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I'm looking for a way to paint large quantities of black-armored models in a consistent fashion. Mixing paints never seems to give me a consistent color across different batches, and I'm not satisfied with how rough painting grey and washing several times looks (not to mention the cost of buying so many Nuln Oil washes...), particularly on vehicles. My last option right now, as far as I know, is to use the edge-highlighting method, but in my opinion that still comes out too contrast-y and "fake" looking.

Would spraying white and painting black over give a lighter shade? Does any other company produce paints that are black-but-not-as-dark-as-black-black? Is there a secret to mixing paints consistently that I don't know about?

Army Painter has a Metallic Black which I use for Ork Goff Kanz, Trucks and Battlewagons.

Its black, but with enough metal in it to not be too dark.

It also sprays well.

Vallejo German Grey, Black-grey, VGC Charcoal grey, all work nicely as soft highights on black. Use a blend-back method for a nice smooth result (blend back to black, as opposed to up to grey; it's far easier).

No airbrush i assume?

Personal pref for black would be

Rattle Can black.
Airbrush or hand brush miss spots with just black

Airbrush 90 degree with minitaure Raven black (its slightly grey)

Then 45 some Vallejo German gray

Then IIRC GW mechancus grey. straight top and highlights by hand or airbrush.

Codex grey + Pure white as spot highlights.

You can always use 1 paint range and mix inbetween instead to get the blend but i find these work for me

I don't have an airbrush yet, unfortunately, and highlighting for black doesn't cut it for me as for something like a Fire Raptor, where there's a huuuge amount of flat panels, it doesn't look good still.

Has anyone tried the Vallejo Game Color Smokey Ink or Vallejo Model Color Black Grey? These look like almost-blacks to me.

Inks are gona act diffrently and if you want a very Dark grey instead of black you could use black grey.

If you are really trying to do bulk i think for infantry at least you could go the glaze/ wash route.

Prime models Black

OVer spray from above with grey rattle can.

Make a ton of blackish glaze with a very dark Grey and wash the whole model with a large brush.

It couldnt hurt to try.

Cheers, thanks! I'm going to see if I can pick up black grey to see if that works. I think an appropriately washed and highlighted very dark grey would work. I really can't wait to pick up an airbrush :/

There's two ways to do edge highlights just with a brush and some black and grey, the question more lies with what look do you want?

If you want an extreme highlight, use a lighter grey. Itl stand out more but is a solid highlight-I think this is the more "fake" look you're talking about too. The other way is a lighter, subtle highlight using a darker grey. This gives your model a little bit of definition without looking so fake. It also is great for the more "matte" black approach.

-SCP

I picked up a bottle of VMC Black Grey and VMA Black to see how it turns out, as well as VMA Black Metal. Time to do some tests