Painting black without the hassle of painting over black!

[Kastor Krieg]

I tried priming black and edge highlighting. It bored the life out of me.

I tried priming black and stippling - I liked the results on the armour, but it still would need some edge highlights. Pass.

 

What's worse, both of them forced me to build white shoulderpads from black. Or layer greys. Or airbrush white and clean up. Ugh.

 

Then I decided to put everything on its head. And I love the results. Yes, it's not black-black. But I find it awesome how detail comes across and that with minimal effort the robes and pads are still white.

 

The trick is priming black, airbrushing a broad zenithal with white, then slopping on Vallejo Xpress Color "Black Lotus" (it's a tad brighter and a bit closer to Incubi Darkness than Black Templar, also you can work with Xpress Colors a bit longer and their medium works well on marine armour surfaces). If you prefer the darker look of the EC / TDA Chaplain, they got a layer of the new Nuln Oil (it's a bit clearer and less stainy than the classic one). Do that for all armour and metal surfaces, get metal on them, get other colors on, whammo.

Easy way to get black with definition :)

 

 

 

[Kastor Krieg]

Seems like it transfers to painting vehicles as well. Airbrushed a bit of white shading onto black primer and then gently airbrushed the same Xpress Black Lotus color, to evenly cover, leaving hihglights and pushing shadows where necessary.

I think I'll do some edge highlights on the armour panels to push separation, but more in the vein of metallic silver wear and tear shining through than brighter color. I actually might do a bit of that as well with the PA armour, I'll do some testing :)

Easiest "black" ever, gotta say :D

[Brother Carpenter]

Nice. I got nice results with heavy drybrush of grey over black and then colour up to black again with agrax and nuln oil. 

Also insta grimdark. Just as you models do.

In youtube are lots of tutorials on painting black and grimdark painting/ blanchitsu.

Pads i nowadays do brown then stiple to white highlights.

 

I do not have a airbrush so its brushwork all the way.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Brother Carpenter