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Hey guys, I just wanted to know how many people when they paint their minis leave areas black for shading (e.g underside of the arms). I've seen it been done on FW models in their masterclass book, so I was wondering how many dakkaites do this as well.

I reckon it would be hard to achieve without it looking unpainted.

This is something I have started doing, but i dont go for a solid black, I go for a really dark version of the colour fo the model. It takes alot of time to get the gradient right though. but worth it in the end

I use washes to shade my modles as I tried leaving areas black but it left the modle looking un painted.

I dont paint the bits i cant see, does that count?
For vehicles i often just shove a brush of black paint into the hard to reach places so i do then.

Black is fairly hard to paint without it looking unpainted, you really can't just leave it as a drab black, I guess this would work for just general table top use and powering through painting an army (We all know an unpainted army doesn't roll well, dice for the dice gods!) but you need different shades of black to provide proper shading.

Normally if I've undercoated with black, it tends to end up like that due to areas that are difficult to reach. I figure if its difficult for me to hit it with a brush, then it would warrant it being a dark area.

I normally do a light undercoat, so no.

Nah, not really. I just go with what color it's supposed to be and hit it with a strong black or brown wash.

Only if the area in question is black, to begin with. Everything else is gets a darker shade of the base color.

I use black for the insides of gun barrels and exhausts. Very occasionally for bits that can be seen but not painted easily (just to avoid the 'grey unpainted plastic' look).

no, but I leave areas of my models black to represent that I have grown tired of painting them and I wish not to finish every detail....so I leave things like guns and power swords in black. I will come back and paint them someday

Kwapple wrote:I use washes to shade my modles as I tried leaving areas black but it left the modle looking un painted.

I second that, Washes are simply amazing, i remember when i first started painting, i didn't know anything about nothing. So i experimented and a model washed looks soooo much better then one not in my opinion

I leave little areas black between colour borders, which I believe is called "lining in" or something like that, but no, I don't leave areas black, I let the washes do the shading.