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Lining-In is a technique I never could quite grasp or see how you could necessarily apply it without it seeming messy. Is it simply taking a midtone between the two colors that would be contact on say a pauldron? Is it intended to be a straight line with no break or change? I am frankly confused over all at the concept and would really appreciate any explanations to the idea behind it.

Do you mean blacklining? Where you use a dark tone to put a barrier between colours on different components? Or do you mean smoothing transitions between tones?

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Do you mean blacklining? Where you use a dark tone to put a barrier between colours on different components? Or do you mean smoothing transitions between tones?

I was referring to something like this, however I would also be curious what black lining is? Is that just for shadowing?

Ah ok nah were talking about the same thing. It's basically adding a dark like between 2 boundaries to help them stand out. It's a little artistic un-realism which helps create the illusion of reality, if you can wrap your head around that concept. So whereas in reality the light points would often merge together, on the model you need the separation so your eyes can pick out the individual areas.

The easiest way to do this is with a pin wash. Which is a precise wash applied to the boundary. Oil washes are good for this. Alternatively, you can freehand them in if your brush control is good enough. I sometimes do this to separate my metal areas from non metal areas (especially if doing non metallic metal technique) but I try to keep them fine enough so you have the visible boundary, but its not thick enough that it looks like a painted black line. That photo works pretty well to illustrate this point. The line on the gunners hand is super fine. But the line on the shoulder pad is a little too thick and solid for my liking, and also too dark.

Edit, just found an example on my night lord havoc.if you look on the left side of his torso plate, where the chest meets the gorget, you'll notice that even though they both have highlights at the same point, there's a line of dark blue between the 2. Those highlights originally met, but I put that fine line in because the panels are at different angles, and I don't want them to merge together when viewed. You can also see it on the top of his leg guard, between the trim and the plate. The highlight of the armour needs to be separate from the hard edge of the trim to enhance the contrast.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you use washes to shade colours, the definition between adjacent colours happens by itself most of the time. If you need to define the line better for some reason, try applying wash straight into recesses like described in the reply above.

Thank you! Now just for further clarification on it's usage, is it something that should be used sparingly then? It seems like it's used quite a bit on example models, particularly on the rimming between the raised edge of a pauldron and the actual color of it. And the decision on the color for the wash, should it be a midtone? A darker color of the armor color that you are painting onto? Or just something that compliments, like purple into red style.

I appreciate all the help you are offering on this! I am frankly not even sure what it's called anymore if it's not lining-in. And as such I have a hard time finding much information about it.

Lining in, pin washing, are the same thing. It also used to be called black lining, when that was the only colour available.

It is all aimed at creating boundaries between colours that help to make the different areas of your models look neat and add depth to the overall finish,

 Nightwalker wrote:
Thank you! Now just for further clarification on it's usage, is it something that should be used sparingly then? It seems like it's used quite a bit on example models, particularly on the rimming between the raised edge of a pauldron and the actual color of it. And the decision on the color for the wash, should it be a midtone? A darker color of the armor color that you are painting onto? Or just something that compliments, like purple into red style.

I appreciate all the help you are offering on this! I am frankly not even sure what it's called anymore if it's not lining-in. And as such I have a hard time finding much information about it.

use it when you deem necessary. as others have stated, sometimes your natural shading will be sufficient. In my experience I tend only use it between areas of similar tone, where its needed to distinguish the separate components and increase contrast.

as for colours, I tend to use dark colours, for contrast, but in certain areas, I wouldnt go too dark. flesh for example, I'd use a darker flesh tone, maybe with a little brown mixed in. on that shoulder pad on your picture, I wouldve probably just left it at the brown, rather than adding the black.