Painting bleedin' ninjas!?

[phreedh]

A while ago I got some Ninja from Mattias. Wanted to paint them black, alas it was beyond my capacity. I ended up losing my temper and drybrushing the dirty little fsckers! Needed them for a game, so paint was priority 1 and time was of the essence. They turned out like this:

http://ministuff.godzilla.se/#post33

Not happy, but atleast they have paint on them.

Can anyone point me to a nice tutorial on painting black cloth? I've read many, but couldn't find a single one prior to painting these. Got one more ninja to paint, and it would be cool if I could do it properly.

[Christian]

I found that an easy way to do black is to use a dark grey (e.g. Astronomicon Grey) and then using even coats of Badab Black wash over the top. You could do some highlighting in between, I guess.

Just a thought I think your guys look pretty good!

[Wirelizard]

Hit them with black ink (or that Beboboboeo Overpriced Watered-down Paint from GW, I guess) and they should look fine.

It's not the greatest picture, but the sailor on the left had his sea-coat done black basecoat, fairly aggressive pale grey highlighting, then slightly watered down black ink over it. The highlighting gives some form and such, but the black ink turns it properly black again, so it doesn't look worn and grey.

[dr willetts workshop]

There are a few tutorials on painting black I've read and found usefull. I guess, as always, you'll have to try them yourself and see what's work for you:

http://www.jrn-works.dk/tutorials/tut.php?tut=paintingBlack&lan=eng

http://blog.brushthralls.com/?page_id=1942

[Westfalia Chris]

I certainly prefer the "black grey washed with subsequent thin coats of black" approach, which is what I used on most of my ninjas. Another option would be using a non-shiny "midnight blue" or a prussian blue/black mix as a basis.

The figures below (crappy pix, sorry 'bout that) were painted from a grey base.





I think the trick is not to work up from the start, i.e. use black as a base and highlight, but rather use a rather dark not-black coat as a start, wash this with black, then add only very fine detail highlights in smooth, gradually lightening layers.

[HerbyF]

To get a good 'black' finish I use a really dark grey base, then give it a black wash or ink.

[phreedh]

http://www.jrn-works.dk/tutorials/tut.php?tut=paintingBlack&lan=eng

Cheers mate, this one might do the trick - I like the effect on his witch hunter model and will try to stick to the pointers given in the article.

[Froggy the Great]

I basecoat black, then use Reaper's Stormy Grey triad to highlight.  Then I wash with black again.  It seems to work well:

http://spielorjh.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2ocv66

[OSHIROmodels]

Not all ninja wore black, dark to mid grey and dark brown were used also (and wearing your enemies 'unifom' but that's easy  )

cheers

James

[phreedh]

I basecoat black, then use Reaper's Stormy Grey triad to highlight.  Then I wash with black again.  It seems to work well:
http://spielorjh.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2ocv66

Couldn't agree more, Froggy.

James, while you're right it's a matter of what's iconic and instantly recognizable in this case. =) Then again, brown ninja would be very fitting for mine as they look a bit shit. =D

[Captain Blood]

Generally speaking, try to avoid highlighting black with neat grey. You need to belnd in a colour.
I find blue the most successful highlight shade for black, but actually you can use any colour to achieve different effects depending on the surface / texture you're trying to represent.

Using grey just makes whatever it is you're painting look, well... grey 

[joroas]

There is a lot of discussion on this, current thinking is that at night ninja wore indigo blue, less harsh than black and more likely to blend in.  Having said that, mine are black.

[Bugsda]

I add small amounts of yellow to the black to make a highlight colour,  to my eye it more realistic for cloth.

On this figure Zorro's clothing has light blue/green mix added to the black, the horse has blue grey and the leather has yellow.

The pic seems to have come out a bit small but you can find it bigger on the Boot Hill web site

[white knight]

They'll still look like ninja's even if you paint them a different colour:

[phreedh]

They'll still look like ninja's even if you paint them a different colour:

What are those... Bakers? Chefs? Lepers? Impossible to discern!



Actually, non-black ninjas make me think of Daredevil comics, Action Force (GI Joe) figs and fantastically crap 80s ninja flicks.

I've made peace with my shitty ninjas now. I'll even try to paint up the final one. No doubt it won't look half as nice as yours. Nice job mate!