Grey Knight Blue Steel Grey Technique part two

Ok Folks, Time for an update on my Grey technique!  Here are some pictures of the model in progress. I decided to paint this half of him to a near state of completion before moving on with the tutorial.  Needless to say, this is challenging.  My model is ending up more blue than grey, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  

In these first two pictures I compare the Dreadknight to my terminator I first painted with this technique. Obviously, the terminator was smaller with easier to paint armor plates. The smaller they are, the less I have to feather/blend the greys.  That is, the less I have to drag out the blend.  On the big plates I found myself creating new light sources so as to have new areas of blended grey.  

In this closeup, you see the difference. The terminator legs pose a different challenge than the dread knight ones.  To create the grey I start with Codex, then go to Fortress, Astronomicon, then white along with a couple applications of Asurmen Blue.  

I tried to make the final white highlight as crisp and edged as possible. While I am not trying to recreate chrome with nonmetallic colors, I am using it as a reference, and when I looked at some bike handlebars for example, there were usually a bunch of dark shades, with one extreme line of white down the middle or on an edge.  

A big problem I am having here is that the original model was sprayed black, then hand painted with Adeptus Battlegrey. This one was sprayed with Uniform Grey from army painter instead.  The shade of grey is much lighter, and more easier over powered by the Asurman Blue wash.  The Battlegrey held up to the blue wash, keeping the darks more grey than blue.  However, I don't think the effect is bad on this. I kind of like the cold blue shade.  

Now that I have a decent idea of how I am going to paint this guy, I can proceed with the tutorial. Next time, Fortress Grey and how it interacts with the Codex grey.  As I paint the other side, I am going to push the relationship between the blue and the grey.  I think I will water down the blue a bit more and try to get a smoother blend with the greys.  Here's to learning!

Jawaballs

Jawa Grey Part One

Ok folks you asked for it!

WARNING: This is an advanced tutorial which requires practice.  Allow yourself the patience to learn it and perfect it!

Due to popular demand, I am doing a step by step tutorial for my Jawa Grey. This is the NonMetallic Metal style way that I painted my weapons on my Double Gank Mephiston/Sanguinor Assault Blood Angels army.  I used it to paint this model which won Best Sci-Fi model in the Crystal Brush competition sponsored by Cool Mini or Not at Templecon in Rhode Island last weekend.

First of all, this is NOT Non Metallic metal. This is based on the techniques used to achieve it.  I am not trying to recreate a chrome/silver metallic effect using greys and blues, directly. Sure the effect simulates metallic silver armor, but I am more interested in the shading and value of greys that I get than reproducing chrome.

Value is the lightness and darkness of color. It describes the transition from light to dark. A good area on the above picture that describes a nice value is the left breast part of the armor. There is a nice smooth transition from bright grey at the top, to dark cool grey at the bottom of the chest piece. This effect serves two purposes.

First, it looks great on the table. A big problem with some master painted models is that you spend 10 hours painting them, and the colors really are perfect when the model is 6 inches from your eyes, but when you put it on the table, it loses it's beauty.  This style of painting produces a model that looks great from 3 feet away. You can put it on the table, and observe it from standing distance, and the models will "Pop" on the table.

But also, and this is important when being judged for "Best Painted", the models have to stand up to close scrutiny.  This painting technique will look great from up close too.  The best of both worlds!

Ok enough intro. Let me get to painting.

For this model, I assembled and primed it with Army Painter Uniform Grey. Then I gave it a liberal wash with a 40/60 mix of water to Asurmen Blue. (I just used an almost half empty pot of AB wash and filled it with water.)  The ratio should be around 50/50.

Once the wash is dry, I get right to it with Codex Grey.  I start by edging the grey using the side of the brush on the edges of the armor. 

I use a TINY TINY amount of grey on the brush at any given time. This is a Reaper Kolinsky 10-0 fine detail brush.  I dip the brush into the codex grey, this particular grey is straight from the pot, no mixing.  Then I drag it down the edge of the armor, from top right of the image to lower left, with the side of the bristles resting against the edge.

Then I drag the brush towards the meat of the armor like this.  You can see how little paint is on the tip of the brush, that is very important.  Drag the bristles into the armor, then rub the brush up and down the edge. In this picture, the direction would be North East to South West.

Here is the result.  You can start to see the grey change in value, from light at the edges to darker as it wraps around the armor plate.

To improve the effect, do it several more times. Each time, drag the brush more into the meat of the armor, and allow it to "feather" out like so.  At this point, a nice circular motion works well. You will see the grey collecting at the edge and fading at the center. Allow it!

Here is the armor plate with the front part finished with Codex Grey.  In this style, I try to allow the edges of the armor to be light. This might not make perfect sense since you would think that light would be shining off the rounded part of the armor, but who cares about logic.

This is the first of 3 shades of grey you are going to paint, so don't worry about getting it perfect right now. You will also reapply the blue wash a few times.

And yes, I am aware that I failed to properly shave off the sprue flash point.  Sometimes they don't really show up until you start painting.  At some point I will shave it with a blade and touch it up.

That's it for now!  Much more to come.

Jawaballs