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Hello guys,

I just started to paint a batch of ultramarines, and I am done with the airbrush part. I have started the details, and they look like this :





A friend told me that I should add wash on it, to smooth a bit the colors. I am not a big user of wash on power armour, should I apply a thin coat on all the figurine ? which one should I use ?

Thanks for your help !

I'd wash it with brown or black ink then bring back up the color on the broader areas. It'll add a lot of depth to the mini and make it look less flat.

Or you could use blue ink, that might look good too, I think it depends on how clean you want the armor to look.

A thin dark blue wash into the recesses of the armour panels will add some depth to the armour.
A thin black wash into the bolter and other metals areas will also add depth.

Putting a thin coat of wash over the whole panel is usually called a glaze. It usually makes the colours richer or changes the tones slightly.

I would put a thin dark blue wash into the recesses and a black wash on the silver metallics. This will give it the depth your friend is probably looking for.
Certainly there are other tricks you can do, but if you need 60 odd tacticals painting up, you want a quick method.

Thanks.

I usually like clean colors and armour, that's why I was thinking on applying a unifrom layer on the figurine. I was thinking of Nuln Oil for the metallic parts, and drakenof nightshade for the armour...

I use a lot of washes/glazes on my Ultras.


The golds have a chestnut wash on them.
Silvers/greys (just the krack grenades on these guys) get a nulan oil.
Base blue is Macragge, and these guys have a drakenof nightshade wash over that blue. Most of the time I use an old pot of Blue Ink, but I was almost out when I started painting my 30k guys, so they got the nightshade. I’ve since acquired a new pot of the old ink, so am back to a more brilliant sapphire blue on most of my guys.


From left to right:
Guiliman blue glaze
Blue Ink (from the Cote D’arms days)
Drakenhof nightshade

You can also see in that picture how the modern washes flow differently then the inks/glazes. They do, in fact, go into the recesses better to add shading, while the ink/glaze does this a little, but alters the color more then adds depth.

Although I'm not painting Ultramarines, my Celestial Lions have ultramarine blue on them.

I have been painting nuln oil as a recess shade on all of the armor panels and the 'seam' between the blue field of the shoulder pad and the gold edge.

On the metallic bolters it's an all over wash of nuln oil.

For 'neat' power armor, I like the extra depth you get on panel lines and such when they are carefully painted with a shade.

I use a thin blue wash all over my ultras:



I find that it gives some depth/texture to the “flat” blue armour. Plus I like the slightly darker shade it becomes.


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Also I can then do a very subtle edge highlight with the original ultramarine blue.