Zenithal spray highlighting: advice & guidance please!

[battle captain corpus]

Hello you lovely folks!

 

I’m interested to find out who’s had any luck with spray/rattle can zenith highlights with Blood Angels?

 

I’m quite a proficient painter and have been hobbying since the dark ages (89’) so I’m confident trying my hand to most things. I have some BA I want to start getting ready for an event in October. The plan originally was to spray them Mephiston, wash twice with Nuln Oil then drybrush again Mephiston.

Whilst I’m happy to spend time on minis for painting competitions etc my main armies all normally are just a spray colour coat, block in other colours and then wash entire mini. Then base them and call it done.

I’ve used this technique for years and it’s my fall back method.

The plan is to also include a fair amount of armoured vehicles too do the technique would need some adaptation for these!

 

I’m just interested as to people’s thoughts on using a highlight first from above?

I’d probably be using Halfords Red car primer first then GW Mephiston after?

 

Helpful heroes maybe rewarded with a named mini in my BA Force :D

 

BCC

Edited August 14, 2019 by battle captain corpus

[SnorriSnorrison]

Hello good sir!

 

LutherMax has a thread here named “Lieutenant Tolmeron” displaying said model painted with zenithal highlights.

Perhaps he can give you a run-down of his technique and some tips, etc :)

[Jolemai]

You kept that quiet!!!

[Imren]

Assuming you're completely "allergic" to airbrushing, and insist on spraycans, this is what I'd try out if I were you, but try it out it on a test mini first. this suggestion is based on my way of painting base colours on marines (but I do it with airbrush):

1. Prime black.
2. Do zenithal highlighting with white.
3. Apply a thin coat of red all over the miniature, it's important that the coat is thin so that this red coat allows for the black preshading show the shading and white on the highlight areas show red, this is the hard part, probably you will have to practice before hand and train yourself with the spray can trigger to spray thinly and even.

Up to this point my suggestion is what you asked for, the following is what I suggest you do for a further nice paintjob (my hobby-itch side of me couldn't stop here with the advice):

1. Gloss varnish. This will allow for the pin wash to flow very nicely.
2. paint the details (armour joints, metal trims, eye lenses etc).
3. Use a dark brown (van Dyke brown or burnt umber) oil paint diluted in artist's spirit (oil paint thinner) and do a pin wash in the recesses, wait an hour and clean up the pooling with a brush dampened with spirits. For this you should use a synthetic brush (round, size 0-ish) as the oilpaint and artist's spririt will ruin your nice sable hair brushes.
4. Apply decals on the gloss surface (use Micro Sol and Micro Set for best results. youtube have good tutorials on how to use these decal fixers).
5. Do you weathering as follows:
   • Using the base red colour you sprayed with (perhaps Mephiston red will work if you use Halfords red spray can) and a lighter red (Wild rider red or Evil sunz) do small scratches on the armour, focus on lower legs, arms and the knees. The two shades of red will give a nice 3D-effect on the scratches.
   • Using a piece of foam dabbed in black paint and wiped off stipple some pitting on the armour panels of your vehicles
6. Lock in the miniature with a satin or matt varnish.

Now you have a fair chance to bring home some paint-job prices when doing tournaments!

Edited August 14, 2019 by Imren

[battle captain corpus]

You kept that quiet!!!

Did my Facebook cover photo not give it away -guffaw-

 

I thought it was time I did them!

 

BCC

Assuming you're completely "allergic" to airbrushing, and insist on spraycans, this is what I'd try out if I were you, but try it out it on a test mini first. this suggestion is based on my way of painting base colours on marines (but I do it with airbrush):

• Prime black.
• Do zenithal highlighting with white.
• Apply a thin coat of red all over the miniature, it's important that the coat is thin so that this red coat allows for the black preshading show the shading and white on the highlight areas show red, this is the hard part, probably you will have to practice before hand and train yourself with the spray can trigger to spray thinly and even.

Up to this point my suggestion is what you asked for, the following is what I suggest you do for a further nice paintjob (my hobby-itch side of me couldn't stop here with the advice):

• Gloss varnish. This will allow for the pin wash to flow very nicely.
• paint the details (armour joints, metal trims, eye lenses etc).
• Use a dark brown (van Dyke brown or burnt umber) oil paint diluted in artist's spirit (oil paint thinner) and do a pin wash in the recesses, wait an hour and clean up the pooling with a brush dampened with spirits. For this you should use a synthetic brush (round, size 0-ish) as the oilpaint and artist's spririt will ruin your nice sable hair brushes.
• Apply decals on the gloss surface (use Micro Sol and Micro Set for best results. youtube have good tutorials on how to use these decal fixers).
• Do you weathering as follows:
  • Using the base red colour you sprayed with (perhaps Mephiston red will work if you use Halfords red spray can) and a lighter red (Wild rider red or Evil sunz) do small scratches on the armour, focus on lower legs, arms and the knees. The two shades of red will give a nice 3D-effect on the scratches.
  • Using a piece of foam dabbed in black paint and wiped off stipple some pitting on the armour panels of your vehicles
• Lock in the miniature with a satin or matt varnish.

Now you have a fair chance to bring home some paint-job prices when doing tournaments!

Awesome, just awesome! Some real food for thought there thank you Imren!

 

BCC

[Imren]

 

You kept that quiet!!!

Did my Facebook cover photo not give it away -guffaw-

 

I thought it was time I did them!

 

BCC

Assuming you're completely "allergic" to airbrushing, and insist on spraycans, this is what I'd try out if I were you, but try it out it on a test mini first. this suggestion is based on my way of painting base colours on marines (but I do it with airbrush):

• Prime black.
• Do zenithal highlighting with white.
• Apply a thin coat of red all over the miniature, it's important that the coat is thin so that this red coat allows for the black preshading show the shading and white on the highlight areas show red, this is the hard part, probably you will have to practice before hand and train yourself with the spray can trigger to spray thinly and even.

Up to this point my suggestion is what you asked for, the following is what I suggest you do for a further nice paintjob (my hobby-itch side of me couldn't stop here with the advice):

• Gloss varnish. This will allow for the pin wash to flow very nicely.
• paint the details (armour joints, metal trims, eye lenses etc).
• Use a dark brown (van Dyke brown or burnt umber) oil paint diluted in artist's spirit (oil paint thinner) and do a pin wash in the recesses, wait an hour and clean up the pooling with a brush dampened with spirits. For this you should use a synthetic brush (round, size 0-ish) as the oilpaint and artist's spririt will ruin your nice sable hair brushes.
• Apply decals on the gloss surface (use Micro Sol and Micro Set for best results. youtube have good tutorials on how to use these decal fixers).
• Do you weathering as follows:
  • Using the base red colour you sprayed with (perhaps Mephiston red will work if you use Halfords red spray can) and a lighter red (Wild rider red or Evil sunz) do small scratches on the armour, focus on lower legs, arms and the knees. The two shades of red will give a nice 3D-effect on the scratches.
  • Using a piece of foam dabbed in black paint and wiped off stipple some pitting on the armour panels of your vehicles
• Lock in the miniature with a satin or matt varnish.

Now you have a fair chance to bring home some paint-job prices when doing tournaments!

Awesome, just awesome! Some real food for thought there thank you Imren!

 

BCC

 

 

You're welcome!

 

I, as most others, started out (late 90's in my case) priming my models with spray cans and using spray can varnish at the end of the paint job. But when doing armies (especially space marines) both money-wise and time-wise I find that is a better/more effective option to get into airbrushing. It was a great eye opener for me and I could churn out paint jobs (especially space marines) that would have taken ages with paintbrush to do to the same paint job quality level. So I suggest you look into airbrushing and save yourself the expense of GW cans and the whims of outdoor weather conditions.

[Jolemai]

 

You kept that quiet!!!

Did my Facebook cover photo not give it away -guffaw-

 

I thought it was time I did them!

 

BCC

Honestly, I thought it was just a picture to hide your shame of doing more Stormcast :p

 

Don't forget to post some WIPs, etc :tu: