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Drybrush silver. But beware, the brush needs to be very dry to get a subtle effect. Remember Duncan words, its easier to add more than to take it away.
There are a few ways to make black more interesting. One is to make it a very glossy black which, as Kanluwen suggested, can be done easy with a gloss shade (just make sure you only apply it to the parts that're meant to be glossy, don't want the soft armour catching the light too).
Another would be to highlight/very lightly layer it up with more turquoise like colours just to make it more interesting than black>grey>lighter grey.
You could also do the black as a black metal, just starting with the darkest metal you can get your hands on and continuing to shade it down to black but keeping the actual metallic look.
Or go with battle damage and have metallic or ceremite grey colours 'showing through' where the black has chipped away.
Fafnir wrote: Oh, I certainly vote with my dollar, but the problem is that that is not enough. The problem with the 'vote with your dollar' response is that it doesn't take into account why we're not buying the product. I want to enjoy 40k enough to buy back in. It was my introduction to traditional games, and there was a time when I enjoyed it very much. I want to buy 40k, but Gamesworkshop is doing their very best to push me away, and simply not buying their product won't tell them that.
There are 2 ways to make black armour pop. Both have bee listed in this thread: Highlights and Gloss varnish
I prefer both if I was doing a whole army, but here are some Marine examples of mine:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
If you take a look at the Raven Guard's black shoulder pads, it has been gloss varnished (as are all my icon shoulder pads) But for the highlighting, I just mix a very dark grey and pick out the edges If you wanted to do both highlights and gloss, I'd recommend using a medium grey, then wash with Nuln Oil gloss. It will darken the grey a bit, so that's why I wouldn't use a grey that is already dark as the Nuln Oil might make you efforts pointless.
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This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/06/11 14:24:15
I found painting black armour a chore at first, but with a little practice and care I can paint it as quickly (if not quicker) than any other colour.
Abaddon black base coat
I use Dark Reaper as the edge highlight and make the highlights as fine and thin as possible, thin paint is a must and a wet pallet makes life a heck of a lot easier. Next go back to Abaddon black and touch up along those highlights to correct any mistakes and help get those Dark reaper highlights as fine and sharp as possible.
Lastly fenrisian grey as the fine edge highlight, use the side of a very fine brush to get the highlight as fine as possible, you want to avoid completely obscure the dark reaper underneath.
Long-time Black Legion player here. Painting up a good black color scheme is pretty tricky, it's easy to go overboard on edge highlighting or fall into the trap of a dark gray.
I've settled on a technique that's pretty efficient and provides good results. It's demonstrated in this video, painting the black armor of a Deathwatch captain:
To help you decipher what's going on, here's an overview of the process:
1) Undercoat the miniature black.
2) Airbrush highlights on the mini. The color used is a pale gray with a slight green tint.
3) Create a "wash" with matte medium and black ink.
4) Apply a thick coat of the wash to all black surfaces.*
5) Allow the wash to dry. The highlights should show through.
* NOTE: Washes are often used for darkening recessed areas on miniatures. This wash is used differently, most people would call this technique a filter. You are using a transparent paint to give black panels a raised appearance.
I've used this technique on a number of CSM units. It took a fair amount of experimentation to get the highlight and the wash mix correct. But the results are beautiful.
I've recently been painting up some Black Legion Troops. I found a highlight effect I liked by using extremely dark blue for highlights. It still "feels" like a cold black that's catching light. I like it a bit better than the really stark grey highlights after trying both. Here's roughly what it looks like once it pops out the other side.
Hatachi wrote: I've recently been painting up some Black Legion Troops. I found a highlight effect I liked by using extremely dark blue for highlights. It still "feels" like a cold black that's catching light. I like it a bit better than the really stark grey highlights after trying both. Here's roughly what it looks like once it pops out the other side.
Alternatively, dark purple can look striking as well. It just depends on the outcome you want.
Hatachi wrote: I've recently been painting up some Black Legion Troops. I found a highlight effect I liked by using extremely dark blue for highlights. It still "feels" like a cold black that's catching light. I like it a bit better than the really stark grey highlights after trying both. Here's roughly what it looks like once it pops out the other side.
Spoiler:
GW has several tutorials using this technique on Warhammer TV:
'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'
- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
I’ve been doing a metallic black color scheme for my deathwatch that takes a lot of the steps out of painting black armor. Naturally there’s a Duncan video that goes in-depth on it, but basically prime black, basecoat a dark metal like steel or boltgun, wash it black, do a few drybrushed highlights of silver, then wash it all black again.
It’s not as in-depth as I remember but it gets across the gist. Dark metal basecoat, wash it black til you’re happy, edge highlight. I prefer the army painter black wash just due to it having more surface tension and not running into the cracks as much as the GW washes, so it gives more of a uniform darkening.
An odd but effective method of highlighting black base-coated armour is to use a scalpel to gently scrape the black paint off the edges, revealing the grey underneath. (Obviously, this only works if the underlying model is gray plastic.) Time consuming, but gives much neater highlights than most people can paint.
Mozzaman wrote: I found painting black armour a chore at first, but with a little practice and care I can paint it as quickly (if not quicker) than any other colour.
Abaddon black base coat
I use Dark Reaper as the edge highlight and make the highlights as fine and thin as possible, thin paint is a must and a wet pallet makes life a heck of a lot easier. Next go back to Abaddon black and touch up along those highlights to correct any mistakes and help get those Dark reaper highlights as fine and sharp as possible.
Lastly fenrisian grey as the fine edge highlight, use the side of a very fine brush to get the highlight as fine as possible, you want to avoid completely obscure the dark reaper underneath.
Takes practice but works for me.
I do exactly this, except with a drybrush. Quick, easy and effective.
