"Best colour for "blackened" armor?" Topic

I thought I might use Humbrol "gunmetal" (H53), but this looks too light for any real-life shade of blackened armour I can find in photos.

Interested in what enamel colour other guys are using?

I don't use enamels any more but if you're open to acrylics, Vallejo Gunmetal washed with Coat d'Arms Armor Wash works well.

Reaper Master Serries paint Blackend Steel might be what your looking for.
link
Adamantium Black might work too.

pigmentedminiatures.com

We are talking 28mm or smaller here, aren't we!
Well I am using Humbrol 56.

The smaller the surface, the darker a colour will appear to the eye

With the crossbelt(s) there is no big area left, and the colour is dark enough in combination with the fanatic army painter I brush on at the end.

If in doubt, you can always add a dark wash afterwards.

If you look at originals in museums (Vienna, Graz, Ingolstadt, Forchtenstein) you see that these sets are actually ..black, some not even a bit shiny, just plain flat black! Still, to paint them black (or almost) does not give you the scale effect IMHO.

We are then facing the same situation as with tyres on vehicles scaled down. Do not paint them black!

My advice for all it is worth. And I am still using enamels (since the early 60s :-)).

Cheers

Romain

Iron Wind's "steel".

I paint them black to start then mix a tiny bit of gunmetal into a dark grey for a mid tone and pick out the odd edge in a mid grey.

I paint mine Citadel 'boltgun metal' (a relatively light gunmetal), then hit it with a "magic wash" of Future floor polish & black ink. For this application, I add more ink than I would normally use for wash purposes. Then maybe pick out some of the edges in silver to show wear on the high points.

I've never looked at a historical reference or tried to match colors. Flat black looks too dull to me however, and highlighting black with gray or charcoal has always looked wrong to me. I variously either:
– paint black, edge highlight with dark blue ("midnight blue" or "prussian blue" or "navy blue" mixed with black), then finish with gloss varnish.
– paint a dark silver (e.g., "gunmetal") then wash (stain really) successive applications of black, highlighting edges with gunmetal or a medium silver (e.g., "chainmail").
– paint black then apply a thin stain of silver (or gunmetal or silver + black) to leave metallic particles on the armor, again edge highlighting with a gunmetal or chainmail color.

Thanks for all then suggestions. I picked up some Floquil "graphite" enamel paint today, which is a metallic black. So I will add a small amount of that to my Humbrol 53 in a custom mix until I get the right shade of dark gray metal that I want.

I'll second the Cote d'Arms (or P3) Armor Wash suggestion, and also suggest looking at the GW Washes, which do a bang up job of de-specularizing metallics.

What are the GW Washes and where can I find them?

I've been using Graphite spray and then polishing it, just like the real thing!

GW = Games Workshop, so available at a GW store or any regular game store that stocks GW.

The "Washes" are their newest thing. A bit of pigment in an agressively matte acrylic base. Used straight out of the bottle, they take the shine off of metallics and provide some nice shading. The Black ("Badab Black") and darkest brown (called "Devlan Mud") both make excellent armor treatments.

Vallejo model colors has two, gunmetal gray and gunmetal blue. the gray might be a little too dull, and the blue is darker and shiny.

huevans: I picked up some Floquil "graphite" enamel paint today, which is a metallic black.

oldbob: Vallejo model colors has two, gunmetal gray and gunmetal blue.

Ah cool. As a friend of mine used to say, "whoever dies with the most paints wins!"

For future reference, you can mix your own metallic version of any color. I read the following information in How to Paint Citadel Miniatures but I believe it's true for any acrylic paint line.

Metallic paint is made by adding metal flakes to the acrylic as well as pigment (I believe Citadel uses aluminum flakes). The shiniest metal in any paint line will be the metal flakes without added pigment; in Citadel, that's Mithril Silver. Darker silvers such as Citadel Chainmail or a gunmetal color are made by adding an appropriate amount of black pigment (black paint) to the mix. Gold colors are made by adding brown instead of black. But technically speaking, the color added is arbitrary -- nothing stops us from adding our own.

So this means you can take your paint line's shiniest silver and add small amounts to any color to get a metallic version of that color. So metallic black is made by adding a little silver to black paint. And metallic green for instance is made by adding a little silver to green paint.

(A lot of us have done this inadvertantly by cleaning our brushes after using metallics but forgetting to change the water and using the same water -- with metal flakes suspended in it – to thin other colors. Oops! Sparkly orange or whatever.)

"The "Washes" are their newest thing. A bit of pigment in an agressively matte acrylic base. Used straight out of the bottle, they take the shine off of metallics and provide some nice shading. The Black ("Badab Black") and darkest brown (called "Devlan Mud") both make excellent armor treatments."

I wonder what would happen if I used these acryl-based products over enamels???

Not much! I use acrylics over enamel (& sometimes vice versa) without any dificulty & its likely to be the same with these.

As long as the enamels have had plenty of drying time, there should be no issues. If the enamels are glossy, you may have issues with acrylics sticking to them, but there would be no chemical concerns.

That said, doing this with still 'wet' enamels is asking for a mess.

Rather than doing a wash, I use their black ink (thinned) as a wash. Since I use acrylic I go back over that with a thinned silver to pickout highlights. I suppose you can do the same with enamel. Thin a silver and pickout highlights.

Rich

Back to the start. I use Humbrol Gunmetal with a wash of thinned black (maybe): depends on the size of the figure.

edmuel, how do you do a wash? I've never tried to do it.

Huevans,

Here's how I do a wash (disclaimer: I use all enamels, and have developed this technique by trial and error over the years):

Step one: all the paint on the figure that you're going to wash has to have cured for at least 24 hours (to avoid the paint thinner used in the wash stripping the paint in spots).

Step two: I fill a clean, empty paint bottle about 1/2 way full of thinner (actually I use Testor's enamel paint brush cleaner, which I believe is the same sort of stuff).

Step three: I take a enamel flat black paint and glop it into the thinner, one brushfull at a time. Swirl.

Step four: after each round of step three, check the consistency of the wash on some test figure (it will dry a bit lighter than it at first appears). When it looks about right to you, then you're ready to apply.

Step five: Using a medium brush, or smaller if the area is tight, I dip down to the bottom of the wash and then dab onto the figure so that the wash runs along the seams and down into the low spots. I then brush a bit over the higher spots for consistency. If it collects too much in one area, then I use a bit of clean thinner and brush it on to thin.

Step six: This washing technique will make a painted surface look dirty, and it will also usually not dry flat. So when I do this over fabrics, horses, and flesh and whatnot, then I return and highlight and drybrush over the high points: wait another 24 hours for the paint to cure. Then finish with clear, flat lacquer thinner. This effect is very good for blackened armor (at least for me), the "dirty" look not being an issue since it does a nice job of blackening. For armor, after hitting with the flat clear, highlight with a touch of lighter steel or metallic. This will add a touch of shine to the armor, highlight the high points and give a wear pattern.

Here are some images of some of my figs that have been done using this technique, reiters among them:

link

Best,
Ed M

I'll add one thing and then shut up. The black wash technique I describe isn't very special. It's fairly standard (you'll find the procedure described lots of places on the web, probably better than I have done).

The major difference is that I'm using all enamel paints and mixes of paint thinner (like I said; that's what works for me).

Best,
Ed M

Cheers, Ed. I'm used to using enamels. So an all-enamel method is something I can get right into. I've been using brown washes for "dirtying" 1/72 tanks; So I can adapt the technique.

Can one still get Polly S's "Oily Black"? That was my favorite, back in the day. Failing that, a satin black with a very dark "steel" drybrush works well.

Hi huevans!I think one of the best way to do blackened armour is Kevinīs recipe:
thinned down Humbrol matt black enamel then lightly rubbed off with wire wool to give some edge ware and gloss varnished.
If u want to do it with acrylic try P3 Pig iron highlighted
(a little) with mix of Pig iron and Vallejo natural steel
50:50 -other metallic will go too, ant then wash with P3 armour wash +black ink 2:1 thinned down with water.
Hope this help

Here's a little trick I just found. I do a base coat of black then some drybrushed grey (I used a dark then a mid grey). I then covered the area with Testors "Anthracite Gray Metallic". This stuff acts like a metallic wash, darkening it a little but also giving the entire surface a metallic sheen. Use little to no grey and you get a black metalic. Use heavier coverage and lighter greys and then highlight with a silver or chrome on the most worn edges and you get a nice bright but 'in-scale' metalic finish. Don't use white in the undercoating for a bright highlight, use the silver at the end.