The black project

[mcjomar]

This is the sorry state I've currently gotten into. 

[Cortez]

Painting that cream colour is going to be difficult. But most models look bad in the early stages of painting, so don't give up and it'll look ok in the end.

[mcjomar]

My big problem is the black-to-grey highlight from the image at the bottom of the previous page.

I've trying to layer it, but it keeps looking like a brush stroke, rather than a highlight.
And I've just attacked the skull knee with a knife to try and recover the detail.
Now applying LGS to repair it before recoating

[Cortez]

Do you mean around the armour edges?

Hard to say from the photo, but the skull on the knee looked ok to me.

[Lord Borak]

I find edge highlighting works easier with black than using the NMM approach which is difficult to say the least. Here's a close up of Banus to show you the edge highlighting....



... all I did was highlight with a dark grey, then a lither grey in the 'sun-ward' facing edges and then finally a spot of really light grey on the corners of armour or the centre of curved edges.

As for the rest. I very rarely (never) start a light colour off with the main base coat. I know you use a lot of washes but maybe, in future, start off with a few darker shades before you go straight into the light colours. With the cream you have you can do a couple of washes on it but mix a little of the cream colour in with your washes as it takes the edge off the contrast and it blends in better. Also, a few really thin washes works better than one thick coat as you tend to end up with 'pools' on large areas.

[mcjomar]

Welp, I was trying to replicate this scheme here.




This is the current state.
As you can see, I've recovered some of the skull detail, rather than leaving it a blobby mess.
The blend has sort of worked, but I may take the easy way out and just edge highlight instead, like you suggest.

[mcjomar]

I'm trying to get that green edge highlighting going now, maybe see if it comes up okay.

[mcjomar]

Is it getting better?
It makes me feel better to see more colours blocked in, anyway.

[mcjomar]

Here we are.
Not so bad I guess?
Still got more to do.

[Lord Borak]

Looking much better. I really like how the armour came out. Well done. 

[Cortez]

That's looking good now.

[mcjomar]

Okay so I'm planning on having another swipe at those robes tonight, along with reviewing the rest of the armour as I think I'd like to leave the legs as they are for now, rather than fouling up something that looks pretty reasonable.

The guide I stumbled over that best seems to suit roughly what I'm going for is this:

Basecoat them brown (your choice which, but a reasonably dark one like Bestial or Scorched works for me)

Then paint over it with Bleached Bone, leaving only a little bit of brown in the darkest recesses.

Then wash the whole thing with a brown wash or ink. Devlan Miracle (mud) is probably your best bet here, although Gryphonne Sepia is worth a try to see which you like best.

Then highlight the higher/raised areas of the robes again with Bleached Bone, leaving the darker washed areas more intact in every fold and lowered area.

Then mix Bleached 50/50 with Skull White and highlight just the very highest areas; the very edge of the folks, point of the knee, etc.

Be sure to post some pictures to let us see how they come out!

Which I think I found on Dakkadakka.

However, when I tried the wash due to a larger surface area (I tried gryphonne sepia instead of my devlan mud), it came out a little blotchy, so I repainted over it.
I'm tempted to try again, but instead of repainting, just dry brushing to see if that resolves the blotching issue.
Will that work?

[greenstuff_gav]

id start with XV88 then Karak Stone

[mcjomar]

I actually don't have either of those.
I'm trying for the warmer look as shown in the picture of the 28mm version of the model.
Gryphonne Sepia sort of works, but still blotches, even in thin layers.

E: I stumbled on something close.
Using gryphonne sepia as a wet blend with bleached bone, rather than as a wash. it gets exactly the right tone.
All I need to do is edge highlight with normal bleached bone, then extreme highlight with 50/50 bone/white, and I'm good?

[mcjomar]

Okay, I think I'm nearly there.
I'd better be as tomorrow evening will be my last opportunity.












Just need to do the face and maybe a few other details.