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Anybody know how this armor was painted? What technique was used for the weathering? I guess the chipping is done with a sponge, but no idea how to make the armor look faded. Been trying to figure this out for a while.

image: http://www.coolminiornot.com/307343?browseid=10044272

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Tau-XV104-Riptide-Battlesuit-370687101

I'm not an advanced painter but this seems similar. In the comments section they say the just used an agrax earthshade wash all over followed by edge highlighting.

Hope that helps.

I've been planning on maybe doing something like this with some scions or something.

The chipping is done by hand, it's too precise to be a sponge. The worn down look is probably a mix of selectively applied washes and pigments.

Give this article a read: http://thebrushbrothers.blogspot.com/2011/02/yellow-grey-marine-some-step-by-step.html

rezin70 wrote:
Anybody know how this armor was painted? What technique was used for the weathering? I guess the chipping is done with a sponge, but no idea how to make the armor look faded. Been trying to figure this out for a while.

image: http://www.coolminiornot.com/307343?browseid=10044272

Well he uses heavy shading. Most of the model is dark; but areas he wants to draw your eye to (the zenithal highlight and important areas) he highlighted with dull and muted colors. He also seems to have dirtied it up with some brown/rust-ish color, especially near the feet.

The chips can be done with brush or sponge. It's just a simple technique... add small marks with your darkest shadow color; highlight the underside --> where the light would catch the bottom of the chip, with your brightest highlight color.

This was done with photoshop and it's a vehicle obviously but the technique is pretty much the same except you'll be more subtle on a marine and with highlights only on the underside of the chip.

 Gunzhard wrote:

rezin70 wrote:
Anybody know how this armor was painted? What technique was used for the weathering? I guess the chipping is done with a sponge, but no idea how to make the armor look faded. Been trying to figure this out for a while.

image: http://www.coolminiornot.com/307343?browseid=10044272

Well he uses heavy shading. Most of the model is dark; but areas he wants to draw your eye to (the zenithal highlight and important areas) he highlighted with dull and muted colors. He also seems to have dirtied it up with some brown/rust-ish color, especially near the feet.

The chips can be done with brush or sponge. It's just a simple technique... add small marks with your darkest shadow color; highlight the underside --> where the light would catch the bottom of the chip, with your brightest highlight color.

That's probably it. I'll have to give it a shot.

Here is a Templar he did. Really want to mimic his technique

Templar: http://www.coolminiornot.com/257926?browseid=10045265

I would love to know how he did that colour on the armour. Would you start with a darkish blue, maybe something like Kantor blue, then just do black lining with a wash and add white or maybe grey for the highlight (to make the highlights a more muted tone than simply using a lighter blue)?

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I would love to know how he did that colour on the armour. Would you start with a darkish blue, maybe something like Kantor blue, then just do black lining with a wash and add white or maybe grey for the highlight (to make the highlights a more muted tone than simply using a lighter blue)?

Nope, tried that already.

It looks like really straight forward zenithal highlighting to me

Jaro (Buypainted) uses that style to great effect, like here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8swhVJfm_E

kb_lock wrote:
It looks like really straight forward zenithal highlighting to me

Jaro (Buypainted) uses that style to great effect, like here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8swhVJfm_E

I'm more thinking what colours he used to achieve that effect where it's blue but not overly blue and still has a lot of contrast. I have an airbrush for highlighting, just not sure what colours to use. I'd love to use that colour for my Space Wolves

Ah, I get you.

You know, zooming in, it looks like it could be a wet blend or something

Anyway, yeah maybe kantor to ultra up to ice/glacier? Seems to finish to white or wolf grey or something.

rezin70 wrote:


That's probably it. I'll have to give it a shot.

Here is a Templar he did. Really want to mimic his technique

Templar: http://www.coolminiornot.com/257926?browseid=10045265

Some of the effects on the Templar could also be done with an airbrush. In particular, if you look at the red glow on the arms, chest, and legs -- it's easy to get circular gradient that diffuses towards the edge, as this is much what happens when you pull the trigger on an airbrush. A telltale sign is if the blending looks TOO circular -- that is, someone with a brush would often wet blend along the edge of armor and/or a zenith line; someone doing some quick glow effects with an airbrush will get a circular highlight with its center at where your attention should be drawn. Raised edges will tend to look more pronounced, because they will be closer to the airbrush tip.

You can also get the highlight effects on the top edges of the armor and the red glow with by wet blending the highlights and basecoat, or feathering the highlight color down to the base color (with water).

The chip effects are done manually, and the cloth on the front looks like a simple basecoat+wash+highlight; on the back, possibly with a bit of feathering or wet blending to soften the edges on the back piece. The gold also looks like basecoat/wash/highlight.

Glowing visor could be white + red glaze.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I would love to know how he did that colour on the armour. Would you start with a darkish blue, maybe something like Kantor blue, then just do black lining with a wash and add white or maybe grey for the highlight (to make the highlights a more muted tone than simply using a lighter blue)?

No, it looks like a black base

It would be Black with an airbrush highlight of kantor still leaving the black in the shadows. Then probably a black wash.

Then it is highlighted with pure white glazes. You will need to learn glazing and how to use thinners because you will never get an effect like that if your white paint is too opaque.

He probably did a few spots like the knee pad with an airbrush but most of it appears to be done by hand, so get ready for some pain.

Then he adds the new colour to the black shadows again using thin airbrush paint and transparent glazes. Brown in this case which adds a nice contrast to the blue.

If you go to the link you have of the picture you are looking at, it has under the picture the option to send them a message. I would just send him a message and ask him what techniques he used. I don't see why someone wouldn't help out a fellow gamer and painter.

kb305 wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I would love to know how he did that colour on the armour. Would you start with a darkish blue, maybe something like Kantor blue, then just do black lining with a wash and add white or maybe grey for the highlight (to make the highlights a more muted tone than simply using a lighter blue)?

No, it looks like a black base

It would be Black with an airbrush highlight of kantor still leaving the black in the shadows. Then probably a black wash.

Then it is highlighted with pure white glazes. You will need to learn glazing and how to use thinners because you will never get an effect like that if your white paint is too opaque.

He probably did a few spots like the knee pad with an airbrush but most of it appears to be done by hand, so get ready for some pain.

Then he adds the new colour to the black shadows again using thin airbrush paint and transparent glazes. Brown in this case which adds a nice contrast to the blue.

What tips you off that it was done by hand with glazing vs airbrush? I zoomed in to the picture and I see pixels before I see anything that would suggest what technique he used.

DarkKnights44 wrote:If you go to the link you have of the picture you are looking at, it has under the picture the option to send them a message. I would just send him a message and ask him what techniques he used. I don't see why someone wouldn't help out a fellow gamer and painter.

Yeah but then I'd have to create a cmon account I didn't really want to know exactly how it was done so much as how I could achieve a similar result.

Anyway, I had a shot at recreating it, came pretty close. I just used an airbrush for all of it. Undercoated black, then went over with Caledor Sky blue (because I don't have any Kantor). I left a touch of black paint in the cup, so it wasn't pure Caledor Sky, it was slightly darkened (probably 2 drops Caledor Sky to half a drop of black, maybe less black). Then I mixed in 2 drops of white, before spraying I noticed it wasn't muted enough... so I added another 1 drop of black and another 2 drops of white. So at this stage it's probably about 2 drops Caledor Sky, 4 drops white, 1 drop black. This really dulled the paint out. Spray that as a pretty aggressive highlight (probably covering a third or more of the model). Then added a few more drops of white (so it's probably close to the old Space Wolves Grey, but a bit more bluish maybe) and did that as a final spot highlight.

I then varnished it, so tomorrow I'll come back and do some black wash in the crevices and maybe just an edge highlight.

It sounds long and complicated but since it's mostly airbrushing it's actually quite fast.

My only problem is the blue is a little bit too dull, his blue is actually quite vibrant in spots, he used a dull highlight but under that it's quite vibrant. I think pure Caledor Sky would work better, maybe even over a grey undercoat instead of a black undercoat.

EDIT: Actually, keep it over a black undercoat otherwise you have to post shade it and I usually don't like the look of post shading Maybe just do another pass or 2 to brighten up the blue before moving on to the highlights.