"Zenithal Pre shading/priming?" Topic

Does anyone have any experience using Zenithal Pre shading/priming? Especially when painting military uniforms.

I am experimenting with using this technique myself on some spares, just wondered if anyone had some examples of work or tips on using this technique, i am hoping this will speed up painting large areas of uniforms.

all help greatly received cheers

I am not familiar with this term. Can you ex[lain what is Zenithal Pre shading/priming?

Link has some examples and discussion. Wasn't familiar with it by name either but you've likely seen it.

link

This one is a terrible example, I think. Just too much crap all over to show it properly. I understood the idea, but not sure I see it on the model.

I've been to a military model show where it was done on 54mm vignette. It looked like figures were under intense light, yet there was no window or strong light source nearby. Is that what the term means?

There is a show next week in my area and I will look for something like that.

I was taught the term only a couple months ago at a hobby shop by a gamer whose day job is an art teacher. His explanation is similar to what someone said above: highlight the model as if there is a strong light source directly overhead.

He suggested as a speed painting method to undercoat in black primer then dust from the top with white spray paint. I could see a painter with an NMM obsession really going to town with this.

I did this once – a long time ago, (when I could see well enough to paint.)

involved a dark almost black base,
a very dark grey brushed on from top to bottom with a single dry brush stroke
a dark grey brushed on in the same manner
a mid grey highlight touching more extreme parts of the figure, brushed on in the same manner.
a just off white highlight dry brush at the very extreme areas.

The colour was added by using thinned (very) acrylic coats.
and ink washes.

Result was a richly shaded quite quick paint job.

The terms/techniques of 'Pre-Shading', 'Post-Shading' and 'Post-Fading' have been in use in Scale Modeling for approximately the past 20 years.

I have never seen it used or applied to wargaming figures until now.

By using the scale modeling definition, any figure that is primed or washed in a dark color (e.g., Black or Brown) is 'Pre-Shaded' prior to the application of uniform colors.

Here is a set of pictures to show the techniques (as per scale modeling) on a wargame building (WIP, 1/32nd Scale Foam).

I apologize for the slightly out of focus shots but I normally just take these for myself to check/chart progress so I'm not too concerned with the quality of the photos.

The point of the techniques is to provide shadow and depth based on where light would naturally fall and subtle contrast between colors.

Primed:

Pre-Shaded:

1st Base Coat:

2nd Base Coat + Roof Sprayed:

Post Shade – Very Light Gray Mist Coat – Close Up:

Post Fade – Brown Sprayed into Mortar Joints. Some would say this is also Post Shade as a darker color is applied:

'Tonal" painting is another word for it. You paint the subject in grey tones and then wash over it colors if desired. This has been going around since the Renaissance
but don't quote me. On figures, I do light highlights for light colors if the primer is black. It helps colors like yellow cover and show up better for me.

I appreciate the pictures demonstrating the technique but I'm sorry to say I just don't see the zenithal underlighting in the pictures.

This happened with the art teacher I mentioned in the hobby shop. He showed me some zenithal painted 40K Space marines on his smart phone and I just couldn't see the highlighting.

It's probably the photos, and me.

CB: agreed, nothing is really 'New'. A member at my local IPMS Chapter demonstrated 'tonal' painting on a 1/48 Tiger I using Black and then a series of successive gray tones. He referenced some Renaissance painter.

CL: yes, the photos aren't clear enough. My point was that this type of painting/technique is not new.

I've used it on figures but they were in 120-200mm scale.

Regards,

J. P. Kelly

I use ZP and see it as *one* step in shading, not *the* only step. It's like painting in layers -- no single layer does the job, it's a cumulation. ZP is a trivial amount of work, most of priming work is prep and the complete coverage of the first layer, so I always do it.