Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi guys. So winter is now gone which means i can get back in my conservatory and paint. Now i'm experimenting with ways to paint black onto larger surfaces without making them look flat and was wondering on how others do it.

I've currently gone for a black base then a single shade of grey then darken it back down with black wash (nuln oil) I've experimented with using a darker grey and a lighter grey but wanted to see some other peoples examples if possible. I've also tried doing two shades of grey on the same panel but i just cant get it to blend right yet.

So here's what just plain black looks like (painted on with a brush as you can see)


Here's with the darker of the greys


And here is with the lighter of the greys


Please excuse the sloppy brush and airbrush work. This poor guy is very much a "test stuff and see what happens" piece.

The shoulder piece with the darker of the greys looks great. It has enough variation that it's interesting, but still is quite uniform.

The lighter grey isn't too bad, but I'd probably wash it back again unless you want the high contrast.

On big panels like that I'd be inclined to do something else, some weathering/battle damage, some kind of free hand will counter the fact that black can be boring.

With hair brush?

laying or wet blending. probably from something like VG German grey down to black in the darkest areas.

With Airbrush?

blend up from black i figure.

then for washing i would suggest carefully pin washing or oil washing. seems you are getting a lot of pooling and streaks .

 Desubot wrote:
With hair brush?

laying or wet blending. probably from something like VG German grey down to black in the darkest areas.

With Airbrush?

blend up from black i figure.

then for washing i would suggest carefully pin washing or oil washing. seems you are getting a lot of pooling and streaks .

No way i would try an brush bigger panels.

Do you have any examples of how you would of done it with airbrush on say, a black tank? or something large and black?

Extreme edge highlighting is your friend.

 Vulcan wrote:
Extreme edge highlighting is your friend.

how would you edge highlight the plate... it has no edges.

you ened to highlight those areas with an oval/circle that mimics light. go look up some top notch space marines on coolmini and look at the shoulder pads and such.

eosgreen wrote:


how would you edge highlight the plate... it has no edges.

I imagine he means thinly pin stripping the plate around where the metallic outer plating meets the black shoulder plating. I could be wrong.

I don't aim to paint much beyond table top quality so I take the easy way out (dry brushing leadbelcher over black metalic surfaces) which looks great to me. You kill 3 birds with one stone; breaking up a flat surface, weathering and highlighting! I've even, to my surprise, received a fair amount of compliments about how good my black vehicles look (perhaps they are just being nice though!). However, this method may not produce results of the quality you are looking for.

you can drybrush a blue/grey and it will make it not flat but look good. assuming you can drybrush it properly. try using "the fang" or add a bit of black to it and use that.