Help a noob with shading

[Guest]

I'm working on my very first model, a Wraithblade, and I just applied a coat of Drakenhof Nightshade that has turned out blotchy and smudgy. Can anyone give me some tips to get better results on the other 4 in the box? Pics attached, first is the model before applying the shade and the other two are after. I don't have a decent camera so apologies if it's not really clear what I'm talking about.

 

The paint underneath the shade is a dark blue from the Mr Hobby Aqueous Color range. I'm in Japan and it's incredibly humid here, so I'm also wondering if that might affect the shade paint. It certainly affected the primer spray - you can see a patch on the left hip plate that just sort of sloughed off after I sprayed it, although I could have just sprayed it too thick.

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Xenith]

Sorry to see this has happened - one thing to note is that 'shades' are not 'washes', and you'll have better results by painting them with a fine brush directly into the recesses r around the details you want to add a shade to. I find they go blotchy when you wash them on, all over the model, and it's where the paint sits on flat surfaces. Luckily you can fix it by just painting back over it with your base paint to tidy it up, leaving the shade in the recesses. 

Edited August 22, 2023 by Xenith

[Guest]

45 minutes ago, Xenith said:

one thing to note is that 'shades' are not 'washes', and you'll have better results by painting them with a fine brush directly into the recesses r around the details you want to add a shade to.

Hey, thanks for the advice! I watched an old Citadel tutorial vid first where the guy applied a shade paint liberally over a whole model, but it was a Bloodletter so it had a lot more texture. What areas would you recommend shading on a Wraithblade? They're mostly smooth surfaces. I used Black Templar contrast paint for many of the more detailed parts, including the wraithbone-stick-thingy on its back, the flexible-looking joints in the inside elbows, knees, and lower torso, and the two oval-shaped vent-like things. Would the shade work on the little raised bumps on the armour plates? If so, should I just apply a very small amount around each one?

[Xenith]

Good observation - yes, with very textured and organic stuff like the bloodletter, tyranids or fabric, you can just slop the shade on and it will pool in the recesses. If you think of the paint as pigment floating in a carrier medium, a regular paint has loads of pigment, chock full of it, so when it goes on, it goes on equally. The shade has much less pigment so when you apply it,it will naturally have areas with more pigment and some with less pigment. normall on texture, or under gravity, the heavier pigment will sink into the recesses, however on a flat armour plate there's nowhere to go, so it just sits there on top.  Hope that makes sense!

 

The earlier videos also apply a wash all over the model, but then go back to tidy up the raised or flat areas with the base colour. This is one valid way of doing things, and  requires less precision. The other way is to only apply the shade to the recesses, or changes in texture, and then there's no need to go back over with the base colour.

 

In your example, I'd go all around the outside of those oval nubs with the shade. The other way would be to coat the whole thing, then apply a dab of your base colour to the top of the oval, almost like treating this small area as you would a whole model. 

 

I've painted some wraithguard recently with contrast paints, maybe this will help show were can be shaded:

 

Also, nice work on the white stripe on the shield and the white on the head, it can be hard to get such a clean looking neat white! 

[Guest]

Thanks so much for the tips! I'll go over the blotches with my base and see if I can neaten it up a bit, then try your tip about a dab of base on the tip of each oval.

11 minutes ago, Xenith said:

Also, nice work on the white stripe on the shield and the white on the head, it can be hard to get such a clean looking neat white! 

 

Thanks for the compliment, but the shield stripe's actually just Stormhost Silver, so I can't take the credit for that one lol. I do like how the white paint I used for the head worked out though, it's Mr Hobby Off-White Semi-Gloss and I think it looks suitably wraithbone-y for minimal effort. Your ghosty boys are looking fantastic by the way!

Edited August 22, 2023 by Lucius_The_Temporary

[Halandaar]

As @Xenith has said already, shade paints do tend to be blotchy when they're applied liberally to flat or smooth surfaces. That said because I don't have the patience for carefully shading recesses individually, when I painted my own Wraithblades I did just slop it all over the basecoat, but then layered back up on the higher areas leaving the shade showing primarily in the recesses. 

 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Halandaar said:

 I did just slop it all over the basecoat, but then layered back up on the higher areas

 

 

It's good to know that's an option, and the one I'll almost certainly go for. Those look great by the way, love the colour scheme!

[Firedrake Cordova]

That's not a bad attempt for a first painted mini - better than mine  

 

56 minutes ago, Lucius_The_Temporary said:

I watched an old Citadel tutorial vid first where the guy applied a shade paint liberally over a whole model,

One thing to bear in mind watching the older videos is that the Citadel Shades were reformulated recently (last year, I think) so they use the same medium as Contrast Paints - this means that they tend to flow into the recesses more, but it also means that they should be thinned with Contrast Medium instead of Lahmian Medium. You can tell the difference between the new and old ones by the size of the pot - the old ones are in a 24ml pot, and the new ones are in an 18ml pot (the same as the Contrast paints).

 

I've not used the new Shades yet, but I have used Contrast paints as washes (heavily thinned down) but as they're based on Contrast Medium, I'm guessing they'll behave in a similar manner. Warhipster has a video on using Contrast paints over flat surfaces (such as Space Marines), and Juan Hidalgo has one on painting a Wraithguard with Contrast paints - I don't know if either of them are any help?

Edited August 22, 2023 by Firedrake Cordova

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

That's not a bad attempt for a first painted mini - better than mine

Hey, thank you for saying so! The poor focus and low resolution of the photos are doing me no shortage of favours, I swear.

 

6 minutes ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

they should be thinned with Contrast Medium instead of Lahmian Medium

Oops - I used it straight out of the pot. Guess I'd better pick up some medium...

 

Thanks for the tips and compliments! I'll check out those vids when I get home, too.

[Xenith]

9 minutes ago, Lucius_The_Temporary said:

Oops - I used it straight out of the pot. Guess I'd better pick up some medium...

 

 

Note that you don't have to thin the shades, just that if you do choose to thin them, use the right thing to do it with! Most are fine right out of the pot, but sometimes you may want a more subtle effect.

[Firedrake Cordova]

2 hours ago, Lucius_The_Temporary said:

Oops - I used it straight out of the pot. Guess I'd better pick up some medium...

I guess I could have worded it better.  What I meant was that if you are going to dilute them, then the correct thing to use (with the current range) is Contrast Medium. If you use Lahmian Medium or water, it can change the way the paint behaves. You can of course use them neat.  

[jaxom]

Two related tips that may. Shades/washes take longer to dry, if you notice them starting to pool you wick up or move the excess with a dry or slightly wet brush. You can use water to thin contrast-style paints and shades, but they won’t flow into recesses the same way if you just slop them on… leading back to the first tip.