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Going to make a ravenguard army and was wondering how you highlight/extreme highlight black. Thanks!

My painting skill isn't the greatest but here is what I did:

I did a basecoat of black, and then did a broad highlight of half black/half grey on all the edges that would catch the highlight:



I then went back and did a pure grey highlight along all the edges, leaving part of the half grey highlight showing:



Looks kind of stark from close up, but even with my meager painting skills it looks pretty good from a tabletop distance. The brightness of the grey dulls down a bit after applying clearcoate and dullcoate.

Looks pretty good. What grey did you use? I was thinking about using codex grey for that method.

Use a dark grey...maybe 50/50 chaos black/codex grey?

I never highlighted black so I'm not the best source of info, but that seems like a decent color for highlighting black...

i like the method. ive been working on a deathwatch model and been stuck on highlighting the black. might have to use this

I used adeptus battlegrey

I prime black, bascoat with P3 Coal Black, general highlights with Shadow Grey, edge highlight with Space Wolves Grey, then wash with Badab Black to suit.

Vulcan wrote:I prime black, bascoat with P3 Coal Black, general highlights with Shadow Grey, edge highlight with Space Wolves Grey, then wash with Badab Black to suit.

This. Alternatively, you can use Codex Grey and Fortress Grey if you want a completely grey done. Shadow and Space Wolves grey gives the black a bit more of a blueish cool tone.

Sometimes, particularly for characters I add an extra step of Skull white to the very sharpest of edges, before hitting it all with a Badab Black wash. It tones the starkness of the grey/white highlights down and blends it a bit more in with the rest of the model.

Another option is to go the "Comic Book" route (which was used widely back in the days of 2nd edition) and highlight with Midnight Blue, then edge highlight with 50/50 Midnight/Regal Blue mix. IMHO, this gives a more realistic, much less exaggerated, finish

If you like the blacks on my models, PM me and i'll send you a Pm with how i did it?





My apologies on the last pic! not a very good shot but hopefully you can see what it is going to look like when finished on marines?



good luck!

Nerdfest09

I use Mitral Silver to give them a recently battle weathered appearance. Adeptus Grey in areas that don't get this application can follow but I don't like to use much.

Here are some WIP:







MM

Any of the grey shades, the lighter it is the more it looks like they are in a lighter area. So if you were playing Space Hulk go for darker greys for example.

Silver or light grey. You might want to think about actually making the "black" very dark grey, too.

Like Master Melta, I also use mithril silver, but I highlighted all edges because I like the lightsource be damned comic look.

I use one of 2 methods:

Start with a dark grey ala Adeptus Battle Grey and give it successive black washes and then a touch of fortress grey as an extreme highlight

OR

Start with Coal Black/Chaos Back, and give successive highlights of storm blue and storm blue/fortress grey 1:1

Thanks for all the ideas guys! I have a ton of methods to choose from. I'll have to test them all out on some sample models and see which one i like the most.

A question about the badab black wash though. Many people say i should wash the model with badab black. Is there any other benefit besides dulling highlights?

I always do an extreme highlight of Adeptus Battlegray, followed with a second highlight of Codex Gray on the corners and higher points.
Another method is to simply make a very dark grey, heavily wash it, and then highlight that. It makes it look less "primer flat" and still works well.

Washing my Death company with badab black did not seem to do a great deal for them, not very usefull imo.

Also, my favorite two methods are simple...

1) Highlight with adeptus battlegrey them sit back and relax

2) For a more weathered look, use mithril silver and chip up the edges.

Alternatively you could combine the above methods like so...



I found that some of the more elaborate methods end up making the model look a little too grey unless done extremely well!

Nerdfest…. I’d love to know how you did that drop pod….. love the look !!!!

I did Raven Guard as my first army, but the highlighting for black seemed really problematic and the paints I had at the time seemed too light against the stark black, not to mention I was still a noobie and doing fine highlight lines was difficult. I was harshly critical of close details on my own models at the time so I decided to forgo highlighting entirely. Instead I used more color variety on their equipment and a coat of matte varnish (dullcote). I think they turned out alright considering my experience at the time.



Using silver colors as highlights to represent wear and weathering sounds like a good idea, though I wouldn't use it on all the edges as then you might get more of an Iron Hands-ish look. I'd also look into different shades of grey, as I think the GW line is really insufficient when it comes to the gap between Chaos Black and Adeptus Battlegrey. I'm fond of Vallejo's German Grey and Black Grey as they stand out much less on pure black than ABG does. When I eventually get around to rebooting my Raven Guard (with a much more stark black theme than my previous ones) I'll probably use those as the general highlights and then Boltgun/Mithril Silver for weathering highlights.

SCC over on B&C made a step by step tutorial for painting Raven Guard that I think is very good, though you might want to trim down some steps as it is rather detailed (he spends about 5 hours on each model). You can look at the rest of his blog if you want to see the results.

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?autocom=blog&blogid=128&showentry=7058

A method I use for highlighting black armour (or any surface) to a reasonable and subtle highlight:

- Basecoat black
- Mix 2:1 Black : Purple ... Apply first highlight, thin as usual.
- Mix 1:1 Black : Purple ... Apply second highlight, thin as usual.
- Maintain 1:1 Black : Purple mix ... Add in small amount of bone colour. Apply third highlighting, thin as usual.
- Apply more bone for fourth and final highlight.
- Wash over with a black or dark wash to 'seal in' the colours.

The result is a really warm, subtle shift in blacks and dark tones. I have always disliked the grey hightlighting that GW applies to dark models - it's too stark and powerful for my taste.

I agree with Eirikr on his point about highlighting with greys. In my experience it gets a little distracting if it's not done just right.

If you look at some black metal, you'll notice it has a slightly bluish tint to it when highlighted. To capture this on my Death Company, I'm experimenting with a something that I've never tried before:

I do a general highlight by drybrushing Adeptus Battlegrey since it's a really dark grey with a bluish hue. I go back and clean that up with Chaos Black so I'm left with the color on just the edges/raised areas. Then I do a 2:1 mix of Ultramarine Blue and Codex Grey for an extreme highlight which I apply conservatively to the edges that reflect almost white under my light source. Looks pretty good imo, but like Cain said, you could definitely just stop at Adeptus Battlegrey if you wanted.

The step between black and battlegrey is pretty steep and is the reason that I do a 50/50 mix between black and the battlegrey as an intermediate highlight.

I usually hit the entire model with a black wash when I finish highlighting to blend all the colors together a bit and calm the edge down a bit. I wonder how it would look with a blue wash at the end...

Personally I just use Vallejo German grey and then some codex grey, and if I feel like it add a small dab of fortress grey for the highest of highlights. Like this:

I prefer a 50/50 mix of Chaos Black/Regal Blue as base coat.
Then add a tiny amount of Fortress Grey to the mix and highlight.
Then a pure thin highlight of pure Fortress Grey.

Finally give it two separate washes of Badab Black, letting the first wash dry before applying the next.

When I want the highlights to be a bit more subtle I use a simple buildup using 3 highlights to get from black to shadow grey: 2:1 Black & Shadow Grey, 1:1 Black and Shadow Grey, and Shadow Grey.

Oh black is a pain to highlight, worse to weather... here is mine:



Basically I don't start with black... I start with very dark dark gray as my base. Maybe it's my imagination but it seems to make the layering of grays on top a lot easier, and using pure black for shadows makes the effect complete.