Hey folks, welcome back to Dank Lists Wargaming's How to PAINT! I am Bailey and today I will demonstrate the process for how I paint our beloved Dark Angels with a dank twist. My model for this article is a Dark Angels Primaris Aggressor. Though this article is about painting the armor on your Dark Angel, there are a few preliminary steps that we need to cover first.
Before I start a painting project, I like to make sure our model is prepared correctly. This means cleaning off all the sprue nubs leftover from cutting the model off the sprue and shaving off the mold lines. My process involves a technique called dry brushing, which I will get into detail later, and it is important to note that this painting style relies on smooth surfaces to look good. The technique will make mold lines and nubs obnoxiously obvious on your model and in my opinion ruin the smooth finish look I look for.
I already applied all of this plus and black primer in preparation for this article. I prefer black primer because if you miss a spot painting it ends up looking like a naturally shaded or shadowed space. It also darkens the future layers of paint providing that grim dark and gritty look we all love. This being said, it makes models that are primarily red or white a nightmare to paint and I prefer to use grey primer on them. I rarely use white primer because if you miss a spot it is annoyingly apparent on the finished project.
Now that I've covered all the work done behind the veil of secrecy, let’s start painting. My first color is Games Workshop’s Caliban Green. We use a larger brush because this is the base coat for 80% of the model so we want to get it on quick and we don’t need to worry about detail work. If you aren’t using Games Workshop paints, you want a really dark green color that reminds you of a pine tree.
Once the Caliban dries, we want to drybrush on Kabalite Green. I like Kabalite Green because of its blue hue. In the past, I’ve used a more traditional true green but the blue tint adds richness and depth to the Caliban Green beneath it.
The idea behind a dry brush is that you only place paint on the raised or exposed edges of a model so they stick out without getting paint down in the depressions or crevices. This is done by taking the brush, getting some paint on it, and then spending some time wiping it off on dry cardboard or paper towel. You want the brush to barely color the cardboard when you run the brush across it before you put the brush on the model. You don’t want to press the brush on the model but quickly and lightly move across it so that way only the edges are touched by the brush. I do vigorously try to get all the edges. If I get a thicker patch on a flat surface, I don’t worry too much until I get my wash on the model because a good wash will clean up that mistake. It takes several dips of the brush to finish the whole model. In the past, I liked using a flat-edged brush for this process but I ‘ve taken to using a rounded-edged brush and I like it as well. What you don’t want is a traditional pointed brush because it’s easy to miss the raised edges and paint the depressions due to the shape of the brush.
Once I am done dry brushing the Kabalite Green, I continue to the next dry brush layer without cleaning my brush. I choose P3 Wurm Green for this layer and I go over the whole model again. By not cleaning the brush first, the colors naturally blend on the brush and create transition from the darker colors in the depressions to a high contrast on the edges. I typically use Games Workshop Moot Green but I didn’t have any at hand when I wrote this article. P3 Wurm Green and Games Workshop Moot Green are indistinguishable once the model is finished so don’t feel obligated to stick to one or the other. The final note on the Wurm Green layer is that I don’t apply this as vigorously as the previous layer in order to make sure that only the extreme edges stand out.
With the second dry brush layer on, I finally clean my brush and I reach for the Games Workshop Biel-Tan Green Wash. I get a rounded-edge brush again and apply the wash liberally all over the model. If a part appears to be swimming in the wash, I go back over that area and pick up the excess on the brush and reapply it somewhere else. The wash cleans up mistakes as I mentioned earlier and it provides additional transition from the dark recesses to the bright edges. Once the wash dries, I am done painting the armor and I can move on to the other details on the model but that is for another day.
Thank you for joining me today for a How to PAINT! Dark (Dank) Angels Green. Many of our painting strategies focus on dry brushing techniques and using one to two layers of it with a wash over a solid base. Therefore, you can use this same strategy to paint your gun casings and leather accoutrements by simply swapping out the green colors for metal or brown. I hope this helps you enjoy painting your own lovely Dark Angels and we look forward to helping you next time on How to PAINT! Until then,
Keep it dank,
Bailey