Help with a Contrast Paint idea

[qwerty2jam]

Hey all,

Been out of the hobby for several years due to rules, local store being less than acceptable and most importantly no time to paint my armies. With the release of the Ossiarch Reapers however I want to get back in to it. Problem there is that if I have to paint any more bone after my Tomb Kings I'm going to lose my mind.

What I want to do is paint their bodies a green tinted black obisidian, which I've done before (with red) but is just hugely time consuming. What I want to know is this.

If I base with a bright enough green, would the black templar contrast paint create the effect I'm after? That effect been green edges and a very dark green fade into black in the deeper areas. This effect would need to be almost completely black with green when looked at right with the right light but a fairly distinct green edge.

IF you have any thoughts or experience with something like this I'd love to hear from you as this would take my models from hours each to maybe a half hour for the body.

Cheers

[zilberfrid]

I have green and black templar, I could make a test? It's not the most vivid of greens, but you could see some effects.

[qwerty2jam]

That would be so amazing! 

Local store doesn't have any black templar yet, hence why I'm not testing myself atm. I imagine I'll have to test all sorts of things (like watering it down slightly or using contrast medium).

[Safr]

Sorry for taking so long, Black Templar has been out of stock for a long time at all my local stores. Did a quick test with reapers moth green over a white undercoat. The right side was with a layer of ardcoat over the green as well, since I was curious what would happen. The rear of the mini was with about 50/50 contrast medium and Black Templar, the front just undiluted Black Templar. A very quick and sloppy test but with a bit of practice and further testing it might be possible to do something interesting with this.

[Kramer]

On 9/1/2019 at 8:58 AM, qwerty2jam said:

like watering it down slightly

Don’t use water! It washes away the magic dust holding it together or something!

the release info warned against it so naturally I tried it and it became a dirty inconsistent wash like paint. Deff use the medium. 

[Arkhanist]

I see what you're aiming for, but I fear Contrast could end up coming out a bit too blotchy for the effect you're after.

I'll suggest a different paint to get that effect; a colour change metallic, possibly adjusted with a light drybrush and/or wash. Two that spring to mind are from turbo dork.

The first is turbo dork dark net. It's a pretty dark paint already, but a great subtle effect; it does change as you rotate the model to give dark blue-green highlights. It is a sod to photograph. To make it look less polished/reflective, you can use a matt coat varnish over it; it keeps the colour change effect, but it is a bit more muted. You could do a light drybrush with a lighter green just to boost the edges.

The other option would be Turbo Dork electrum - here seen on the wing webbing between the spars; it's a darkish gold/green combo (you can see the two colours on each wing).

You would want to darken down the crevices with a wash to get it closer to black. So either black templar significantly thinned with contrast medium, applied in a couple of thin coats; or another combo I've found effective without being blotchy is nuln oil mixed about 50/50 with contrast medium with acts like a 'super wash' - it seeks out crevices without pooling on the surface, if you wanted a lighter effect. Again, a matt varnish finish would make the surface less metallic/polished.

Turbo dork paints are easiest applied with an airbrush over a black primer, but can also be applied as two or three thin coats by brush - just do the brush strokes in the same direction.

I have a pot of dark net, if I get time in the next few days I could try and whip up a couple of test minis for you if you're interested.