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How to highlight Black

Started by Chris, January 21, 2013, 11:13:06 PM

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Chris

Hey guys!
So I have about 45 Black Templar Terminators sat on my window sill waiting to be finished off. I just need to highlight them, but Don't really know since I have very little experience at Highlighting and very few available paints.

So I have, Celestra Grey, Abbadon Black, Ceramite White, Drake Tooth Blue wash and Black Wash....

Like I said, very little paints and no opportunity to get any more any time soon... What should i do with these?
Please keep any advice very simple!

Tom

With the paints you have the most simple method I can think of would be a ~1:1 mix of Celestra Grey (used to be called Astronomican) and Abaddon Black (Chaos Black) and to use that as an extreme edge highlight only.

I understand this might not be too helpful because you have limited paints at your disposal but this is what I'd do if I had 45 Terminators I wanted black:
- Black Basecoat
- Drybrush 1:1 Codex Grey to Chaos Black
- Heavy Wash with Badab black
- Highlight 1:1 Codex Grey to Chaos Black
- Extreme Highlight Codex Grey
That's quick, doesn't end up looking grey and does give definition to black surfaces that can sometimes look flat.

As Astronomican is lighter than Codex grey I think you'd do best to darken it as I suggested. And as you say you're already in the highlighting stage I thought just the one step would be best.

crisis_vyper

Quote from: Tom on January 22, 2013, 03:05:19 AM
With the paints you have the most simple method I can think of would be a ~1:1 mix of Celestra Grey (used to be called Astronomican) and Abaddon Black (Chaos Black) and to use that as an extreme edge highlight only.

What I would say too, but instead, I would say 2;1 ratio of Abbadon Black to Celesta Grey would be better and then just leave it alone.

Tempest Six Two

Depending on what effect you want you can do it many different ways. For example the Chaplain in my ssig is done with thinned out Mignight Blue and then thinned down Spacewolves grey on all the edges. This gave a really nice 'deep black polished armour' feel without the washed out look that a grey-only highlight can sometimes give.
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Will's on Fire

If you want real top notch stuff follow Tom's or Tempests advice and go all out in layers. I can't really add to what they've said, I paint mine the same as Tom.

If you're looking to churn them out, use a mix of abaddon and celestra and drybrush your heart out. Use a grey slightly lighter than you want the end result to be. Then wash back down with black wash. With this method you could churn out a lot of power armoured bodies. I saw it being done by a GW staff member at the weekend and it took him ~15-25mins to do one of the new DA flyers black highlights. :P

Like I said, I prefer Tom's method but if you want an army churned out that will work for tabletop but not necessarily close inspection try the method I said, it can always be improved using Tom's method if you decide it isn't working. :)

- Will

Chris

Thanks guys... I'll try this out!
just a quick question though, and its going to sound really dumb but here it is. What do you mean by a 1:1 mix? Is that one brush of grey and one of black mixed? I never understood the tutorials because they used ratio's so I never highlighted...
Thanks!

LinnScarlett

Yea, it means equal parts. So one part X and one part Y. 2:1 or 3:1 or 1:1:2 or 1:1:1 are varieties of it. Two parts X, one part Y; Three parts X, one part Y; or even 1 part X, one part Y and 1 part Z... it's a lot of eyeballing. If you're going to go with a mixed paint for the basecoat of your army (like I do with my Storm Hounds), I went the lazy way and mixed jar X with jar Y to get a full jar of my basepaint Z :P
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