Quartered Knightly Colours

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

How have your experiences been on applying quartered knightly colours onto your models? I have a few ideas for those in mind for a small, future Shattered Legion force. Obviously you need always to use masking tape when painting your models. Can this be hassle? In a nutshell: Would you recommend it or not?

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Its a bit more work, but the few models I did it on it wasn't onerously so.  If you are doing it on marines, it isn't any more involved than doing a halved colour scheme, as the belt forms a natural break point and the only place the colours touch is on the torso and the back pack.

 

Generally I only use tape to make a straight line with the pencil.  Painting with a brush, I find it easier to paint up to the pencil line than I do getting the tape so that the paint doesn't seep underneath to the other side.  As well, I use painter's taps (available at hardware/home improvement type stores, typically green or blue) as masking tape can sometimes strip the paint when it comes off, and I find painter's tape slightly more flexible.  For smaller models, I generally only use the tape where there is a longer join line - typically on back packs, but you might also have that on chests without any significant symbols on them.

 

Other than that, do your light colour first, your dark colour second - you want to be doing any touchups in the dark colour, otherwise it can be hard to get the light colour up to the desired brightness and coverage over the darker paint.

 

Some of my examples - Rocker noise marine, master of executions (below the oblits and venowcrawlers), kitbash Lucius (now just a Lord), hammer lord, master of possession and the marine part of my lord discordant.  As well, my chaos knights have a similar scheme (not quartered, not sure what to call it.  Thirded?  Middle striped?) - for them I definitely used painter's tape to draw the line where the colours meet.  Anyway, maybe some of those help.

 

 

Edited June 3 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Grotsmasha]

Also when using tape, reapply the covered colour over the join first, when the paint inevitably seeps under, it will be a coloiur match, then paint the new colour, and it wont seep under and you'll get a clean line when you remove the tape.

[Bryan Blaire]

Something else to consider, if you are having a hard time working the lines and keeping them straight - you can use weathering, decals, freehand, or small bits added where you have wobbles as well.

[Dr. Clock]

I've painted over 2000 points of Storm Lords in the Primaris era, and I have yet to use tape, even on the pair of stormspeeders. That's not to say that you shouldn't use it where warranted, but I don't think it's a requirement. The lines you need to keep are generally so short that just applying the tape will take more time than just... painting the line. 

 

A halved or quartered scheme takes a bit more work than conventional single colours, but it's absolutely worth it in my opinion.

 

 

My process has been approximately:

 

1: All-over grey/bone base coat

2: Contrast Red sections (first crack at those lines - we'll come back later tho so doesn't need to be perfect)

3: basecoat metal / black / trim

4: clean-up basecoat on white side (painting line from other side, again there's still time)

5: layer up white (lines will be a bit more defined here)

6: highlight/wash red (highlight can solidify line if needs be)

7: wash/highlight accents

8: wash/highlight white (last pass on the dividing line)

 

This way you're working to the line about 4 times, twice from each side. 

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

 

[Kurgan the Lurker]

Find a natural break point in the armor to help you make color separations without mask or black lines is always a help. Some example of split schemes I have done a decade or two ago: