Experimenting with underpainting

So, I picked up a bunch of No Quarter magazine's recently. It's not a bad read, a good mix of fluff, hobby advice, gaming advice and blatant advertising of their products (Not as much as certain other magazines, but that's a different story).

One technique I saw in NQ34 was underpainting and I thought that sounded like a jolly good idea.

The logic is that you spray three separate layers of base coat on to a model. You start with a later of black sprayed all over the model. Then, you spray a grey coat over the model at a slight angle, enough to cover 80% of the model but not the undersides of objects. Finally, you spray from above a white coat that picks out the highest details.

You sue these three steps and Viola! You have a preshaded model that you can paint with light layers of rather watered down paint and it will look fabulous.

I was slightly dubious, but grabbing my trusty (NOTE THIS STATEMENT IS A LIE) airbrush I preceded to get busy and undercoat my fabulous new Precursor Knights and Captain Haley Model.


My first impressions are that it looks like a pretty good way to start painting a model. It makes highlighting and shading things like cloaks a "paint by numbers" experience.

I don't know if i'll stick to the "light glazes" style of painting they suggest to best utilize the underpainting.  I do think this may become a standard undercoating technique though, it just spells out where to highlight and shade so much clearer and easier than a plain all black undercoat. Time will tell, and the quality of the finished precursor knights will definitely decide if I use this in the future.