Ok, so this is absolutely brilliant. For years I simply didn't understand how to paint black or white on miniatures. I couldn't get out of my own way and always wanted to paint them both in the pure, strong color. And then the dilemma of, how on earth do you highlight black or shade white? Turns out that in the miniature world black is dark gray and white is light gray. You 100% nailed the answer in this tutorial! Black in reality is almost never actually black, it's most often a shade of dark gray depending on the lighting. And black out in daylight looks gray when the sun is reflecting off it. I recently painted two large American Civil War armies, which require large areas of black for the equipment, shoes, hats, cap brims, etc. I immediately recognized that one of the Army Painter Speed paints, specifically "Gravelord Grey" was perfect to portray black leather. You get a dark gray overall color with darker outlines where seams meet other details, etc. When you see it from tabletop height you know immediately you did it right because soldiers on mass will look like they're out in the daylight and everything that is supposed to be "black" actually pops to the eye because it's all gray with dark outlines around it. Military modelers who do super-fine detailing work on like 1/35th scale dioramas often talk about what Stuart is doing here. Any time a uniform or gear calls for black, it is painted in dark gray with black lines around it. This Nuln gunner is PERFECT, the "black" is PERFECT.
This is great! It would be fantastic if you did a "tour of the Empire" and created several painting tutorials on various Empire provinces to show off the various uniforms the provinces/city states have. You may not end up pursuing a Talabecland army, but I would love to see your take on their Red and Yellow uniform!
I’ll definitely cover a few more I think. I plan to have a large Empire collection with multiple sates, so I think Talabecland will get its turn. I’ve already covered Talabheim in an earlier tutorial as well (same playlist but over a year ago I think).
That was a great tutorial! Really made me rethink my quick paint schemes for how well a triad looks. I typically do two, and only when I think the two doesn’t pop enough, I throw on a third. Still super excited for the Empire to be unleashed!
That’s utterly bizarre, no more than an hour ago I was flicking through the heraldry book and an old army book too🤣 gorgeous paint job and great video as always dude!
Stuart, he looks fantastic. That black lining at the end really was the boss. I have a feeling that for those of us with unsteady hands and crooked eyes, we could try using a diluted black wash, then coming back with our original uniform paints to blend the overflow back to where we want it. With practice it might even turn out to be the option of choice. ?? Great work mate - Ben.
Another fab tutorial. The simple black cloth method is very effective and great for batch work. Looking to do something similar when I get around to painting a large number of night goblin robes so found this very useful. Blacks a tricky one, I’m working on black armour for my Dark elves at the moment and I’ve found using citadel black templar followed with dark reaper and then russ grey looks good.
Great tutorial Stuart, the very flat nature of the new Empire troopers can make them very challenging to paint never mind in the colours of Nuln. Excellent!
After painting a 30k dark angels force , my easy method for black armour (works on most things) is prime black , with a airbrush or rattle can do a nato black zenithal spray, let dry , drybrush thunder hawk blue Bosch done, add what other details , then Matt varnish.
Your Nuln trooper turned out very well. Nuln is a bit daunting with all the black (provided of course you are bothered by seeing just plain black). Some good tips to follow if I did land on Nuln. I’m a fair bit undecided what area I would make my Empire army at this point…definitely some food for thought and perhaps I could be swayed by some lore or what armies are offered up as their armies of infamy. Based on their comment you would think one of the armies will be Nuln based
Thank you. Yeah they’re clearly mentioned in the new lore, brief as it is right now. It’s a city hat will become the capital in about 30 years on from the timeline as well (for a period before it’s Altdorf anyway).
😂 It’s here, just paint less red :Warhammer: The Old World | Empire State Troops Tutorial ua-cam.com/video/VOQvkoXZYfI/v-deo.html …and thank you as always 😊
@sigmatus303 That could work. Going on the Uniforms and Heraldry booked I’d say the white is the same for them both there, but that doesn’t mean a more cream colour wouldn’t work. If I do them I’d probably go closer to the book than cream myself.
Really nice Stuart! It looks a bit bright to me, but that could easily be the colour balance of my monitor, as the still image you posted at the end of the video looks much darker. Probably a common problem for you as models look great to you in real life, but different to viewers depending on the colour / white balance of your camera and that of the viewer's monitor.
Thank you. Yeah it’s really hard to photograph black, you have to play with the brightness just to show up on a screen. The Black is quite dark to the natural eye, the other colours are bright though.
@@MiniatureRealms the one that looked darkest to me as I mentioned was the still image at the end. Probably because it had a white background so contrast was higher.. do you use a different camera for the still images as I think the colours they depict are closer to what you see in real life.
That's a really neat application of sand to the base. Looks a really fine grain too. (Is it a particular modelling product?) Do you use superglue or PVA to attach? Finally, is there a reason for applying it after the undercoat rather than before? Great tutorial, btw.
Thank you 🙂. It’s Vallejo Earth Texture, Dark Earth. So a ready mixed basing paste, you can prime/undercoat over it, but I tend to use the natural colour in most cases (they do a few different versions).
Where's the painting handle from? I'm still using the gw ones and that looks a lot better! Also fantastic tutorial dude, can't wait to see the full empire army
Nice job, I prefer the Steel Legion Drab base rim but unfortunately this means all my movement trays also are going the same colour which is getting a bit tedious, I really wish they did that brown in a spraycan as I don’t have an airbrush
I'll forgive you for the Xpress Colors, Stu. Probably because I love them too! But, you painted eyes. Never paint eyes, Stu. Then the figs can see what is coming and they'll break and run!:D
He looks great, and it’ll make a really striking army on the tabletop. I’ll definitely try that black technique on my Bretonnian barding. Any advice for transferring the almost pin wash at the end to flatter surfaces? Maybe a glaze of the contrast?
@@MiniatureRealms thank you. I guess the problem is wanting a zenithal on other parts of the barding for different colours, but I guess I could do the black then mask it, do the zenithal, then the other colour.
Now, here’s the real challenge: how to paint a figure with black uniform, black leatherwork AND black equipment! Several historical nations did actually use this combination.
I guess we don’t really know, but I’d be surprised if there were any significant changes. The studio Empire army in the rulebook/forces book has a scheme that looks like a mix Nordland and Marienburg, and the lore so far suggests Marienburg/Westerland will feature heavily. With Westerland not being a thing in 2500 and Nordland not in 2276 I guess it’s flexible.
Black in reality is almost never pure black. In militiary modelling black is represented as a dark gray or dark grayish blue. If Stuart had painted the model in 100% strength black paint it would not look right. Out in the daylight, black cloth, leather, etc. takes on a dark gray or dark bluish black hue when daylight reflects off it. This is absolutely perfect miniature "black."
Nuln - famous for its industry and forges? Sounds like Nuremberg to me! Personally, I’d be far more interested in recreating the troops and actual heraldry of Nuremberg rather than some fantasy guff. You can then use the minis in historical battles as well as in a fantasy/sci-fi world. There’s also an actual town called Altdorf - not far from Nuremberg - famous for is ancient university, but never a great centre of power.
@@MiniatureRealms - Well, imho, the truth - as in the real world of 15th-century Germany - is far more interesting than the Warhammer fiction. Though of course you’d have to make a little effort to really appreciate it. 🧐 Still find it a little depressing that ppl will know lots about places like Nuln and Reikland and Bretonnia but almost nothing about the RL places they’re based on.
Ok, so this is absolutely brilliant. For years I simply didn't understand how to paint black or white on miniatures. I couldn't get out of my own way and always wanted to paint them both in the pure, strong color. And then the dilemma of, how on earth do you highlight black or shade white? Turns out that in the miniature world black is dark gray and white is light gray.
You 100% nailed the answer in this tutorial! Black in reality is almost never actually black, it's most often a shade of dark gray depending on the lighting. And black out in daylight looks gray when the sun is reflecting off it. I recently painted two large American Civil War armies, which require large areas of black for the equipment, shoes, hats, cap brims, etc. I immediately recognized that one of the Army Painter Speed paints, specifically "Gravelord Grey" was perfect to portray black leather. You get a dark gray overall color with darker outlines where seams meet other details, etc.
When you see it from tabletop height you know immediately you did it right because soldiers on mass will look like they're out in the daylight and everything that is supposed to be "black" actually pops to the eye because it's all gray with dark outlines around it.
Military modelers who do super-fine detailing work on like 1/35th scale dioramas often talk about what Stuart is doing here. Any time a uniform or gear calls for black, it is painted in dark gray with black lines around it.
This Nuln gunner is PERFECT, the "black" is PERFECT.
Thank you so much as always 😊
This is great! It would be fantastic if you did a "tour of the Empire" and created several painting tutorials on various Empire provinces to show off the various uniforms the provinces/city states have. You may not end up pursuing a Talabecland army, but I would love to see your take on their Red and Yellow uniform!
This please
I’ll definitely cover a few more I think. I plan to have a large Empire collection with multiple sates, so I think Talabecland will get its turn. I’ve already covered Talabheim in an earlier tutorial as well (same playlist but over a year ago I think).
@@MiniatureRealms I know they are the Empires glory boys... But it would be amazing if you could cover Altdorf 🤩😅
@labschi Id definitely like to do that, it’s on my list to take one day.
So many uniforms, so little time 😮
Hopefully the new addition to the Border Prince Boys will stay safe, and out of the way of rampaging Chaos dragons, Chosen and other death dealers.
I’m not sure he knows what he’s let himself in for 😂
That was a great tutorial! Really made me rethink my quick paint schemes for how well a triad looks. I typically do two, and only when I think the two doesn’t pop enough, I throw on a third. Still super excited for the Empire to be unleashed!
Thank you 🙂.
I can’t wait for Empire now, hoping we get them nice and early next year.
You're really killing it Stuart 👌 Great paintjob! Love the slightly desaturated / grimdark style.
Thank you mate 😊
That’s utterly bizarre, no more than an hour ago I was flicking through the heraldry book and an old army book too🤣 gorgeous paint job and great video as always dude!
Thank you 😊
Stuart, he looks fantastic. That black lining at the end really was the boss. I have a feeling that for those of us with unsteady hands and crooked eyes, we could try using a diluted black wash, then coming back with our original uniform paints to blend the overflow back to where we want it. With practice it might even turn out to be the option of choice. ?? Great work mate - Ben.
Thank you Ben, yes definitely an option. Black panel liner may well be excellent as well.
Another fab tutorial. The simple black cloth method is very effective and great for batch work. Looking to do something similar when I get around to painting a large number of night goblin robes so found this very useful.
Blacks a tricky one, I’m working on black armour for my Dark elves at the moment and I’ve found using citadel black templar followed with dark reaper and then russ grey looks good.
Thank you.
That sounds like a good recipe.
Great tutorial Stuart, the very flat nature of the new Empire troopers can make them very challenging to paint never mind in the colours of Nuln. Excellent!
Thank you mate 😊
Just finished skavenslayer and now can better visualise their look
Nice work!
Thank you 😊
Such a great book!
After painting a 30k dark angels force , my easy method for black armour (works on most things) is prime black , with a airbrush or rattle can do a nato black zenithal spray, let dry , drybrush thunder hawk blue Bosch done, add what other details , then Matt varnish.
Sounds like a great method. I quite like painting black on armour surfaces like that, so much you can do with weathering to add colour and texture.
Your Nuln trooper turned out very well. Nuln is a bit daunting with all the black (provided of course you are bothered by seeing just plain black). Some good tips to follow if I did land on Nuln.
I’m a fair bit undecided what area I would make my Empire army at this point…definitely some food for thought and perhaps I could be swayed by some lore or what armies are offered up as their armies of infamy. Based on their comment you would think one of the armies will be Nuln based
Thank you. Yeah they’re clearly mentioned in the new lore, brief as it is right now. It’s a city hat will become the capital in about 30 years on from the timeline as well (for a period before it’s Altdorf anyway).
This turned out beautiful 💖💖
Thank you very much 😊
Amazing video, this handgunner came out awesome and a great tutorial!
Thank you very much 😊
Looks great, man! Lovin the channel
Thank you very much 😊
Nuln! Nuln! Where is my bloody Reikland?! Lol great video :)
😂 It’s here, just paint less red :Warhammer: The Old World | Empire State Troops Tutorial
ua-cam.com/video/VOQvkoXZYfI/v-deo.html
…and thank you as always 😊
@@MiniatureRealms not good enough ;) lol
@sigmatus303 😩😆
@MiniatureRealms id also argue that the Reikland scheme is more Cream then pure white like Talabheim
@sigmatus303 That could work. Going on the Uniforms and Heraldry booked I’d say the white is the same for them both there, but that doesn’t mean a more cream colour wouldn’t work. If I do them I’d probably go closer to the book than cream myself.
Really nice Stuart! It looks a bit bright to me, but that could easily be the colour balance of my monitor, as the still image you posted at the end of the video looks much darker. Probably a common problem for you as models look great to you in real life, but different to viewers depending on the colour / white balance of your camera and that of the viewer's monitor.
Thank you. Yeah it’s really hard to photograph black, you have to play with the brightness just to show up on a screen. The Black is quite dark to the natural eye, the other colours are bright though.
@@MiniatureRealms the one that looked darkest to me as I mentioned was the still image at the end. Probably because it had a white background so contrast was higher.. do you use a different camera for the still images as I think the colours they depict are closer to what you see in real life.
I do use a different camera yes, but the background is added afterwards.
That's a really neat application of sand to the base. Looks a really fine grain too. (Is it a particular modelling product?) Do you use superglue or PVA to attach? Finally, is there a reason for applying it after the undercoat rather than before? Great tutorial, btw.
Thank you 🙂.
It’s Vallejo Earth Texture, Dark Earth. So a ready mixed basing paste, you can prime/undercoat over it, but I tend to use the natural colour in most cases (they do a few different versions).
Where's the painting handle from? I'm still using the gw ones and that looks a lot better!
Also fantastic tutorial dude, can't wait to see the full empire army
Thank you 🙂
It’s a Redgrass Games handle, they’re really nice for smaller light models, I still use GW ones for some larger ones.
Nice job, I prefer the Steel Legion Drab base rim but unfortunately this means all my movement trays also are going the same colour which is getting a bit tedious, I really wish they did that brown in a spraycan as I don’t have an airbrush
Thank you.
That is a pain yes, do Titan Forge or Army Painter have a close enough match in spray?
I'll forgive you for the Xpress Colors, Stu. Probably because I love them too! But, you painted eyes. Never paint eyes, Stu. Then the figs can see what is coming and they'll break and run!:D
😂 That’s what be been doing wrong all these years! Doesn’t explain why they still miss everything they shoot at though.
@@MiniatureRealms It must be something to do with both Star Wars Stormtroopers and the miniatures being from Britain. ;)
He looks great, and it’ll make a really striking army on the tabletop. I’ll definitely try that black technique on my Bretonnian barding. Any advice for transferring the almost pin wash at the end to flatter surfaces? Maybe a glaze of the contrast?
Yes I’d glaze and feather out I think, would definitely work.
@@MiniatureRealms thank you. I guess the problem is wanting a zenithal on other parts of the barding for different colours, but I guess I could do the black then mask it, do the zenithal, then the other colour.
You definitely could, I mask quite a lot. Just balance off the time it would take to mask Vs painting in by hand.
Now, here’s the real challenge: how to paint a figure with black uniform, black leatherwork AND black equipment! Several historical nations did actually use this combination.
Very good challenge
@@MiniatureRealms - Look fwd to seeing it!
@sirrathersplendid4825 It’s not in my short or medium term plans right now though, way too much on the go.
Are the states using their old paint schemes? I’m holding back on my Stirlanders atm
I guess we don’t really know, but I’d be surprised if there were any significant changes. The studio Empire army in the rulebook/forces book has a scheme that looks like a mix Nordland and Marienburg, and the lore so far suggests Marienburg/Westerland will feature heavily. With Westerland not being a thing in 2500 and Nordland not in 2276 I guess it’s flexible.
more like Dark Eclipse blue than black....awesome technique though...
Thank you.
Black in reality is almost never pure black. In militiary modelling black is represented as a dark gray or dark grayish blue. If Stuart had painted the model in 100% strength black paint it would not look right.
Out in the daylight, black cloth, leather, etc. takes on a dark gray or dark bluish black hue when daylight reflects off it.
This is absolutely perfect miniature "black."
Nuln - famous for its industry and forges? Sounds like Nuremberg to me!
Personally, I’d be far more interested in recreating the troops and actual heraldry of Nuremberg rather than some fantasy guff. You can then use the minis in historical battles as well as in a fantasy/sci-fi world.
There’s also an actual town called Altdorf - not far from Nuremberg - famous for is ancient university, but never a great centre of power.
The Empire in Warhammer is very heavily inspired by 15c Germany, not surprised at all there are close comparisons.
@@MiniatureRealms - Well, imho, the truth - as in the real world of 15th-century Germany - is far more interesting than the Warhammer fiction. Though of course you’d have to make a little effort to really appreciate it. 🧐
Still find it a little depressing that ppl will know lots about places like Nuln and Reikland and Bretonnia but almost nothing about the RL places they’re based on.
I guess people are entitled to different interests