades in a dark non-reflective style but I’m not sure how best to go about it.

 

I’m pondering a dark grey/black ceramic-like effect, but I’m not sure how best to go about it. I’m also concerned it might look too samey alongside Raven Guard armour.

 

Any tips on achieving a cool black/dark blade effect?

Edited March 18, 2018 by golfdeltafoxtrot

[Laughingman]

Maybe use ghost tint/transparent paint over a metallic base to create a super dark interesting color blade

[Major_Gilbear]

Paint the blade with your metals as normal. Then give the blade a couple of thin coats of Lahmian Medium. This will matte the metal finish down as if the metal blade had been satinised to reduce reflections. 

 

I think it looks better if you enhance the dark-to-light metals first, because then you still have a more dramatic eye-catching effect after you matte the blade. To do this, simply add a little dark grey paint to the darkest metals to both darken and dull them, and then highlight up to the brightest silver by adding more metallic paint to the base mix as you would normally, before finishing with a line of pure brightest silver on the very sharpest parts. Once it's received the matte, you'll see a nice interplay between the darker areas (which will be less metallic) and the brightest points (which will be lighter and still metallic, but not shiny).

[Imren]

if you want it to be realistic real-life stealthy, then paint the blade in matt black (Tamiya flat back, or any other matt black, don't use Abaddon black). Then you paint the tapered sharpenede edge with either gungrey/boltgun or a steel colour which represent the sharpened blade edge.

[Ciler]

Alternatively, you could paint your blades in a bone/cream colour to indicate a ceramic blade.

[Claws and Effect]

if you want it to be realistic real-life stealthy, then paint the blade in matt black (Tamiya flat back, or any other matt black, don't use Abaddon black). Then you paint the tapered sharpenede edge with either gungrey/boltgun or a steel colour which represent the sharpened blade edge.

That's usually what I do. And I tend to just barely edge highlight the sharpened part.

[Razblood]

Base the blade metal as normal then layer on nuln oil till you're satisfied.

[Semper Fortis]

I saw an IG Catachan army once that used a dark camo on blades, black and OD green in a pattern similar to US Vietnam era tiger stripe camo. The green was just light enough that you could tell the camo was there. If you just looked at the blade, it was pretty meh. But with a squad, it was quite obvious that they were in stealth mode. It looked cool. Maybe you can get the same effect with a moderately dark and a medium gray.

[DreamIsCollapsing]

Or you could just paint the blade black and do a NMM with layers grey. 

[Bryan Blaire]

Or you could just paint the blade black and do a NMM with layers grey.

That seems like it would give the impression of too much shine.

 

A matte black on most of the blade with a graphite black or dull silver metallic edge would probably look best for the effect you are trying to get and would most closely match a purposefully non-reflective blade. If you wanted to indicate some current use, you could put some silver spots of wear and scratches on the edge and closest portions of the flat (if it has one).

[Xenith]

Just paint it black.

[golfdeltafoxtrot]

Thanks for all the suggestions Fraters.

 

Given that I’m just starting to paint again after 15 years away from the hobby, and that I wasn’t a good painter to start with, I think I’ll try the matt black with dull metallic highlights approach.