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Hey all

Trying to get my head around something. I've got a Witch Hunter model to paint for Warhammer Quest, it has various items of leather clothing on it, including it's "trench coat".

I'd like to paint the leather a dark, almost black, brown. Or maybe it should be described as black with a brown tinge to it.

But I'm stuck with how to achieve that, especially as I'm using Citadel paints. The Citadel paint method for a dark leather is Rhinox Hide, washed with Nuln Oil, with Gorthor Brown and Baneblade Brown highlights. However I know, having used that combination on another model, that it doesn't turn out dark enough.

I could try adding black to the Rhinox hide, but then I'd have to darken down my highlight colours, which then leaves me mixing up paint quite a bit - something that I'd like to avoid.

The other idea I've had is to follow the Citadel paint method, then darken it all down with a layer or two of Vallejo Black Glaze. But I've never done that so I'm unsure of how that will go.

There are no folds in the "tench coat", it's all smooth, so I don't think that drybrushing Rhinox hide (or Dryad Bark) over black would work either?


Can anyone here give me some tips/ideas on achieving this?

Thanks in advance.

I did a worn leather(hat and boots) with red leather for this inquisitor:

worn leather: black primer, Charadon Granite(skavenblight dinge), layer stormvermin fur, wash eathshade, highlight balor brown
red leather: black primer, rhinox hide, layer doombull brown, edge with squig orange, wash eathshade

on black leather: you can do black primer, wash of watered down rhinox brown, layer with a mix of rhinox brown and chaos black OR maybe corvus black, then highlight with dark/med greys such as mechanicus grey, wash with nuin oil.

Feltmonkey did a good worn leather in one of the monthly paint competition

 Rybrook wrote:
Feltmonkey did a good worn leather in one of the monthly paint competition

Thanks. I've looked through the 1st 10 pages of his posts, but can't spot it. Did see his Primaris Chaplain with a brown leather robe, but that's not really what I'm trying to achieve, too light, too brown. I'll have a further look to see if I can spot any other examples he's done.

I think in the end I'm going to have to wing it and see how it turns out, as no-one seems to do anything that is close to black with a hint of brown, they always use GWs recipe, or the usual brown style, or it's just not black enough!

I seem to have a thing about doing off-black models at the moment and failing to comprehend how to achieve the effect(s) I'm after!

I never quite know what I'm doing most of the time when it comes to applying paint anyway.

I struggled to find a very dark brown close to black for a while for doing some horses.

This is a very dark brown -

https://www.blackhat.co.uk/product/216-negro/

This is a dark brown -

https://www.humbrol.com/uk-en/shop/paints/acrylic-paints/251-rlm-81-dunkelbraun-matt-14ml-acrylic-paint.html

Thanks for that. The Coat D'Arms Dark Flesh does look like it is very very dark. Have seen one photo of it in the pot and the pot looks almost black.

I might grab the triad that Blackhat do for dark brown, as that contains Dark Flesh, plus 2 other colours. That might be a starting point for what I want to achieve.

I have found using the P3 brown ink over a bone or deep ivory color looks stellar for dark leather.

OK thanks guys. I'll have to have a play, I have Vallejo Black Ink on the way so I'll water that down and try it as a glaze and see how I go.

You could stick with your original plan of base/ highlight, but base it black, and highlight with rhinox hide. If that's too dark you can gradually mix in some lighter brown into the rhinox for the sharper edges, but I know you wanted to avoid that.
Alternatively you could try basing it black and drybrushing the rhinox hide on.