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Hi all I’m new to the site but not W40K. I am trying to paint black armour for my space marine army but I’m not getting the result I wanted. I have tried and failed massively with edge highlighting so I thought I’d try dry brushing. I watched the WarhammerTV video for dry brushing Black Templars. I have Eshin Grey and Dawnstone and have copied the Video on WarhammerTV but when I do the 2 shades of Nuln Oil I can’t see any of the highlights.

I have also tried dry brushing both colours over black and then a shade of Nuln Oil but it’s too chalky. Can anyone give me some help please

Many thanks

As an alternative, I’d suggest starting with dark grey as your base colour.

You can then wash a couple times with Nuln Oil and see how that goes. If you start with a dark grey, you might only need one wash.

The idea is that the Nuln will flow off the edges, leaving pretty clean highlights on the edges. Some colour will accumulate on the mid-levels, while it will pool in the recesses / corners.

Bonus is that you can probably find a decent grey primer, so that your base coat and priming is one step.

I gotta say, you're going to get far better results long term with edge highlighting. Just keep it reeeeeal simple and practice with a color that's relatively close to your base color, then just do your bright highlight on just little corners.

If Eshin Gray is too contrasty and mistakes end up too obvious, mix it with a little black on the highlight and darken it down. 95% of the time I've found that people who have the biggest problems with edge highlighting are not following the little nugget of Bob Ross Wisdom: "Sometimes it just gets to feeling so good that you get carried away with it, but don't kill your dark areas, they're your best friend."

Personally my favourite black for power armour that I've found was base black, edge with Incubi Darkness, then Thunderhawk Blue, then tiny highlights with Celestra Grey.

Should work with drybrushing, too

Thanks for the advice all, I have tried edge highlighting before but I’m absolutely terrible at it. I use the side of the brush but the line it too think then if I touch it up I cover over it, I haven’t got the steadiest of hands lol. And with edge highlighting I struggle with where to highlight. I know not to do all the edges but not too sure which edges to do and not do.

As for drybrushing, I thought it would be a quicker way to get those edges. I’ve seen some models done with dry brushing and I like the look of that dirty worn feeling

Drybrushing black? That's going to be challenging. Maybe you should consider starker greys to drybrush with? Drybrushing leaves a more subtle highlight to begin with.

Drybrushing black is invariably going to end up with a very messy, worn and dusty look. If that is what you're going for then go for it, but go very sparingly. You could also drybrush and then come back over with your black base color to clean it up a bit.

Without seeing what you are doing, my guess is you need a slightly lighter grey color for your drybrush. Start with the dawnstone and use something lighter as a second coat to brighten the highlights before using a single coat of Nuln Oil but only if you need it. Once the wash is dry, then you can brighten up your highlights if necessary.

As I said I was trying to copy Chris from WarhammerTV with doing 2 layers of Eshin Grey over and then dry brushing Dawnstone and then 2 coats of Nuln Oil.

I have a Primaris Marine I done as a first attempt and it came out really nice, I think. When I figure out how to upload pictures I’ll link it in lol

Thanks for all the advice guys and I’ll keep you updated as I’m going to try all your advice and see what works and works best for me

Black is hard to paint well, lazy I know, but I find just painting the base black, drybrush with Dawnstone, then a very (very!) light drybrush over that with an almost white grey (I use a Vajello can't remember the name) looks ok.

Like you I find edge highlighting tedious and time consuming, if you have the time and are painting only a few fine, if you are trying to paint up like an 80 model count army or something (I use black on my Tyranids) the small loss of quality for huge timesaving is imo worth it.

I have an update for you all. I’ve managed to recreate the black I was looking for, well it’s more like a very dark grey close to black.

I sprayed my marine black, then 2 thin coats of Eshin Grey followed by drybrushing Dawnstone, but not too lightly or heavily that it consumes the Eshin Grey. Once done with the dry brush on all the main areas give it 2 coats of Nuln Oil, obviously allowing the first coat to dry before applying the second coat. Hey presto

It might not the prettiest or the neatest but I think it looks very effective and is quick and easy to do

Once again thanks for all your help guys

You can thin nuln oil or earthshade btw. It’ll go on more translucent letting you control it, you can then go back with a thinner brush and paint nuln oil directly into the recesses rather than across the whole panels to increase the contrast.

I started using Stegadon scale green as my base for black now with Thunderhawk blue as the highlight before shading.

Pics Azkallean!

Glad you found something that works for you, but honestly the best way to get shading on black (ditto white to some extent) is to start with not quite black (or white). Otherwise you have nowhere to go from there.

Dark grey and a wash can look great and is very easy to pull off

If you refuse to do edge trim, then go with washes, as it was suggested, maybe start with dark reaper or incubi darkness, then wash it with black (my friends use mordant for quick shading, it works similar to army painter quickshade). Also remember, that if you will varnish the mini, it will give you some reflect on the model.
My addicional advice - check Vallejo paints, they are much better than gw products. Also buy better brushes (here I can also recommend Vallejo red kolinsky sable - cheap and sharp). Last thing (back to first word), don't start with pure grey, it will look much better when black is break with other colour (just like dark reaper ect).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, forgot about one thing - varnish the models before you start with washes, it will flow through details much better - more wash in recess less on plain surfaces.

Black base
VMC "Black Grey" cut 50-50 with black for a light drybrush on the edges and centre of panels
repeat on the edges
VMC Black Grey alone on the extreme edges

for a 'lighter black'
black grey base
drybrush German grey
black wash
edge drybrush black grey

to make it 'warmer' add a touch of dark brown to the drybrush

your oil is prob going on to heavy. Try to water it down sightly Or don't put it on as thick. Dry brush the edges somewhat heavier since your covering it with oil. without pics that's about al the advice I can give you. Shades go on in controlled strokes.

as far as edging goes...if you decide to retry it, basically you edge everything you can and then in the corners you put an even lighter color to make the corners pop. thats the fast explanation.

https://ibb.co/MP3B1fg

That’s my latest attempt and I’m pleased with it. I know it could be better but I think I’m on the right track

Btw if anyone recognised the colour scheme from an existing chapter please let me know as this is what I’ve come up with for my fluff

Thanks

looks great man! The main thing is that you are happy!!!

You think? I know it’s blotchy in places with too much oil pooling but controlling and moving the oil around is something I have to learn to so

I know you said you didn't feel comfortable edge highlighting but I'm pretty confident that you could do it based on how neatly you paint otherwise. It's all about the amount of pressure you're using; the more pressure, the thicker the line. But it looks good anyway.

https://ibb.co/MP3B1fg

Man that's really good, very neat and a nice colour scheme

I personally prefer to prime black, paint VMC Gunmetal Gray, then wash with Nuln Oil.

Results in a metallic black with shiny highs and matte lows:

What vanish would you recommend? Matte or Glossy?

Also my problem with edge highlighting isn’t the thickness of the lines, it’s the room I have when trying to paint in all the hard to reach places. I don’t sub assemble so maybe I could look into doing that

I have no advice to offer, but wanted to say I think that mini looks very good. You're already way neater than me.

Thankyou, and thankyou to everyone who has commented. I have only recently got back into painting after 20years absent and I was never any good back then, the feedback I’ve had off everyone here has been amazing and given me a huge boost in my confidence and abilities

Azkallean wrote:
What vanish would you recommend? Matte or Glossy?

Also my problem with edge highlighting isn’t the thickness of the lines, it’s the room I have when trying to paint in all the hard to reach places. I don’t sub assemble so maybe I could look into doing that

You're don't necessarily have to highlight every edge, even doing the most prominent, upward facing edges makes a big difference. The head, collar, tops of shoulders and arms etc.

I drybrush black all the time and use longbeard grey dry paint followed by thinned nuln oil shade.

Wish I had a better close up pics but I did these a while ago(sold now). Just use targeted strokes on the area you want.

DiscoKing, can I ask what bade colour you use? Is it black or a very dark grey?

Abbadon black.

try not to varnish with gloss also.