slaves to darkness contrast or regular paints?

[passtheKhorneplease]

So I just got the slaves to darkness box set and I love it, and want to paint up the traditional black and gold color scheme.  I am kind of a crappy painter and have really enjoyed using the contrast paints on my warcry warbands.  My questions is do you guys think a the black Templar would work for the armor on these guys or is the chaos/abaddon black a better choice.  I don't highlight and intend on using grey seer to undercoat the fur and cloth on the minis and retributor armor for the gold because contrast yellow just doesn't cut it.  For those of you with experience/skill what would you do if you were not a great painter, wanted these guys to paint up quick, but still look like awesome black knights?  Thanks in advance for any advice you have.

 

[Overread]

I'm not a great painter but I'd say if you don't do highlights then contrast paint would suit. It works best on high detail models and gives you a basic highlight shade and basic colour cover in one go. 

It won't be superior to proper highlighting, but it will give you a tabletop functional quality. 

It only really tends to fail if you want to cover big areas with it and get a smooth colour finish, because it will tend to pool and collect in clumps. This can work fine on something living and textured showing natural variation in colour; but for armour or such on a tank its not as suitable. But the Chaos warriors aren't tanks so it should be more than fine.

 

You might try what many do - use contrast for a base and then one edge highlight. Again contrast won't replace proper edge highlighting, but it will give a very basic simulation of it to some degree. 

[Kramer]

It’s what I do for my stormcast. Contrast on the black, retribution gold on the gilded edges. I do edge highlight afterwards but that’s up to you. 

although I do agree with the core of @Overread’s comment that it won’t be better than ‘proper’ highlighting. I would like to say that contrast is far better than the models you need to practice on to get to that point. 
If you want to be able to do highlighting to that level at one point my advice is contrast the sh*t out of the models and just focus on that skill. 

otherwise a contrast layer on the armour will look amazing in contrast to the gold. Don’t forget the black armour is also functions as the backdrop to contrasting colours you use on different parts.

[MitGas]

Might not be what you initially though of but strongly drybrushing their armor in a dark metallic and then using a shade like nuln oil or a contrast paint (like black templar) can make for a decent, almost-black but metallic look that suits Chaos Warriors exceptionally well. And it's quicker than both regular painting and contrast as the pooling is less of a problem here than on regular tones. Plus you could give a very light second drybrush with a lighter metallic tone to get a pretty good result and that would take an extra minute per figure for a truly superior result.

Black needs a bit of love with a regular paintjob - it's IMO one of the easiest colors if you're good at edge highlights (as that is like 80 percent of the work unless you go for a golden demon), less so if not (as most of it should stay black, else it'll look grey, dark blue or dark green) and I don't think the armor has enough details to be a good candidate for contrast black.

Hope this helps a bit and good luck!

 

edit: if you go for a wash or contrast, get the respective medium as it makes it usually try better on the flat surfaces/panels/shields etc.

Edited December 16, 2019 by MitGas

[Spears]

If you have twitter Les Martin got his hands on the models early and did a decent job with black contrast paints, i think his handle is something like @_wintersoldier

 

[RuneBrush]

You won't go too far wrong with Black Templar.  Two coats of it will give you a really solid black (with a little highlight showing through from the undercoat).  If you wanted a more highlighted effect, I'd thin Black Templar with Contrast Medium (something like 2 parts Black Templar and 1 part Medium) and then apply two coats.  It should still be black, but with a slightly brighter highlight.

One other thing to consider would be to drybrush your model with white straight on top of the Grey Seer (i.e. before applying Black Templar).  It'll exaggerate the sharpest edges when you apply the contrast paint.

[Spears]

Totally forgot I used contrast as a base for my scheme too then went back in with washes.

[Lightbox]

On ‎12‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 9:10 AM, Spears said:

Totally forgot I used contrast as a base for my scheme too then went back in with washes.

Mind giving me a rundown on what colours you used to achieve that? Especially the armour.

[Spears]

The armour is heavily thinned down black templar over a rough zenithal base. Keeping the undercoar a bit spattery gives it some texture. I think the shadows are then traced with Vallejo night blue and the deepest shadows are Vallejo hull red. Final step was a slight edge highlight of an off white. Hope that is of use.

 

[BrianDavion]

I'm starting slaves to darkness myself and am considering giving the new iron warriors paint combined with a few washes of nulin oil, anyone tried that? how'd it work?