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Hello All!

Im in the works on a DIY space marine chapter centered around a band of excommunicated Deathwatch marines, that roam the galaxy and recover lost/abandoned marines, squads, and derelict vehicles (the remnants of annihilated chapters and the like). The elites and upper echelon of the chapter will bear true deathwatch heraldry, and heavy battle damage- as their armour has remained symbolically unaltered since they were abandoned/excommunicated. The marines they pick up have denounced their previous chapter and heraldry (except the right shoulder pad, in the style of deathwatch), either because it is destroyed, or because it has regretably left them for dead (and could be on the other side of the galaxy). As a result, the vast majority of my armour will be black... and battle damaged (2 strikes already, I know).

I wanted to see what advice, apart from the conventional, that any Dakkites could lend as to how to pull this off correctly.

I'm familiar and practiced in some predictable ways of painting black armour, and battle damage as well, but I wanted to propose this method I thought up, to see if it may be valid, before I go out and waste money purchasing an airgun lol. So please let me know how you see this working, and any additional/alternate advice would be much appreciated!

1. Start by airbrushing the entire model in a dark, dark grey (nearly black). This is done because the main problem with black armor, it seems, it adding depth (i.e. how do you paint a shadow on black armor?)
2. Mount the model on something relatively slender (for grip and access). Now I would spray pure black at a straight up angle, from directly underneath the model (if that makes sense). This paint will catch the undersides of the arms, legs, etc etc.
3. Now, in the style of zenithal lighting, I would spray directly downward from above, or possibly tilted slightly downward towards the models face, with a lighter black than what was used in step one. This would add a highlight to exposed surfaces, which would hint at lighting, wear and tear, and possible the sun staining/fading exposed areas of the armor.
4. Paint any non-black details (shoulder pads, gun casings, ets)
5. Battle damage would be sponged charadon granite around joints, etc, drybrushed with boltgun/chainmail/mithril-- whichever is most appropriate considering the direction of the light source.
5 Use wash on the entire model to shade non-blacks, and most importantly, fade and blend the light to the medium to the pure black.

My vision here is that I won't need the cheesy light grey highlight lines (sorry if that your technique, i just dont care for it), or any of that jazz. I've seem some great stuff here on dakka using airbrushes and zenithal lighting, just wanted to take a shot at it, and find out if I'm on the right track.

Any c/c would be greatly appreciated Dakkites!!

I'd actually start out with true black as the base coat, and very carefully apply zenithal layers on top of that. If I had any black airbrush paint, I'd give it a whorl and see how it turns out...

but yea, black base coat, skip the spraying from a downward angle thing, and then just do lighter zenithal layers.

I'd imagine you'd need 3-4 different zenithal layers applied at progressively steeper angles to get a good effect.

@ HORST:

Thanks for the input, that I hadnt thought of, and it sounds like it would work. I've got some test models, I'll have to try it out!

So perhaps:
1 Pure black basecoat..
2 Start at pure horizontal, and spray a very slightly lighter shade around the model, adjusting slightly upwards on the back, due to the light striking the model's forehead, rather than as a halo-light source.
3 Gradually lighten and make my way up, 3-4 shades, like you said?

Thanks again for the response sir!

ARKTOR.RECLAIMUS wrote:
My vision here is that I won't need the cheesy light grey highlight lines (sorry if that your technique, i just dont care for it), or any of that jazz. I've seem some great stuff here on dakka using airbrushes and zenithal lighting, just wanted to take a shot at it, and find out if I'm on the right track.

Any c/c would be greatly appreciated Dakkites!!

You'll still need the edge highlights (especially on lit edges) or it'll look grey. The illusion of black is actually based on contrast; you need a tight, high contrast highlight to trick your eye into thinking the rest of the surface is darker than it is. This doesn't mean paint *every* edge light grey, just that you do need to highlight up that far (in fact to get a really sharp looking edge you can push it right up to white dots in corners).

The airbrush technique you mention does work to some extent, but you really do need to keep the highlight to a very minimum to keep it black. I generally prefer to work black by hand for this reason; it's easier to control that way.

You also want to use shape-reinforcing highlight patterns more with black schemes rather than directional lighting; with the dark greys this is subtle but does work in bringing out the shape of the miniature; a straightforward zenithal job can make it harder.

@ winterdyne

Noted, all valid points.

So, question: I've seen people use battle damage around joints and armor plate edges as an excuse to throw down lighter paint, which would lend itself to showing depth in those areas. What is your opinion of this technique?

I know the armor is technically ceramic, but I had considered fine (metallic) drybrushing around edges to show a little wear and tear, do you think this could maybe be tweaked or used in a certain way to pull it off? Thoughts on my original idea of using sponged charadon granite, drybrushed in boltgun or the like? Im thinking like pretty sizeable chunks around the torso edges, and joints, to hopefully show large areas of paint chipping and peeling off... the idea is that they paint their armor when they join the chapter, and basicall never touch it again.

Im not trying to dismiss your points, I know full well that they are all legit, thats why so many people use that technique. And if all else fails, I DO know how to do that. I was just wondering if there was a more... dynamic way of going about achieving the look I'm imagining?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
btw, WINTERDYNE..

saw your stuff in coolminiornot...

just awesome, i like your style.

Yeah, the battle damage around the edge is a technique that works; the chaplain dreadnought I did has this. I personally wouldn't drybrush the damage on; you really need it to stay fairly 'sharp' in terms of contrast (drybrush tends to smudge a bit). Pretty dry sponge stippling works, then just go in and add a few highlights to the chips where needed. Don't be tempted to stipple the highlight on - it does need to be light, but it also needs to be done very sparingly.