Topic: Painting a Nuln army

[MisterDutch]

How does one paint the models like this?


I am going to do a black undercoat, but how are the arms done? Have they drybrushed it with grey/white paint? ( I heard that drybrushing black is very hard not to turn it into grey) what colours did they use?

P.S. sorry if that picture is copyrighted... but i needed it to ask my question  

[quadrille]

I'd say the real trick here is to paint the bone color in the slashes of the sleeves.

For the black I'd suggest subtle highlighting by mixing grey into the black. Drybrushing is ok too, just be gentle.

[BAWTRM]

In this case I assume they basecoated the whole mini black, then filled in the slashes on the sleeves, pants and where appropiate, shirts.

Then they cleaned any spills of, in this case, Bleached Bone with black.

Notice how these models have only the tiniest highlights in grey on the utmost raised parts (top of leg or boots for instance). That's the trick in highlighting black, use as little as possible.

[wisenheimer]

I've actually done this as gaming group painting project. Everyone donated some empire models from the starter box to make a small 'House' army. The paint job was selected for its ease.

A little less than half the raised area is painted gray. Be careful on the first coat of gray though, so that the sleeves look black. Then half of that, or a thin line, is painted with a lightened shade of gray (almost white, but not really). From a distance, this yields a good effect without blending the two. It's actually a pretty quick paint job.

The whole face/gun stock/sleeve/hand/what_is_that?_a_beard? issue is another story.

[MisterDutch]

Thank you all for your replies  

I will try to do a very soft highlight (or is it drybrush? I keep mixing those 2 techniques up... i wouldnt know the difference really   ) and paint small tripes of a grey/white or a desert yellow/white mix on the raised parts of the uniforms. And if the clothes themselves dont look to good, I will put extra effort on their faces and weapons

Oh and btw, how does you make the black armour of the Knights of the Blazing Sun actually shine like that? Did they highlight/drybrush it or did they use some kind of transparant shiney paint (which I have here at home as well)

[Tribune]

If it's shining then they put on a coat of gloss varnish over the paint job.

[PLAY4FUN]

I've also tried highlighting black by varying the glossiness of the paint.  GW Chaos Black has a bit of a sheen to it, which can be accentuated by adding a small amount of either gloss varnish or future floor wax.  Some other blacks, such as the Adikolor Despair Black, are completely flat, so you can work from flat black shadows up to semi-gloss highlights (maybe even full gloss on black metal or polished leather).  I've only tried this on a couple of models, but it seems to work, and avoids the problem of making everything look grey.

I guess the same principal would work with other colours, although I've never tried.  It might be an interesting way to add texture to fabrics such as banners and horse-barding.

[boca majstor]

Those sleaves were not either highlighted nor drybrushed. The thin gray - bleach bone lines are painted onto it. 'Eavy Metal rarely uses those techniques, they prefer manually painting any shading effects or other effects. See the spearmen shield, and the thin line down-left? The reflection effect is painted. Real reflection should be rounder.

[buakjon]

Another trick a friend once told me was to prime it black, then mix a little black to some fortress grey and dry brush the whole model. Then use some thinned down black ink on the areas you intend to leave black. Finish up the model as you desire. This technique has worked well for me on my Nuln army.

[MisterDutch]

Doesnt that make the overall look of the army grey? I heard that highlighting black makes it look like grey really fast. And on those pictures the clothes look black, not dark grey or sumthin... But please give more information (or pictures, if possible! ) about your Nuln Army!

[wisenheimer]

Those sleaves were not either highlighted nor drybrushed. The thin gray - bleach bone lines are painted onto it. 'Eavy Metal rarely uses those techniques, they prefer manually painting any shading effects or other effects.

Isn't painting on the highlights, Highlighting? you've confused me.

[queek]

there are several techniques for highlighting.

Drybrushing, layering, and lining/edging are all forms of highlighting, and all can give good results depending on the model and technique required.

a read through the current Painting Guide should give you some idea of the various ways to highlight models.

[valmir]

If you decide to highlight the black, try making grey by adding bleached bone to black, rather than working up through the GW greys. This gives a more natural black highlight - sort of a warm grey.

[buakjon]

Mister Dutch, I believe I have some pics on the forum already. Try using the search function and typing my name as author should yield results, if not just reply back and I will re-post them.

[MisterDutch]

Buakajon, you have some nice threads with army lists for Nuln armies and a couple of pictures of your Elector Count, but no pictures of normal troopers or anything. I'd love to see them!

(also I now undercoated all my models in black. I'm gonna try and get a bleaced bone-black-grey kinda mix for the sleeves and such)

[buakjon]

No problem I will upload my pics on a thread tonight.