Warp touched black legion look

[Guest]

So been trying to figure how to paint my black legion different from SoB and BT. I want it to have the black to "be off" and have a purple or blue kinda show through on the flatter or larger areas. I know acrylic paint is slightly translucent and priming can show through. So would airbrush priming a light blue or purple, and then air brush black over it, give it a "warp touched" look? Just trying to make something still Black Legion, but also unique to loyalists.

[Closet Skeleton]

Good blacks don't tend to be very transparent so I'm dubious but I know nothing about airbrushing so can only recommend you experiment.

 

I use a blue ink wash over black for my Black Legion and they get mistaken for Night Lords sometimes so its risky. Highlighting blacks with other tints does work and should be looked into.

[Xenith]

As per Closet, I think painting dark grey than glazing over with the colour of your choice would work better than putting black over another colour. Some of the contrasts have a satin finish, so if you did like warpstone green or whatever over black, you'll have a semi-shiny green tint. You'll really have to experiment to see what you like!

[Ranulf]

Colourshift paints might be worth looking into if you can find one with a black starting point.

 

The only issue (to my mind at least) is once you move away from basic black, you move away from the established identity of the Legion.

 

My take would be to go with a standard black and then maybe edge highlight / zenithal highlight with Incubi Darkness (with its green tones, rather than grey or blue-grey tones) and follow it up from there. Then put the effort into making the bling (gold/brass trim) stand out.

 

-Ran

[Guest]

thanks everyone, I am just trying to make them different from SoB/BT and BL.  I might just have to find a ink/wash that is dark enough not to overtake the black.

[Marshal Loss]

I'd do something like this, substituting the green contrast in the end mix with a purple one.

[Rik Lightstar]

I think you'd get a better outcome by using a very dark purple/black as your base coat. Use actual black only for the recesses and then highlight up with some brighter purple on the edges.

 

Rik

[Firedrake Cordova]

As Rik Lightstar suggests, I'd mix in purple with your base coat, and also look at mixing in a very light purple (Daemonette Hide?) with your highlight to shift the tone.

 

Or I suppose you could try painting it normally, and glazing over the whole model with a purple ink..? (Daler Rowney FW Purple Lake might be an interesting one to try, although it will need to be heavily thinned)

[jaxom]

Here's an idea to experiment with: a gloss black undercoat and then a thin glaze of purple or blue. I don't know if it would actually work, but in my head the gloss shine would be tinted by the color. 

[Rik Lightstar]

For the idea of a glaze or filter I think you'll struggle over black for it to be very noticeable, to the point that it may not be worth doing at all. By all means experiment and I'd be happy to be wrong about it.

 

if you're committed to this approach then I think you'd need to do some highlighting work in greys, blues, pinks or purples and then mix a very pigment intense ink or wash with a corresponding gloss varnish (so acrylic) for it to mix well and then apply that evenly so the varnish has a tint to it when the light catches it.

 

I genuinely think this would end up being more work for a less impressive result and is essentially just applying a pre-shade and then filter as you would to airbrush some projects.

 

Rik

[Evil Eye]

TurboDork do a paint called "Dark Net" which is a really cool black colour-shift metallic paint. You could probably get some good results with that- it works best by airbrush, but is hand-paintable too.

 

Otherwise, I'd suggest basecoating a very dark grey/off-black, shading with a wash of blue or maybe purple, and giving some very subtle highlights with blue or purple, just slight hints towards the edge of panels.

[Firedrake Cordova]

For the idea of a glaze or filter I think you'll struggle over black for it to be very noticeable ... I'd be happy to be wrong about it.

I just tried putting Purple Lake (FW) over Vallejo black Surface Primer as a proxy, and you're not wrong - it's very subtle. That said, the approach would more be for shifting the mids & highlights whilst also applying a slight unifying tint to the shadows, but it does rather assume you're painting black like Vince, or Darren Latham's Dark Angels.

Edited March 23, 2021 by Firedrake Cordova