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I am thinking hard about starting a Iron Hands army. I was looking for any tutorial for ideas about painting this army. I can't find a thing. I even looked for Raven Guard or a Black Templar tutorial, I can't find a complete one.

If there is a good tutorial for painting Iron Hands I would really appreciate it if anybody pointed me in the right direction. To be honest I have been practicing and after the base and highlighting I am confused about do you wash a black colored army? How do you get a good sheen,cut the shine. More advanced stuff like that for a new Warhammer painter.

As far as I'm concerned black is one heck of a mother to paint properly. I've read that you could mix red, blue or green paint to make it look worn, or help making highlighting easier, but I'm not even sure if that's gonna help.

Iron Hands , good choice.

IIRC this could help to answer the "how to paint black" question:
http://sonsofcorax.freeforums.org/painting-black-for-new-and-old-ravens-t1012.html
not directly Iron Hands but something also mostly black.

There seem to be 2 schools of thought:
- greyish highlights
- blue highlights

both may work.

Did wash LoD ( also black PA ) with badab black and I did like the outcome, the wash made the chaos black matt and also
dealt with metal parts at the same step. Iron Hands could do with rather shiny "new" wellkept mechanics and weapons, so
its your choice if you wash the armor and the weapons or just the armor.

I use Reaper's Shadowed Steel from the Master Series paints to highlight my Templars, but some people don't like that.

I love it, though.

I prime my models gray, then I use a mix of wash I make. Its 2 full bottles devlan mud, 2 bottles asurman blue, and half a badab black.

I prime them black and use mithral silver highlights, actually. I think it looks pretty good.

I like dabbing a bit of 'Ard Coat here and there for something that I want to look especially shiny and fancy.

Vallejo "Glossy Black" thinned appropriately gives a fantastic color for armored pieces, especially over a gray primed model.

@Darkness, would love to see some photos of that I'm intrigued as to the results.

@Anerythristic, I say do your black then your first highlight and any metallic areas do dark grey, then wash the whole model badab black then work on final armour highlights and picking details out. Very condensed but you get the idea.

Monster Rain wrote:I prime them black and use mithral silver highlights, actually. I think it looks pretty good.

I like dabbing a bit of 'Ard Coat here and there for something that I want to look especially shiny and fancy.

That sounds like it could be cool. Do you have pictures?

1hadhq wrote:
Did wash LoD ( also black PA ) with badab black and I did like the outcome, the wash made the chaos black matt and also
dealt with metal parts at the same step. Iron Hands could do with rather shiny "new" wellkept mechanics and weapons, so
its your choice if you wash the armor and the weapons or just the armor.

And, pics of this too, please?

(Especially as your link pointed to another link that had dead links to pics! Not your fault, I know, but still!)

I'd paint my marines partially black if I thought I could pull it off. I find black to be a very very hard color to paint. I've substituted with Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey, and I think it looks awesome, and it's even possible to wash it in black so it shows up. Still not entirely black though, and still very hard to highlight.

I don't paint black SM because I don't actually want a templars army - or a pre-heresy DA army and also because black is a PITA to highlight.

ph34r wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:I prime them black and use mithral silver highlights, actually. I think it looks pretty good.

I like dabbing a bit of 'Ard Coat here and there for something that I want to look especially shiny and fancy.

That sounds like it could be cool. Do you have pictures?

I do! Can't really mess around with it now, but I'll try to get some up later!

Alpharius wrote:

1hadhq wrote:
Did wash LoD ( also black PA ) with badab black and I did like the outcome, the wash made the chaos black matt and also
dealt with metal parts at the same step. Iron Hands could do with rather shiny "new" wellkept mechanics and weapons, so
its your choice if you wash the armor and the weapons or just the armor.

And, pics of this too, please?

(Especially as your link pointed to another link that had dead links to pics! Not your fault, I know, but still!)

Yes, link has a thread with broken links inside ( image hoster malfunctioning or posters moved their pics ), but still a lot of
different approaches to paint black too ( ok text is less shiny than pics.. ).

Reqested examples of black marines.
- old LoD / new LoD
- old BT / "new" BT
- Raven guard / Iron Hand
- deathwatch / chaplain

only new LoD was washed, only "new" BT has highlights. Shows the difference of time consuming painting to easy/lazy painting...

Pics:

:A SUPER-QUICK GUIDE TO PAINING BLACK ARMOUR: (Raven Guard) Sorry Im not uploading pics since Im at work, but here goes.

1) Prime with Black. I know, somebodys going to go ape on me for even starting like that, but this is just how I do it.

2) Drybrush the whole thing LIGHTLY with Adaptus Battlegrey. Mostly just brings out the hard edges. And softens the look of the whole model.

3) Highlight the top edges with Codex Grey. Think of it like the sun is right overhead. What edges would be hit. It sounds funny written (or typed, whatever) but when you sit down with a model, youll get it.

Thats about it for the armour. Just remember that everything you do on top of black will have to be in two coats. You should do that with all colors, but some people are lazy . Basicly, if its white, put a coat of light grey first. If its Chainmail, put a coat of Boltgun down first. You get the idea. Black is not that hard. the test is in the details is all. Put some brush time in and it can look amazing. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

a lot of pics i have seen of black models seem to have them highlighted in codex grey.

I seem to recall there was a black armoru painting guide in WD a few months ago. I'll see if i can dig it out.

SkeTcHy LaRRy wrote::A SUPER-QUICK GUIDE TO PAINING BLACK ARMOUR: (Raven Guard) Sorry Im not uploading pics since Im at work, but here goes.

1) Prime with Black. I know, somebodys going to go ape on me for even starting like that, but this is just how I do it.

Why would someone go ape about that?

I think he was trying to be sarcastic on how easy it is to prime things black. And honestly I agree with him. The easiest without getting all crazy, is just priming black, and then highlighting.
But Ive seen some people do WONDERS with a bunch of washes with a grey/white primer

Primer is actually a step beyond me, good job.

I've found a light drybrush of bleached bone gives your black marines a nice "actually-gets-down-and-dirty-instead-of-polishing-his-armour-all-day" look. It helps alot after you've done all the smaller details. Will upload a shot tomorrow.

ok, explaining about the "going ape" thing. Ive come acrossed a lot of hard core guys that are, well, a little crazy to be honest. They give the "if you want anything to look good, dont base with the final color" type of avdise. for the OP, just make sure you get a semi decent paint to base with. Not the 96 cent econo-brand spray paint.

Jihallah wrote:I've found a light drybrush of bleached bone gives your black marines a nice "actually-gets-down-and-dirty-instead-of-polishing-his-armour-all-day" look. It helps alot after you've done all the smaller details. Will upload a shot tomorrow.

I'd like to see that, actually. Sounds interesting.

For my Black Templars, though, I picture them as Monk-Like in their care for their Armor and their vehicles. Therefore, I never wearther my miniatures. That's I perfer a silver highlight on my templars. The metalic sheen of the powered armor, if you will.