Sy's Night Lords Painting - Need help!

[SyNidus]

Hi guys!

I've been painting my Night Lords the model's following Richard Gray's youtube guide. So far i'm pretty happy with the results, but i feel like the highlights are a little blotchy.

 

I used the following for my blue:

Night Lords Blue

Kantor Blue

Caledor Sky
Calgar blue (highlight)

This is where I want to ask for some hobby help. In the Richard Gray video, he blends them all together using mineral spirits. Even in Ninjon's video he uses enamel paints. I don't really want to use either but I want to blend the blues so that they don't appear so blotchy.

Should I give the models a wash of Drakenhof nightshade? Would this work to really make the colours blend better?

 

 

 

 

 

[OttoVonAwesome]

His style is actually a little tough to replicate. I can say drakenhof nightshade won't help much but a contrast wash or oil wash would be a good next step and then after that building back the highlights with more stipiling. Something close to black like a very dark blue.

[SyNidus]

6 hours ago, OttoVonAwesome said:

His style is actually a little tough to replicate. I can say drakenhof nightshade won't help much but a contrast wash or oil wash would be a good next step and then after that building back the highlights with more stipiling. Something close to black like a very dark blue.

When you say a contrast wash, do you mean washing the models with contrast medium? If that leaves a glossy finish, would i be able to fix that by spraying with matte varnish?

[Firedrake Cordova]

If you're unhappy because the highlight shades seem to be "too far apart" causing the graduations to be visible/obvious, then applying an all-over glaze/filter over the area to tie the colours together can work - in essence you're lightly staining the area with the glaze colour, so if you glaze with the mid-tone you used, you'll dull the highlights slightly and bring the shadows up slightly. Vince Venturella has a good video on this.

 

4 hours ago, SyNidus said:

If that leaves a glossy finish, would i be able to fix that by spraying with matte varnish?

Yup. Darren Latham used to paint over his models with Lahmian Medium (matte varnish) to tie the different finishes together.

[OttoVonAwesome]

On 3/12/2023 at 3:46 AM, SyNidus said:

When you say a contrast wash, do you mean washing the models with contrast medium? If that leaves a glossy finish, would i be able to fix that by spraying with matte varnish?

Yeah its when you use contrast paint slop it all over and the remove it from raised areas with contrast medium like an oil wash but much faster and yeah varnish will kill any glossy shine. I'm really getting into contrast washes myself I believe Richard Grey uses it in his Blood Angels and one of his Imperial fists tutorials.