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Hi all,

I'm considering painting a large amount of black templars or raven guard, and I'm not sure what the best way would be to paint the black armor without hours upon hours of edge highlighting. Any thoughts?

GW black spray. It's the closest thing you're going to get for 'painted with acrylic paint' feel without actually painting.

I still want armor that is more than just flat black, just without so much edge highlighting. Some ideas that I've had so far are the black templar contrast paint, drybrushing, etc. I'm probably going to prime black, but I'm trying to find techniques that will be faster.

An airbrush, if you have access to one, is definitely the best route. Prime black, zenithal highlight with dark grey and just work lighter and lighter until you've got what you want. Wash with black, then do a single round of edge highlighting.

If you want to go the drybrushing route, check out Vertisee models on youtube. He has a lot of tutorials where he drybrushes marines to get a variety of finishes. If you want to use contrast paints, check out Juan Hidalgo miniatures on youtube. All of his tutorials use contrast paints with just a few edge highlights.

I think Corvus Black is in fact very dark grey. This allows you to add shadows to it. It comes in an 'air' version. You could pump it though an airbrush using the 'zenithal' technique. If you buy an additional post, you could add white to it to create a slight lighter shade & airbrush this for final highlights??

Then it's going to be easier to work up your darks rather than working up your brights.

50:50 mix of grey + black, then shade with matte wash. Rough edge highlight with grey, then final touch up highlights with palid wych flesh (white with hint of grey).

By setting the base color as "off" black (aka really dark grey) can help you 'cheat' with the zenithal highlights at the round geometries like helmet and shoulder pads.

Easy. Paint it in a colour that is not black. And then wash it with black. But since you are painting SW it will pool, so be carefull when washing.

The key to black is that nothing is truly black. If it's illuminated and you can see it, the light is defining edges and shapes of varying lightness.

If you paint something in dark colors- using black for just the very deepest darkest shading- it'll read as 'black', even if most of it isn't charcoal black pigment.

For easy results I second the suggestion to consider zenithal highlighting. With an airbrush it's easy to build up the greys and get a realistic 'lit from above' look, which makes the mental leap to 'this is black' easier.

Check out this article- it's a nice step-by-step for painting Black Templars, primarily with zenithal highlights, and with a minimum of edge highlighting.

Or paint it really black!

https://culturehustle.com/products/black-3-0-the-worlds-blackest-black-acrylic-paint-150ml

To find out more the history of the blackest black check this podcast:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/their-dark-materials/

Warning. It might cause vertigo, headaces and will probably be really anoying to work with.

An atemt at experienting with it can be seen here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8IY0Wz50ag

Edit: I must admitt I have a secret desire to paint something with black 3. A necron perhaps. And then drybrush it.... :-o

 Niiai wrote:
Or paint it really black!

https://culturehustle.com/products/black-3-0-the-worlds-blackest-black-acrylic-paint-150ml

To find out more the history of the blackest black check this podcast:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/their-dark-materials/

Warning. It might cause vertigo, headaces and will probably be really anoying to work with.

An atemt at experienting with it can be seen here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8IY0Wz50ag

Edit: I must admitt I have a secret desire to paint something with black 3. A necron perhaps. And then drybrush it.... :-o

I’ve thought about this but the blackest black absorbs 80% of light I think. So on a small detailed model your just going to see a black lump. I suppose with some well thought out highlighting you could get a great effect but I would worry that a regular mini would be too small for the eye. They sell pinkest pink, bluest blue etc and I don’t think the pigment is a lot. Would definitely like to try something like this one day

The finish on those ultra-absorbent paints isn't very pleasant to the touch either, and relatively fragile. Varnishing them ruins the effect too, so all around not so great for miniatures.

It seems like I'm one of the only people who starts my blacks at black and works up... This is time consuming though so it may enjoy be practical for lots of models.

I like to airbrush black, and drybrush silver. Its very fast, but the end result isnt really black. Its important to remove all silver paint from the drybrush, this will give you very subtle silver highlights.

mrFickle wrote:

 Niiai wrote:
Or paint it really black!

https://culturehustle.com/products/black-3-0-the-worlds-blackest-black-acrylic-paint-150ml

To find out more the history of the blackest black check this podcast:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/their-dark-materials/

Warning. It might cause vertigo, headaces and will probably be really anoying to work with.

An atemt at experienting with it can be seen here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8IY0Wz50ag

Edit: I must admitt I have a secret desire to paint something with black 3. A necron perhaps. And then drybrush it.... :-o

I’ve thought about this but the blackest black absorbs 80% of light I think. So on a small detailed model your just going to see a black lump. I suppose with some well thought out highlighting you could get a great effect but I would worry that a regular mini would be too small for the eye. They sell pinkest pink, bluest blue etc and I don’t think the pigment is a lot. Would definitely like to try something like this one day

The practical problem with drybrushing is that I would not be able to see where I drybrush. :-p

I am also not shure if I can thin it. Nor what happens if I seal it with warnish.

But it would be very cool if all the black melted together no matter what angle and you only see the highlight.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
It seems like I'm one of the only people who starts my blacks at black and works up... This is time consuming though so it may enjoy be practical for lots of models.

I vary. If the main colour is black, i prime in black, then paint black over the top, otherwise i start on grey.

If I'm ever painting black I start from grey primer but basecoat my model black and work from there if it's the main colour.

OP, airbrushing is your answer if you want the soft gradient of black to grey but still have the model read as black without edge highlighting. If you wanted, VMC German Grey mixed with black is a decent colour if you want an off-black. You still have to edge highlight it though.

Have you looked at green stuff worlds black steel pigments? This light get you a quicker result, depending on what your are going for. I’m thinking of trying to mix it with some medium and what you will get is a light metallic black coat that will produce its own highlights. I think I have seen a picture of this but haven’t had time to try it myself.

I am also going to have a go at using thier intensity ink to make a good quick power armour base in black.

However if you want a really quick result what about a black gloss spray paint? It just depends how basic you are prepared to accept your colour scheme being. Black, to look good, requires a lot of work, in my experience

Greetings! I'm not a pro by any means, but I've been really cutting my teeth in painting with black schemes for a while. I was looking for something that would effectively translate to speed and effect in balance. My own research and experimenting has gotten me to a method that I would say is a very comfortable basic scheme for Table Ready standard. I'm still evolving it as I grow in skill but the foundation of painting my Black Templar army is all rooted in this right now.

I start with GW Chaos Black spray. Basic easy.

Then do a Heavy Dry brush of Esshin Gray. And like seriously, heavy handed with it. Practically to the point where something like a Space Marines pauldron would be nearly coated, but because your using a dry technique you're missing the recess areas, implying a recess shaded without doing one. You should be able at this point to make out the panel lines without having shaded them.

Then a really light handed dry brush with Administratum Gray to get your edges and highlights at the same time. Your trying here to get the edges mostly but as you graze around the model go ahead and flick it around things like the dome of the head and knee pads.

And that's it. It's worked great for me so far. Hope it gives you some ideas!

I've been painting my marines with an undercoat of Ledbelcher then some Black Templar Contrast, and enhancing with a dry brush of silver (Necron Compound). Keeps the luster of metal with some shading and line demarcation.

Eww. GW sprays that are overpriced Krylon sprays? No thank you.

I do agree starting with black primer/base obvo. P3 makes a color called "coal black". It's a very dark blue/black paint. Do a black prime, basecoat with Vallejo Black paint (it's the best black acrylic i've used) and then do edge highlights with Coal Black. It has just enough blue to highlight but not so much as to give a "Tron" effect like you see with lots of Black Templar models or other black based minis.

PS. Contrary to "opinion" automotive paints aren't "thicker" than GW or other "hobby" aerosols. You are just paying for the branding, especially with GW branded products. I prime/base all my plastics with either Krylon Camo Black or Rustoleum Camo Black and I've never had issues with obscured details due to paint "thickness". Camo colors are super matte and so absorb light so can make detail hard to see but that's not due to the paint clogging details, that's just the trick of light.