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Can anyone translate this technique into a step by step a noob such as myself can understand? This is close to the exact color I am looking for on my own deathwing. All credit goes to Winterdyne. Here's an example of the finished product: http://www.winterdyne.co.uk/maz/images/commissions/deathwing1/finished/squad_caleb1024.jpg

"I worked through several zenital passes of GW dheneb stone up to VMC ivory. Spot washes were then done with GW devlan mud wash, tidying with GW codex grey glazes here and there and highlighting with glazes of VMC ivory.

On the Land Raider a hard preshade of a VMC leather brown was applied over the white primer (using a dual action airbrush - fine spray) and then numerous filter coats of GW deneb stone and VMC ivory mixes, building up to very close to pure VMC ivory. Spot washes with GW devlan mud used for hard shade."

Thanks a million.

1. Start with GW's Dheneb Stone paint
2. Mix a small amount of Vallejo's Ivory into the mix and apply another layer, leaving a small amount of the original Dheneb Stone to show through in the darker areas.
3. Repeat step two, gradually increasing the amount of Ivory until you have a nice gradual blend from Dheneb Stone in the dark bits to Ivory at the highlights.
4. Apply small amounts of GW's Dheneb Mud wash in key areas that you really want to pop.
5. Use thin, watered down glazes of GW's codex gray in various spots around the armor to add some subtle variation in color.
6. Use thin glazes of pure Vallejo Ivory to make the brightest highlights stand out.

On the Land Raider:

1. Prime it white
2. Using a dual action airbrush at the fine spray setting, apply Vallejo's leather brown in the creases, joints between plates, and anywhere you'd expect to see hard shadows.
3. Starting with Dheneb Stone and gradually adding more Ivory to the mix, repeat the process you did with the terminators (see #2-3 above)
4. Keep doing that until you're working with a mix that's almost entirely Vallejo's ivory on the hard edges where you'd expect to see the brightest highlights.
5. Go over the areas where you'd expect to see hard shade (under doors, opposite sides of panels from pure highlights, and so on) with spot washes of GW's Devlan Mud.

That assumes that VMC is Vallejo Model Color. I'd double check first, as I don't have a handy Vallejo supplier. No idea what zenital means.

It seemed pretty straightforward to me. But if you're unsure about what exactly constitutes washing, glazing or a transitional blend (from Dheneb to Ivory, in this case), you could probably find a quick primer in the tutorials section or on the GW site.

zenital, I think, means coming down from the zenith. In that he is spraying at a downwards angle to pick up the natural highlight created by the sun.

Zenital highlighting is either where you spray lightly from above the model, in several layers. With each layer is slightly lighter, giving the impression of the sun being above the miniature, and thus the top being lighter

Or you do it by hand, which is much the same.

You should note that the Deathwing termies are done with a black undercoat. The (very thin) dheneb stone initial coat looks for the most part like codex grey. The trick is to have the paint *really* translucent. The grey glazes later were mostly used to cover up speckling. Don't spray them solidly dheneb - it'll go far too light.

The spot washes are directed, especially on the cheeks - pull the wash gently up to give a harder edge under the flat bit under the eye.

The land raider could be done much faster by using a dheneb stone / off white base coat, and pretty thin VMC leather brown for the shade, before working back up to VMC ivory.

When preshading tanks / dreadnoughts / anything with hard convex edges, you actually want to work the preshade over hard edges (ie where you'd put an edge highlight). Once you've done the preshade, edges should look 'a bit dirty'. A quick, very soft drybrush will pick them out and the slightly darker shade around them will cause increased contrast helping the model's shape pop.

For the zenithal work, I refer you to my Sternguard Veterans tutorial available via my blog. A quick rule of thumb is that they'll look almost black from underneath (very dark shade) and almost white from above. At 'normal' viewing angles the colour should be pretty much the mid tone. It's pretty tricky to keep a consistent direction when doing zenithal work by hand, so a lot of painters use an airbrush or several primers (black / grey / white) to give a guide. Glazes can then be used to smooth everything out and actually apply colour.

Any questions, just ask - I don't bite. Much. :-)

winterdyne wrote: Any questions, just ask - I don't bite. Much. :-)

Hey thanks for the feedback. I never even thought to see if you were on Dakka. Could you recommend a Citadel color equivalent to the Vallejo ivory you used?

Edit: spelling.

Um... about a 50-50 white / bleached bone mix. The Ivory is just slightly off-white.