Ravenwing: Highlighting Black

 

Hi folks,

As I mentioned in my last post, I really haven't been looking forward to doing the next part of my Ravenwing project. Unfortunately, it happens to be a critical part! I haven't had much experience with painting things black; when it comes to achromatic shades I tend to favour browns and metallics. The primary exceptions in the past have been Ravenwing landspeeders, none of which I painted particularly well. I have painted one Ravenwing bike before, using blue/grey highlights, but that was a long time ago (late 90's). The effect was quite nice, nice enough in fact that I have used it on my Tyranids. I wanted to move away from that technique for my new Ravenwing squad, though, and have settled on the following witches brew:

Dawnstone, Eshin Grey, Abaddon Black and Nuln Oil

I start the process by hard-lining with Eshin Grey, which I then wet-blend with Abaddon Black all the way back to the undercoat shade. I repeat the process with a thinner line of Dawnstone, wet-blending it back to Eshin Grey if I paint the line too thick (...within the space of a gnats hair). This part was the hardest; I was fervently lamenting the amount of caffeine consumed during the day when I did it!  I then knock back the highlights with Nuln Oil because I prefer them to be subtle. Here is how it looks:

I am happy enough with the result to use this method on the other marines, hopefully I will get the highlights even tighter as I warm up to the task. All going well, I should also be able to transfer the skill over to the Nephilim Jetfighter I have waiting in the wings.

See you across the table,

M4cr0