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Hey peeps,


I've been away from the hobby for a few years and since coming back to it I have more patience for painting models. This has consequently meant that im placing more emphasis into my painting skills however there are a few matters that are currently grating on me!

I've recently purchased some howling banshees and I'm now up to the stage of painting them (their already under coated). In the past I would just slap on a few coats of bleached bone and be done with it once it was to a reasonable standard. However i've found that since coming back to the hobby, I cant just settle for that. I was therefore wondering how you people go about shading models? For instance how would i create darker shades in the grooves of where the banshee armour plates are/intersect?

Sorry if its a dumb question but meh what can i say???

Thanks


Minaith

Work in shades.

So start off with a darker color first. If you're used to using bleached bone, start with a brown like bublic brown or graveyard earth. Then put some khaki over that, and some bleached bone as the final highlight.

You want to cover the entire model in the first shade, then work with the lighter shades and leave the darker shades in the recesses of the armor plates.

If you have your color choice and the models you plan to paint it'd be easier to give advice

There are so many resources on Dakka, I would advise you to search the articles section as well as the tutorials thread. Not to mention GW website offers some simple shading techniques if you look for them.

Of course I could just tell you but then I would simply be repeating what so many others have already stated. You need only to hunt around a little.

The advanced version of what you're describing is called blending, or "wet blending" or in some cases feathering. All variations on the same thing.

To get there, you have to master the basic version, which is layering, and honestly, layering can get you 90% of the way there on its own.

With layering you start with a base color (generally darker), and then paint lighter colors over that, reaching a highlight on edges.

For a first attempt, I'd suggest that you do it in three stages. Start with a base that's pretty close to the color you want to represent, maybe slightly darker. Over that, on the edges and high areas, put a slightly lighter shade, but close to what you just did. Go somewhat wide here, i.e. cover perhaps 1/4th of the surface. Finally, with a highlight, which should be considerably lighter than the base, get the edges with a very fine highlight.

From a distance, this will look pretty good and if you do clean work, it'll even look nice up close.

If you do more stages, a more gradual layering, you get a smoother effect. The carapaces of my Carnifexes have five stages, and generally people can't really even tell that they're layered at all.

You could also use the new foundation washs, for painting your bone i would go

Snakebite leather > bubonic brown > bleached bone

then if you want more shading on that use gryphonnia syphia(?) was or devlain mud.

gl on your project

A different approach.

Prime white. Wash bone areas with a dark brown wash(possibly with black added). The new washes probably aren't going to cut it for this. You might want to make a wash of your own with Scorched Brown, Black, PVA glue, and water. It would be something like 2:1:1:5, but you will have to experiment. That will be used to establish the deepest SHADE in the recesses.

Basecoat and highlight - pick a little triad of colors to work up through, like Graveyard Earth to Kommando Khaki to Kommando Khaki mixed with White 2:1. The Graveyard would cover almost everything but the deepest recesses. The Kommando would cover almost all the Graveyard, leaving some deeper areas alone. The final Kommando/White mix would hit the highest points only.

Last step on the bone - wash with Devlan Mud or Gryphonne Sepia. When I use the washes as a final step, I like to add a tiiiiny bit of PVA to smooth it out.

Optional step after wash dries - you can go back and reestablish the highlights with Kommando/White mix.

Hope this is helpful.

- Blackbone

hey peeps, sorry for my late reply ive been abit busy with uni this week.


Anyways i'd just like to say thanks for all the suggestions they have helped massively! It seems that the sepia works really well (especially once high lighted with bleach bone!).


thank you!