Painting black armor ... lessons learned

[Helias_Tancred]

So I'm learning some lessons in painting the dreaded black armor.

 

First, for all of my non-characters I'm using this method: Base/Prime with Army Painter Matt Black. Then dry brush with Standard Mechanicus Grey, and a more focused dry brush of Dawnstone on the highest points and angles. Then slap on some Army Painter Grim Black Speed Paint all over, and the drying effect is pleasing and meets my standards.

 

For characters I'm going back to old school techniques. The challenge was to decide on a gray or blue highlight/edging scheme? Over multiple attempts and some practice I learned that visually I sorta prefer the Thunderhawk Blue and Fenrisian Blue highlights/edging, BUT I found that unless you can consistently do a very fine edge highlight it ends up looking too blue, and too Tron-ish. I can do pretty decent edge highlight work but not consistently that good, so I had to start dabbling with a gray scheme because I found that scheme is more forgiving if you cannot consistently paint miles of very thin edging lol. 

 

Now when it comes to gray theres two versions I toyed with, theres the Standard Mechanicus Grey/Dawnstone method and theres the darker approach "less is more", which is Eshin Grey/Standard Mechanicus Grey method. After testing out both I found I preferred the darker method.

 

I'll be posting my crusade marshal very soon under my crusade post and hopefully I've finally acquired the method I prefer for my characters?

 

Thanks for listening and love to hear more veteran brethren's experience with this?

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Eilio Tiberius

[MadGamerAK]

At this point, I just spray the primer on. It's cheaper for me to buy the spray paint than to buy several bottles of black, I use the Citadel paints for my stuff, and they get a little spendy buying them in bulk, therefore, Spray paint.

[TheArtilleryman]

I do something very similar to you for the infantry, but I go a bit lighter to begin with. Dawnstone base then Ulthuan grey, then coat d’arms ink armour wash, usually needs 2 layers. Then a single dawnstone highlight. I did used to do the old school method for characters and dreadnoughts etc. but now I just use the same technique.

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