Painting your Blackshield

So, you’ve built your Blackshield, now its time to paint it. But how do you make a model that is primarily black interesting?

Well its all in the details.

Black Armour

Can’t escape it, you’re going to need to paint black when doing a Blackshield force. I’m afraid that’s just the nature of the beastie. But there are means and ways of doing so that could make your life easier, or really make your army pop - depending on how you want to try.

• [] For an easier look, and a more straightforward black you could simply use Abaddon Black spray for 90% of panels and armour, and then simply pick and add details as and how you choose. The benefits of this method are quite obvious - its a damn sight quicker. It also means you’ll naturally draw eyes to the coloured elements and symbols on your model - meaning you can invest your effort into these areas and still have an impact. This works really nicely with things like heavy OSL, where you’ll be putting a lot of effort into those colours anyway. I used this method when painting my Sons of Horus Reavers - letting the weathering and colours do the talking.

• Contrast Black Templar. Its quick, it creates natural shading and variation, and its efficient. Whilst I personally don’t have much experience using this method, I’ve seen it work plenty of times to produce swift and straightforward minis that you can get stuck in adding detail to.

• Grey Layers. So this is the method you use if you want to torture yourself, but produce a directional lighting style outcome. Gentle layers of grey, building up towards a light source, with an overall black or dark wash to create a smoothness. This method takes time (indeed its why my own Blackshield is still unfinished!) but can have a really nice overall outcome. If you’re going infantry heavy, I don’t recommend this method unless you either A - Have an airbrush or B - Have a compulsion.

• Don’t go black. Just because they’re called it, doesn’t mean you have to. They’re your minis, your army, and your blackshields can be whatever colour you like. Bare boltgun metal (fresh off the factory line), dark ceramite grey (for that Knight errant look), or simply a hodgepodge of riotous colours stolen from other legionaries. Go wild!

Weathering

Another thing that can really make a Blackshield force standout is weathering. Remember these troops have been on capaign without proper resupply for considerable time. Clean will definitely not be an appropriate descriptor.

As we can see with the Tryhard’s new Lord on a bike, he’s used weathering to really show the observer how wartorn his Blackshields are.

Colourful weathering like this can really help to make your black miniature pop a little more, which is exactly what we want! This is a great moment to invest in things such as weathering pigments, or just get a good handle on a drybrush or two!

Spot details

As mentioned in the last article, a final good method of getting attention to the right parts of the mini is the use of details to draw the eye away. Like how in the Tryhard’s mounted warrior he has used the red gun casings and shiny blue blade to create stark and attractive bright spots on the mini, or how in my own WIP I’m using the bare head, purple knee markings, and bronze trim, to draw the eye. These colours can be great for two reasons:

1 - Small effort that grants big rewards. Your only painting a small area on the mini in many cases, but it often will have a huge impact. It shows you are paying attention to detail, and not just chucking bodies at the table as quick as possible (which we are really, but other people don’t need to know this).

2 - It creates character. As mentioned last time, these little sigils and sparks of life can really bring a character to life. Are they hints of their former legion? A joint company marking? Are they little symbols of where their loyalties truly lie? Its up to you! On your bigger minis such as Dreadnoughts and vehicles, you can really use the armour space to tell a story. Even something as straightforward as painting a legion symbol, and then weathering over the top, can add alsorts of character to a model.

This is also where decorating your mini in pouches and extra gubbins can really shine - use these to add a little spark to the mini. With leather, bare metal, hazard lines etc to contrast the dark black or grey armour of the legionary. Its extra effort, but absolutely pays off!

Conclusions

Hopefully this gives you a few little ideas of things you could do!

Between building and painting, a Blackshield force can really bring something very different to your heresy table. Not just in how it plays, but how it looks and feels compared to their legionary brethren.