How to paint this black?

[Valkyrion]

 

 

Any suggestions that don't involve airbrushing (not that I know if this was airbrushed or not) to achieve this grey-coal-dusty-black effect?

 

https://www.goonhammer.com/hammer-of-math-in-which-we-mathematically-prove-the-repulsor-executioner-sucks/ 

Edited October 25, 2022 by Valkyrion

[Majkhel]

Check out stippling with large brushes (Artis Opus YT channel for example to get an idea of the technique). You can do that with cosmetic brushes or Army Painter Drybrush set brushes or Artis Opus brushes. It can give effects similar to airbrush when done right with the extra effect of uneven surface - perfect for armored vehicles.

 

As for the colors - you can start from black or like in the example above - from a dark grey (like Vallejo Model Color German Grey). And progressively add tiny amounts of white for the dusty effects. In any recesses or darkest corners you can use pure black.

 

EDIT: I have been successfully using this technique on my Blood Angels - mostly with red, but here also with a bit of black (just note, I'm adding a hint of blue to the mix to make highlights crisper and a bit of magenta to the shadows to make the  deeper)

 

This style also works reeeeally well once you start adding any kind of battle damage

Edited October 25, 2022 by Majkhel

[Sword Brother Adelard]

There are a few Goonhammer pages on this army, but none seem to refer to the black, just focussing on the yellow. Maybe comment on the page itself?

Army Showcase: Jack’s Imperial Fists | Goonhammer
How to Paint Everything: Fists of Fury, Part 1 – Imperial Fists | Goonhammer

[Firedrake Cordova]

It looks like a combination of airbrush (the bit around the aquilla), and sponge (for the battle damage), although I could be wrong.

 

Artis Opus has a video on painting a Rhino with their Series D brushes (realistically, any similarly large brush will do), which might be helpful:

They've also got another video, demonstrating a more pronounced effect.

 

With regard to colours, it's looks like they started with a dark (charcoalish) grey, and worked up from there? Vallejo do a few greys in their Model Colour and Game Colour ranges - I'd imagine an mix of Heavy Charcoal and Cold Grey as the base, and then Cold Grey and Stone Grey highlights might get close?

[Xenith]

I'd start with corvus black (actually dark grey) then drybrush heavily with eshin grey and then dawnstone. I go darker on my tanks, Abaddon black and eshin drybrush, but Be'Lakor is maybe closer?

 

[Valkyrion]

Thanks guys.

Looking at the Imperial Fists tank above, and again without an airbrush, would you prime black, start with the black and then sort the yellow out, or prime white, sort the yellow out and then work on the black?

[Cleon]

Personally my view is the yellow is more delicate, prime for how you do that.

Personally I prime nearly everything black these days and the yellow plates on my knights use the covering power of Vallejo Japanese uniform to get a base colour I can then work on top of.

 

If you don't mind leaving the GW ecosystem, Vallejos Blacks and dark greys (Black grey I just love) would give you more options in the near black space.

[jaxom]

6 hours ago, Xenith said:

I'd start with corvus black (actually dark grey) then drybrush heavily with eshin grey and then dawnstone. I go darker on my tanks, Abaddon black and eshin drybrush, but Be'Lakor is maybe closer?

 

The nice thing about this technique is that, if you think the dry brushing ended up too light, you can then bring it all down and tie it together with a coat of diluted Black Templar contrast paint or Nuln Oil.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Traditionally, painting yellow over any dark colour is a pain in the proverbial (although I believe Averland Sunset is supposed to have relatively good coverage), so I think I'd prime with a white or ivory spray, block in the black, fix up any mistakes with white, and then do the yellow, if I were painting it by brush.

 

Having said that, I think I'd be investigating Army Painter's yellow sprays and either spray the entire thing yellow and then block in the other colours, or use Tamiya masking tape to allow the majority of the model to be covered using sprays (painting a tank by brush "takes a while").

 

Disclaimer: I've not used the Army Painter spray cans - I just know GW doesn't do one, and theirs are reasonably available.

Edited October 25, 2022 by Firedrake Cordova

[Valkyrion]

My Imperial Fist tank recipe is just White Scar spray then two coats of Imperial Fist contrast, a drybrush of Dorn Yellow and flesh shade in the gaps. Provided you stroke the brush in the same direction where possible then you eliminate the blotchiness normally associated with contrast and wash heavy paints.

I did a Xiphon, Sabre, Arquitor and Spartan from white to yellow during a sunday afternoon watching football on tv.

 

They look fine, and once I finished the metals and a few blue lights and black icons they were passably complete, but didn't look anything more than the yellow bricks that they were. So I'll try and break up some sections of it with the black shown above and see how I get on. 

[NovemberIX]

I've done a lot of Yellow and Black units, my solution for tanks was prime white (usually using Duplicolor Sandable White primer) mask off where the yellow as gonna go with light tack painters tape and then spray black (again, Duplicolor Sandable). I usually go for a stark hard black, but for the shade of black you're going for, I might use a grey primer as the base and work down to the darkness.  Honestly though, the way Honda used to do his BT is probably the closest analogue in my eyes.

From his thread on Airbrushing Templars:

 

On 3/27/2019 at 7:11 PM, Honda said:

Well, I just do base coats and zenithal highlights.

 

I use Vallejo Model Color line.

 

So:

 

1. Primer flat black

2. VMC Black Grey all over

3. 50/50 VMC Black Grey/German Grey zenithal highlight from upper right

4. VMC German Grey zenithal highlight from upper right

5. 50/50 VMC Light Grey/German Grey zenithal highlight from upper right

6. 75/25 of Light Grey/German Grey light spot from upper right

 

When I'm finished  with  the other base colors, then I go in with Army Painter Strong and Dark tones into the recesses.

 

I also glue my shoulder pads on before painting because I really dislike post painting construction.