How do you hightlight chaos black and skull white?

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**andyroo9000**

Just decided to repaint my space marine army for a painting competition and I’m having the army colour scheme as half black, half white and the helmet purple and I need some quick and easy tips (meaning that I am terrible at painting but I want to try my best) on the best way to highlight chaos black and skull white. Please drop down some photos if you can and leave a comment on how you would do it. I would really appreciate the help.

**Bangbangboom**

Grey is typically used to highlight black but any colour can technically be used (although I struggle to imagin black with highlights done in yellow

) White is a little more problematic, personal I highlight up from grey using white as the final highlight. I would definitely prime white and paint the white half first if I was you.

**oadie**

There's no way to highlight pure white. Like Bangbangboom says, though, you can highlight to white. Try basing your white sections on a light gray or off-white (I like Astronomicon Gray, but something like Spacewolf Gray or Bleached bone can give a cooler or warmer tone, respectively), then highlighting up.

Black suffers from a similar issue - there is no "light black." Most folks use a dark gray and stick to edgelining as a shortcut, but it never looks terribly realistic. The "pro" way to do non-flat blacks is to actually use a very, very dark shade of another color (blue works well for this), perhaps working pure black into the deepest shadows, then highlighting with a lighter shade of that color. A mix of something like Necron Abyss or Orkhide Shade/DA Green and Chaos black would be a good base.

**Brother SRM**

I use a dark grey for highlighting black. Adeptus Battlegrey works very well, but sometimes people prefer a bluer shade like Shadow Grey. For white, your solution is to paint with an off-white. Mix in a bit of Bleached Bone and paint with that slightly eggshell color. Then, highlight that with pure white. This can also be done by mixing in a tiny bit of blue or grey. Alternately, I've heard of a shading technique where you can wash the area with a watered down Asurmen Blue wash and hold the mini upside down to get good shading. I have never used that though.

**riplikash**

Agreeing with everyone else here. For white you don't actually want your model to be 'pure white' but instead some color that looks white when there is nothing to contrast it against.

Astronomican Grey makes a great 'base white' for a 'pure white' look. It looks like white right up until you put on a white highlight. A 50:50 mix of bleached bone and skull white does the same for a more 'parchment' white look.

As for black, you have already gotten good advice. Another fun trick is to paint something flat black then coat it with a thick varnish, like 'ard Coat. This can give a great black leather, black latex, or black chitin effect.

**Mistress of minis**

Prime them grey. Do the black portions in a very dark grey- so you can shade it using washes like Badab black. Works better than trying to highlight with lighter greys alone.

For the white, work up from the grey prime, dry brushing with an off white or ivory, then picking up the sharp edges and prominent details with plain white.

You can also use a thinned down badab black, with a drop of white piant in it, to wash the recesses on the white parts.

White is a pain in the butt to paint well. Black is easy to do at a basic level but difficult to master. Practice and research to find what works for you

**Jonesyboy12**

Grey(t) tips guys

**Leigen_Zero**

Jonesyboy12 wrote:Grey(t) tips guys

Just go, go now...

For the jumpsuits on my stormboyz I used Chaos black, then a very light drybrush of Codex Grey (so that it just appears on the most prominent areas) and then washed the whole thing with Badab Black to tie the highlight to the basecoat. Works quite well but isn't the most elaborate or striking paintjob (but then again I have 15 to paint)

**Erik_Morkai**

I highlight my black with Adeptus Battlegrey and it comes out real nice. You can see some exemples here on the Deathwatch Devastator and the highlights on the Plasma Canons and Missile Launchers.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/425400.page

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/430211.page

As for highlighting white, like someone mentionned Space Wolf Grey works well or mix of ice blue and skull white. Can come out nicely depending on the other colors used.

**Lockark**

For black I sujest mixing Hawk Turquoise with Black to make your highlights. P3's "Coal black" is bassicly the colour your looking to make.

**andyroo9000**

Thanks for the help guys I will be trying some of your techniques out.

**TheHarleqwin**

I use a white primer, so I don't know how this process will work for any other coloured primers, but here's what I do:
Entire model gets base wash of devlan mud or badab black for shading, and then black cloth parts get washed in asurmen blue. Overtop that, I get a tiny bit of chaos black that I dip into the badab black pot, so that it's watered down with the wash. Does the trick for me.