How do you paint your Grey Knights?

[Helias_Tancred]

Hail Brothers. New GK collector/player here. 

 

Up front as per the GW Colour app, in their GK recipe they use Stormhost Silver as their final highlight. Nowhere in their recipe do they use Grey Knights Steel? Do any of you use it in lieu of Stormhost Silver? IME it seems Stormhost Silver would be too bright for us? Maybe as an edge on some weapons, etc?

 

Also our gold. As per the GW Colour app recipe they have Auric Gold as a layer, and Liberator Gold as the final highlight. As with Stormhost Silver, that seems like to much of a bright gold look that is more suited to BA Sanguinary Guard, or similar? In the artwork our gold always appears darker and more subdued. I'm currently using Balthasar Gold as the gold base, then I'll shade with Reikland Flesh, then my final layer/highlight will be Retirbutor Armor Gold. So it stays closer to how our gold usually appeared in artwork?

 

Looking for your experience, recipe and thoughts. Thanks :)

 

 

[Helias_Tancred]

Actually I will probably shade our gold with Agrax so it gets that nice dark look around the lettering. Then go over it with Retributor Armour. 

 

 

[Holier Than Thou]

I haven't really used GW paints for ages, other than washes. For my Grey Knights I have primed with Vallejo black, then did Vallejo Model Air Gunmetal all over, then a zenithal highlight of Model Air Chainmail Silver then a top down highlight of Model Air Silver. For the gold I use Army Painter Greedy Gold and everything gets a wash of Nuln Oil.

 

It's quick and pretty effective, not as bright and shiny as the GW style. I'll try and dig out a photo.

[WAR]

 

 

Here is my methods

[Holier Than Thou]

I managed to grab a couple of quick shots of my Grand Master.

 

[Helias_Tancred]

I finally got nearly all of my new Grey Knight collection (3700 points) all primed with Mechanicus Standard Grey spray, and base coated with Leadbelcher spray (IMO two of the very best GW sprays IMO for simply working well under most temp conditions). I was testing out the base paint Grey Knights Steel, and ... it doesn't really look right on us! Now of course I was just highlighting with it. Maybe if I used it as more of a base, tossed some shade on it, then went over it with a brighter silver it would work? But as of right now, what is Grey Knights Steel used for? It's odd that it's named after us, but found nowhere in GW's scheme for us.

 

 

[Cleon]

I use grey knight steel as part of my Nemesis blade recipe, but otherwise don't use it.

[OverchargeThis!]

I used it to paint my GK army. It's a very good color, but it could have used some highlighting. I used an old bottle of 10-year-old blue wonder wash (no longer in business) for the wash. The GW drakenhof nightshade wash is just as good. Going forward, I would drybrush over the top upper surfaces with a brighter silver after the wash dries just to make it pop and suggest a light source.

[nusphigor]

Hi mate
I may be a bit late on the response here but I paint my grey knights as follows:
- Grey Knights steel basecoat (it's irrelevant if on top of black or white primer, I just do a nice solid coat on all the mini)
- an overall wash of that old blue glaze guilliman blue. if you don't have it, a thinned down talassar blue contrast works nice.

- a quick not so dry-brush of grey knights steel only on the most raised areas

- the same but with stormhost silver

for the golds I do this:
- retributor armour basecoat (a solid one)

- druchii violet shade an all the gold areas

- retributor armour highlight carefully

- then stormhost silver hard edge highlight
That gives you a rich, warm gold that contrasts nicely with the cold steel of the armour. If you are doing leather on the minis also use the violet shade on them as it helps balance the temperature. The reds also benefit nicely.

Other than that also remember that some metallic parts of the minis might benefit of using a basecoat of leadbelcher or even iron warriors instead of the grey knights steel, and also with a nuln oil shade instead of the guilliman blue/talassar wash (mainly the guns and the backpack vents). This helps creating contrasts between different materials and overall make the simple scheme of the Grey knights a bit more interesting.

 

Cheers mate. I hope this works