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I'm looking to paint up a guard army, can I spray black, then spray very lightly with white from the top down. Then spray with mechanicus standard grey and retain the highlights?

If by spray you mean airbrush, then yeah that can work. It's not gonna be the prettiest army ever, but it will get done fast that way.

I meant spray paint. I've got some old marines I might test it on first

There is no way that works with spray. It's just not the same thing.

Yeah thats not how that works, priming black then sparying white from the top down is a way to show YOU as the painter where highlights will go.

You can however cheese it and do that, then wash it with nulin oil for a down a dirty black with highlights, but its very meh.

You might have a shot if you spray your white heavily. Although I don't know how solid Mechanicus grey is.

I hate spray cans. I cant ever do any better than a heavy coat, or splatters. If by chance you can finesse them you might have a shot.

4zero6 wrote:
You might have a shot if you spray your white heavily. Although I don't know how solid Mechanicus grey is.

I hate spray cans. I cant ever do any better than a heavy coat, or splatters. If by chance you can finesse them you might have a shot.

I would advise against this, Spray cans have no control, zynithal highlighting with a can is just to lay it out for the painter, not meant to be a "Oh i can do my highlighting this way." As i said you can do some down and dirty tricks with it but thats all they are, tricks.

You can do zenithal priming with 2 or 3 rattlecans.

Start black, and work through colours tightening the angle to 'top down'. Your final white or light spray should basically just be a very light dusting from above.

It'll never be a smooth as an airbrush (as you mix paint in the cup to get many mixes for a smooth transition).

Over zenithal priming, you're effectively using the primer coat as a 'guide' for highlights, and basecoating with glazes (the mix, not the GW paints) to build up colour carefully, smooth away the grainy underlying layers and adjust the tone (bright colours in particular will want adjusting at both shade and highlight).

It's not particularly fast if you want it smooth.

Well I tried it out and it didn't work haha. Worth an experiment I guess.

A friend of mine said, to do zenithal with a spray can, do not aim at the model, but slightly to the side.

You shouldn't be drenching a model with a spray anyway, all you'll do is gunk up all the detail.