Painting Black uniforms on Minis - Vietcong....

[Billythefish]

Not quite most members thing but I am soon to be painting some Vietcong after a very long lay off from painting.

Back in the day I think I used to paint them black, then drybrush with a very dark blue and maybe light blue or white highlights. This kinda worked, but from what i rember the minis were kinda trying to look a bit too "blue" too!"

My current school of thought is to - I use Vallejo paints - paint the base with Negro Black, then drybrush this German Tank Crew Grey, which is a very dark black grey colour.

Somebody suggested then washing it with a blue ink or maybe citadel type blue wash?

Can anybody please help! Would be much appreciated, Im hoping to stick with Vallejo colours...

Thanks in advance for any advice

[Plynkes]

Honestly, I've never been happy any time I've tried dry-brushing on a figure. I save it for bases, buildings and terrain. There must be a knack to making it look good, and it is a knack I do not possess.

I tend to go with your standard black mixed with a tiny bit of dark grey over a black undercoat, then very sparingly highlight with a couple of dark greys. The thing, I feel, is to highlight much less than you would with other colours, just picking out folds in clothes, creases and such. Maybe after I will run some black ink or a black wash into the deep parts of the creases for a bit more contrast. I really think less is more with black, same with white, really. Can't help with specific paints, I tend to use Foundry triads and Coat d'Arms these days. I have never used Vallejo myself.

Not claiming I have achieved amazing results with this method, but better than anything else I have tried.


I only have a couple of examples to hand, neither of them particularly helpful, I imagine, but here goes...



(There are about three different "blacks" going on there, just to keep the scheme from being monotonous. The boots have less grey, the cloak more, and the straps and belts are somewhere in the middle.)

[khartoum2]

I tend to go for black base colour (Foundry, GW, Vallejo) and then highlight with Foundry Charcoal Black (34B) - I have the c as well but find this too light for my tastes.  I then wash it with black ink to try and bring the colours back together.  I've messed around with more or less of the grey over time and not sure which I prefer. I'm not the best painter by a very long way so doesn't look too out of place with my other daubing. 

There are a few examples in my portfolio from the last LPL

[tomrommel1]

I would base coat with vallejo neutral grey and put 2 or three layers of GW Contrast paint black ( I think it is called Black templars black) on that.

[traveller]

Its a hard colour to paint...my conclusion is NOT to use black but a very dark grey and then gradually make it lighter grey

[David H]

You could try mixing a bit of pink in with the black to get a highlight tone.
Its warmer than pure grey, but still looks greyish, and in my opinion blends with black a little better.
Just make sure you dont overdo the pink!

[Akersminis]

So Black for me is a fun color as there are a lot of options when painting it. You can look at it from the more sterile sense of Black with grey highlights, or you can go warmer with a blueish or brownish tint, or cold with deep reds and such. Generally most of my tabletop models I keep it simple and I use P3 paints. I do the black with the Ironhull grey mix and then once I get to the point I want I wash, or even glaze down the colors to give it a more subtle tone. Again this is all personal choice, and it depends on your basing as well because that can highlight the colors with minimal effort.

[FifteensAway]

To Plynkes comment above: I've always thought of dry brushing as highlighting (and washes as shading) so I'm curious how you highlight? 

Of course, working in 15 mm and seeking playable paint jobs rather than really fine paint jobs does make some difference - especially because, when I paint, I tend to paint in volume.

And, these days, +3 magnifying glasses help a lot!

To OP: I think your idea of base black, with dry brushed gray should work just fine.  Or go with a mid-black as a base coat, a deeper black as a wash, and then a lighter black (a darkish but not too dark gray) for the dry brush.  Hard to do shading on black.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

I'm not sure whether this will help, but I have used two different methods recently.

This was a quick job, Vallejo Neutral Grey and then an Army Painter Strong Wash.



This is the Foundry Black triad. A coat of 34A, dry-brushed with 34B and the dry-brushed again with 34C.





I wish mine looked like Plynkes, but you can't have everything!   

[Plynkes]

To Plynkes comment above: I've always thought of dry brushing as highlighting (and washes as shading) so I'm curious how you highlight? 

Just regular painting, Fifteens. You mix lighter versions of the colour you are painting and apply them to raised areas, using successively lighter shades on successively less of the model until you are only painting very small areas of the most raised parts. On a normal figure I might use three or four  highlights over a base colour, and I often use some sort of a wash into the recesses before I begin highlighting. But with black I use much less. I feel it is more effective to simply have base colour, shade and one highlight with black. Otherwise it tends to look too much like the clothing is meant to be grey rather than black.



Drybrushing (removing most of the paint from the brush and then lightly brushing it across the surface of the model so it only gets applied to the raised parts) works fine for me for base work and terrain, but I cannot achieve the same results with that method on the surface of a figure. I have never been satisfied with my efforts using it and stopped trying years ago. With that technique all I can make is a mess, fit only for the bin or repainting. 

Of course, I've been refining my techniques (or trying to!) on 28mm figs in the last few years, it is over twenty years since I was a 15mm guy. I might do things differently if I were still painting the little fellas. But my drybrushing just doesn't look good enough on a 28mm figure. Not to my satisfaction.

[FifteensAway]

Thanks for the reply, Plynkes.  I get it - but just too much work for my gaming goal, a decent playing piece.  But we each have to satisfy ourselves with our efforts.

[Plynkes]

Totally get you, FifteensAway. Over the years I've moved from the "get them on the table" attitude to one where I'm not prepared to sign off on a figure unless I know I've done my absolute best. I think LAF has done that to me. In trying to emulate the Prof (initially coming to LAF made me feel my painting was terrible, but I resolved that instead of becoming disillusioned I would just get better at it) I became somewhat obsessed with raising my level, to the detriment of the speed of my output. It has slowed the work rate right down, but these days my gaming group meets a lot more sporadically than it used to anyway, so it hasn't affected the amount of games I can put on all that much.

[Shahbahraz]

I'm lazy. I use a Vallejo German Grey base, and then wash with GW Nuln Oil. If it isn't black enough, I wash it again.

[armchairgeneral]

I'm lazy. I use a Vallejo German Grey base, and then wash with GW Nuln Oil. If it isn't black enough, I wash it again.

That’s what I do. Dark grey with a black wash over the top 

[Charley Bourne]

I read up on a few tutorials and decided to have a bit of a trial with GW Contrast Paints. I painted 9 figures in total, 3 each undercoated in GW Wraithbone, Grey Seer and Corax White.

Each of these 3 was then painted with a coat of either Army Painter Dark Tone, GW Contrast Paints Black Templar and Basilicanum Grey (giving 3 of each colour per undercoat).

The sales pitch for Contrast Paints is very much “one coat and you’re done” but it is very clear from the tutorials available that Contrast is just another tool in the painters toolbox. There’s nothing to say you couldn’t highlight / drybrush etc over them. They vary greatly in thickness and some will need thinning whilst others won’t.

The choice of undercoat is also very important as this will show through. For my money Wraithbone is the clear winner as it gives a warm undertone (as per the examples below). Grey and white just leave the mini looking too washed out IMHO.

Black Templar needs to be thinned with Contrast Medium for any great effect. My first attempt had 2 coats straight from the pot. It may as well have been painted with a coat of regular acrylic paint.

2 thinned coats of 50/50 Black Templar / Contrast Medium gives a nice coverage with built in shading / highlighting but is still a little ‘flat’.

Dark Tone straight from the pot gives an awesome washed out grey effect, which I may use elsewhere but it’s not going to give you a black look.

The chap in pic 1 has had 3 coats of Basilicanum Grey straight out of the pot and I think he looks great. It’s a much cleaner, warmer black then you get with Black Templar.

The chap in pic 2 has had a 4th coat of Basilicanum Grey. It results in a deeper, richer black almost like it was inked but at the cost of some of the highlights. That said it may just be personal preference!