Obviously applicable to other black highlighting!
Basecoat
- Spray Chaos Black . Pros like Darren Latham give the whole model a quick go over with Abaddon Black , but because I end up tidying the black after the gold trim, I do this at a later stage. If you're not doing trim, this stage is important to get the same finish as spray and base paints are slightly different ( Abaddon Black is more matte in my experience)
Layers
- Start with a thick edge highlight of Incubi Darkness . Keep the paint thinned, but this is quite a chunky edge highlight. I tidy up with watered down Abaddon Black as I find this softens/feathers the edge of the Incubi Darkness layer.
- Next is Thunderhawk Blue . You're working inside the previous layer. Again, thinned paint is important and I often use Lahmian Medium to help keep it consistent as water tends to evaporate quicker in my experience. Sometimes it's worth adding a couple of coats around raised points to build up the highlight.
- Next is Russ Grey , You're starting to get very fine edges now and on some points of the model you may not wish to apply this - think about where the light is hitting the model.
- For troops, I would stop at this stage, of Fenrisian Grey . These are for the highest edges and towards the tops of panels and parts of the model. If this is troop, you can also do small dots where lines intersect.
- One step further for more important models, is to add dots and high points of Blue Horror .
- To even the finish, apply a layer of either Lahmian Medium or, what I prefer, Contrast Medium . I add a tiny dot of Terradon Turquoise to the Contrast Medium which pulls together all of the colours in the highlight.
- You can do light spots on circular panels like the shoulder pads or back packs by starting with a wide circle of very watery Incubi Darkness , pulling the paint to the centre of the circle. Repeat, then move on to the next colour. You will need to do a couple of layers of each colour to ensure it has the level of pigment you need.
Collector of Black Legion in 40K; Daughters of Khaine and all things Dark Aelven in AoS.