I've never really had a tremendous success with painting black armor. Either it ended up looking too flat or too dirty or too clean, etc. So this time, rather than just push blindly ahead with no real plan, I found a friend with a couple old models he was willing to part with in exchange for a quick and tidy paint job. The models were space wolves, but it didn't make much difference. The point was I had a method to test out various ideas on how to paint black and keep it interesting.
Method 1: Magic Washes
Maybe one of my favorite GW products of all time, the magic wash can do almost anything. So when it came time to paint black, I decided to put Badab Black to the test by giving several heavy washes to an already dark grey model.
The results didn't quite turn out as I had hoped. The finish was nice and smooth as I had expected, but the highlights I thought would be left just weren't. I am curious to see what the results would be like starting with a lighter grey or even a white, but for this guy, the details just kinda vanished, leaving him looking a little flat, though I was able to compensate by making the rest of the model pop a bit more.
Method 2: 'Ard Coat
This guy represented two firsts for me, as I had never worked with 'ard coat before this project. I was pleasantly surprised to see how easily it applied and dried, leaving him nice and glossy. The entire process was quick too as it only required a single coat of black, and a single coat of gloss. Visually I found this way to be my second favorite. If I had to paint an army of black armored soldiers in a hurry, I would definitely favor this method.
Method 3: Drybrush
I had to cheat a little on this guy just to see what would happen when introducing the element of cloth as well as traditional 'hard' armor. I quickly discovered that while the soft effect of the grey on black looked great on soft organic material, it just didn't quite hold up on the rigid surfaces of standard armor. Definitely recommended for robes, but leave this method at home for the real stuff.
Method 4: Hardline highlights
It should be pretty apparent by now which method I liked best. After having relatively good success with the first three models, I knew in order to push the quality up of the fourth, I had to pull out all the stops. As always, the most time consuming method ended up being the best for my needs.
The first step was to coat the model head to toe with Necron Abyss where the black armor would be. After that, I visualized where a single source of light would hit the model, and made a mental note of those locations. I went back with black and painted the shadows where they would fall, leaving the darkest parts pure black. I then went and built up highlights on the edges of the armor up through the blue tones, getting smaller and tighter with the lines on each further pass. Was I was left with was the impression of an almost mirror sheen under harsh lighting conditions, rigidly and neatly defined. I loved it.
Of course, as I said earlier, one of the chief considerations for any project is time. If you've got a couple weeks and you only need to paint a single model, go for it. I plan on using this guy for months to come, so I knew having a quality model would pay me back many times over. But if you've got an entire army that needs covering, and you want to be done in a few months, leave the fancy paintjobs for the HQ. Remember, you can always go back and improve, but not having your boyz done in time for the tournament never goes away.
