I was late home last night, so rather than get into anything major, I experimented shading and highlighting a cupola that I had airbrushed on Monday. I used heavily thinned Citadel Washes for the shading, two to three parts water to one part wash. First off I applied Asurmen Blue to parts of the model that would naturally be in the shadow, it dries much smoother than I realised, so the effect was a bit too subtle to be honest. Next up Gryphon Sepia went into any areas that would naturally collect water if it rained – so in crevaces, around rivets and such like. This was finally followed by Devlan Mud, but concentrating on the deeper areas I’d shaded with the Sepia. Highlighting, I decided that I’d not drybrush it. I know that I’m likely making a rod for my own back, but I don’t like the fact that you have no control over drybrushing and the end effect can look very chalky. So I used thinned Fortress Grey and then thinned Astronomican Grey as the two highlights. Astronomican Grey seems to dry out and go crappy so I may have to try a wet pallette for that next time.
End result looks really nice, however it is very subtle. I need to darken the shadows more than I did for certain. Providing I can keep the consistency of the grey paints good, then I could also push the highlight colours up more. They’re primarily edge highlights, so providing they’re smooth I could almost go right up to white for a huge difference in contrast. I also need to highlight the larger chips and add a bit of wash into the various scuffs to create some depth and variation to the area.