How do I paint Shadow Bio Armor?

[Leroy Landers]

Hi I'm new to painting miniatures and I am wondering on how to go about painting Shadow style bio armor on Earth Alliance ships and make it look close to what was in the show without simply painting it all black. Any specific colors or techniques appreciated, I like to use Games Workshop paints if you want to recommend a shade, or if you could tell me what a better brand is for this that would be good too.

 

[Silvereye]

Not tried this one myself, but you could try 'sponging' a mix of codex grey and black ink (to give you a nice dark grey colour. You might try adding a tiny bit of metallic silver (bolt gun or chainmail) to the mix too.

Basically 'sponging' works a bit like dry brushing. What to do is take a piece of open cell foam (like the bits that frequently appear in blister packs) and db it into the paint. Pat most of it off on a tissue or something then carefully apply in by dabbling the minature, do not wipe across the surface.

 

[Rob_A]

you can achieve the same effect with stippling. Get a large brush (your drybrush) and but it in the paint needed, wipe off most of the paint (as if you were going to drybrush it) onto a tissue, then stab at it, quickly and fairly lightly until you achieve the effect you require.

 

[thehod]

I used a glossy basecoat black and then with a metal color that is almost drybrushed and watered down I dry brush then.

 

[Shadow Queen]

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

I'm doing a shadow fleet for a friend of mine, and I undercoated the ships black, then washed grey, drybrushed black, and washed grey again. Gave a nice two-tone effect. I may try some different wash colours for fun though.

 

[The Legend]

I've recently finished two FA scale shadow Omegas for a mate of mine that I'm rather chuffed with.

I started with a black undercoat then a drybrush of Boltgun Metal. I followed this with a light Chainmail coat.

Ok the nextbit may seen a little odd but bear with me. Mix a 2/1 mix of Black and Red ink and wash the whole figure. Once dry I applied a drybrush of Chainmail again and then put a number of black dots over the larger areas of the figure.

The last stage is to use a half half mix of black ink and water as the last wash. There we go. I'll get some photo's of them on Thursday.

 

[Bostich]

I also went the sponging route with my Shadow Fleet. Black base coat, then sponge Light Grey (25%) , then sponge Darker Grey (50%), then sponge a little Black again.

Finished off with a Glossy Varnish mixe with some iridescent medium so it has a sparkle.

I also do my EA ships using Boltgun and Chainmail (and a black ink wash), so sponging these and then some black would produce a similar effect I imagine.

j.,

 

[Shadow Queen]

first I C/c black The next stage is to dry brush, Grey is the colour Codex grey from the Vallejo game range, then its Fortress grey from the Games Workshop range and then Skull white also from the Games Workshop range. You will need to wait for each coat to dry before applying the next coat. Or you can do a production line all four Shadow cruisers in a row. Then get a nice dark ink like Brown or Black personally id go with brown ink wash. Then last of all 2 coats of varnish.

 

[Bostich]

Just saw this:

http://www.bwbits.com/product/VAL26214

Vallejo Black Lava Texture Medium.. that would make some fun Shadow Vessels!