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So, still waiting for my vallejo primer and base to turn up, I've been thinking properly about the shades and highlights for my red armour plates.

Highlights I'm fine with - Blazing orange for general highlights and a touch of white for the extremes

Shadows is where I struggle a little - I've tested out washing in devland mud but I washed every section of red rather than focusing on the recesses and mostly ignoring open parts of plate. This just made my model look dirty (yeah, durr).

I was wondering if it would be better to do the shadows by hand using Red Gore in the recesses?

I've also tried out Baal Red but I don't like how much it darkens the main red sections of the armour as with the devlan mud.


Suggestions?


EDIT: I did forget to say: All of this advice I'm asking is for my OOP necrons so the places the shadows and highlights fall will be different on these old gits than with the current necron models.

Really depends on how bright you want your armour to be.

this is how I would do it, the simple(lazy) way.

bright - wash the red armour plates in red wash, then touch up the recess with devlin mud.
dull/ muddy red - wash the red then wash with devlin mud.

Red Gore is not a deep enough shade. Try using a Purple ink - it will give a nice deep shade without looking dirty.

RanTheCid wrote:Red Gore is not a deep enough shade. Try using a Purple ink - it will give a nice deep shade without looking dirty.

I'd go with browns instead of purples. It gives a more natural look.



As for the wash, try thinning down the dev mud by 50% with water before applying it. This will help prevent the model from becoming too dark.

I've had better experience with Orgyn Flesh wash for red, especially if you want to maintain a nice bright red.

This is the effect using red-gore as the base, followed by OFW and then highlighted up to a brown-orange:



As you can see it doesn't tend to darken/stain the red itself so much.

Another option for OFW or Devlan (If you like Devlan in the recesses) is to spray the whole model with a gloss varnish, then apply to the recesses/rivets etc, it tends to bead up in these areas and leave the flat surfaces alone.

After that you just spray with matte varnish to remove the shine.

ChaosDave wrote:

RanTheCid wrote:Red Gore is not a deep enough shade. Try using a Purple ink - it will give a nice deep shade without looking dirty.

I'd go with browns instead of purples. It gives a more natural look.

As for the wash, try thinning down the dev mud by 50% with water before applying it. This will help prevent the model from becoming too dark.

Browns just are not dark enough to "black line" the model properly. Purple is dark - almost looks black to the eye. The advantage is Purple works with the red color & does not get the dirty look that black does.

Way back when, I tested Chestnut, Flesh Wash, Black and Purple inks on Khorne Bezerkers. Purple was the easy winner.

I use Vallejo's Black red to shade my Blood Angels, I thin it down slightly and paint it into the recesses.

http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/Vallejo-Paints/Model-Color/Model-Color-Black-Red-Cadmium-Brown-/prod_2655.html

I use anything from black and red gore.... badab black wash... even dirty water. It just depends on how you want the piece to look.

I like to use a thin wash of p3 sanguine base to shade any red that I don't want to push too far into the warm side. It is a darker red than scab red but has a much cooler tone. It is on the edge of being purple, but somehow nowhere near magenta, and has an almost gray undertone. The color looks very much like the color or red wine.
With all that said, More Dakka's red marines look great with that ogryn flesh wash.

Thanks for all the help and advice!

I'm trying to do my OOP Necron project somewhere near 'Properly' and I've figured out most of the painting stages with proper consideration for highlights and shadows this time.


Before I went to bed last night I got some of my old new-style necrons out of my army case and coated one each in:

1. Badab Black
2. Devlan Mud
3. Gryphone Sepia
4. Flesh Wash (REALLY old bottle of Citadel Wash that is just called 'Flesh Wash' and comes in the tall clear bottle with the blue label and lid)

I haven't got any scab or gore to hand (I swear I had a pot of both...going mad).

I went over each of the models with some Blazing Organge on the most obvious hightlights in a really quick and sloppy way just to see.

The Flesh Wash came up trumps! Although I was a little too liberal with it and doused the poor warrior rather than just applying enough for all red surfaces to be 'wet' (Got some really ugly brown pooling that now looks like nurgle has taken a dump on the warrior).

Where the wash hadn't gone on too thick and where I'd applied hightlights, it looks brilliant! So I've washed another warrior in Flesh wash, this time taking a lot more care, making sure there is not 'pooling' or no large and obvious areas, just a wet coat on all surfaces. I'll highlight him up with some more care this time and see if I still like the effect.

I'll keep you all posted!


Thanks again, really appreciate all the advice and the time you've taken to help me!