Zenethal is how we were taught to paint in the 80s, with the first space hulk, we drybrushed genesteslers white over a black undercoat, then used really thinned down paints to colour them, pretty sure it was worm purple.
@@B3457LY I think that's what they call it now, just someone else trying to reinvent the wheel, it was actually easier with the acrylic paints in the 80s, as they were less pigmented, now I have to water them down a lot more. . we used to also use burnt umber oil paints thinned down for running rust effects, and general weathering, and coloured inks for panel line shading, old staples of the airfix modelling community in the 80s, someone will probably give that a fancy name next ;)
@@johnfarscape yeah, me too. But I'm glad it now has a silly name (slapchop, as others have said) as people now know what you're talking about, or able to search for tutorials, in fewer words.
The trick that helped me with Slapchop/Zenithal highlighting is to actually not prime in black, but dark grey. If you do the classic slapchop - black primer, heavy drybrush with grey and then white on the edges, you can end up with a very dark miniature, which is a common complaint when people are trying out Slapchop for the first time. Get yourself a dark grey primer, like Vallejo Panzer Grey or Army Painter Uniform Grey, then do a heavy white drybrush and slap on some speedpaints/contrasts. Saves you the time and makes your miniatures better looking. Also don't be afraid to actually paint stuff that supposed to have lighter colors in very diluted white on top of the drybrush. Yellow and few other light colors don't like grey beneath it and often looks bad in darker places. And final trick, 5 minutes extra work on some edge highlighting can elevate that slapchopped miniature even further.
The original person to make a video and call it 'slapchop' used grey primer and speedpaint. I thought everyone was already doing this honestly. But then the term 'slapchop' gained popularity and videos popped up using black primer.
I actually like the flat look of blocked in models. I paint my minis as game pieces so it gives them a similar look to my action figures from my childhood. My collection is also large, so simple blocked in flat colors allows me to get my models on the table faster. Given the opportunity costs, getting models on the table is what I'm after. But I can see how zen priming is a great technique for those who want more realistic details on their models.
Same here, I go for the bright candy look. Often using white as my primer coat to really brighten things up. If I'm going darker, I'll go black primer with a heavy dry brush white. Then block paint like you say. I try for a minimum of colors too. Like I've done Space Marines all blue, then red dots on the eyes, and a black gun. 3 colors. Nice and bright, looking like an action figure like you say. Do you seal them with glossy? I've been doing semi gloss.
The battlefoam container ship, maybe that was what was stuck blocking the Suez canal a few years ago. Someone was late to the 7foot scale tournament and paid for express shipping
It's also worth noting that a zenithal highlight CAN effect regular paint over the top as long as its not super heavy (which it shouldn't be if your using thin coats). Theres a reason some people use black primer, others white or grey. It can affect the saturation. Often if your doing a bright mini you start with white. It may be subtle, but a zenithal will lend a little but of a natural shade in those places. If you took two identical minis, one base coated white and the other black you will be able to tell, again, aslong as the paint isn't too thick, even if everything else is identical.
Indeed - that was kind of the point of the pa-chow to the “Understanding Underpainting” video I did way back before Contrast paints were released. Thanks for watching!
Completely agree with working using regular paints. I'm currently painting a unit of grots with a dark grey prime, and a desaturated yellow drybrush as a zenithal highlight. Even after just 1 coat of paint, without manual highlights, there is already significantly less flatness in the model. It also makes the highlighting stage easier. There is also the advantage of coverage. When working with a black prime, you will often need a lot of layers to get decent coverage. With a Zenithal, you have the advantage of dark shadows, and the easy coverage of a lighter undercoat where you want it.
I use grey. The main reasons is I find it hard to “recover” from solid black (when using lighter tones) and grey is a bit more forgiving in that area. Also, Grey is just easier on my eyes. Not too dark like black and not too bright like white. It makes everything stand out and is a neutral enough color to take just about any base color you need.
I use a Zenithal on every model, beyond that I’ve tried colored Zenithal, for example starting with a very dark brown prime then highlighting with a light brown.
I love using Zenethal undercoats, and especially whenb not using black, my favourite at the moment is The Fang spray base and then Greyseer, then use transpratent paints over the top of that to block in all the colours if im doing a cold colour scheme, or using Zandri dust & wraithbone if I want a warm tone to the final mini .
Great information. I used to zenithal, until the mechanics of light finally just clicked. Now, that I understand light better, I simply start from my deepest shadow tone and work up to the highlights
Another good thought from you, informative video. Yes, you taught me about Zenethal priming and I use it often. When going with opaque paints, I hadn't thought of using it to show the light source....hmmm...good thought. Case in point - my "not Zerg"...well "not Tyranids" either...OPR Alien Hives. Basically painted in Army Painter's fanatic line of purples, But a zenethal of brown base with bone on top would have worked very well. But you got me thinking...I'm in between some Not Zerg, I'm currently painting Space Dark Elves...using Vallejo color shifting paints. This was a situation where I wouldn't Zenethal because the color shift needs black to work against. But now I'm thinking of some other color to zenathal against next time. Great video, anytime someone gets me thinking along new paths, it is a good thing.
Super helpful video! My LGS has some Citadel black and white rattlecans and some Army Painter speedpaints that I was on the fence about trying together, but this convinced me to go for it for my first 40k army.
Finding zenathal priming was a big step in me understanding light on minis better. Taking a reference picture of a zenathal prime has become a pretty standard part of my workflow these days. As you said, if you are using one coat paints, a 2 or 3 stage zenethal as a base, will make the end result 2-3 times better in terms of contrast and detail.
I always do it, it helps with the understanding of the shapes/details and shadows... even if you need to do metallics over, it is still a good base for the rest !
I use zenithal priming since my very first miniature. Started with dry brush and recently moved to rattle cans. Its one of my favorite steps on the painting process. So much done with so little effort.
Took me a few years to get the hang of it but now I always do a 3 step zenithal (black -> grey -> white) as I find this really helps with shadows and speed/contrast paints. Sometimes I’ll also do additional line/recess shading as I’ve had some great results from that extra step, but agreed that starting from a zenithal undercoating is better than not.
Love your videos as always Uncle Atom! I would also suggest doing a 50:50 mix of dark blue with black instead of 100% black black if you're going for a brighter (as opposed to grim dark/grunge) aesthetic. Your shadows will pop instead of being a black hole for the brighter colors you'll be using.
Thanks a lot for the inspiration. So far, I was pretty fine without having extra highlights. But it is a very easy way to create a nice and plastic effect. I’ll give it a try on my next project. 😀
Perfect timing for this. Just started trying to figure out how to do zenethal properly and having difficulty with trying to dry brush the light color without having the dark color overwhelm the contrast paint
I'm still pretty new to painting miniatures and I got into it via the Slapchop video, so I almost always use Zenithal highlighting and Army Painter SpeedPaints. I've found that in some cases, however, it's not very good for what I want. Larger models, like the wolves for my wolf rider models, seem to be big enough to provide their own natural shading in the underbelly and inner leg areas and darkening those areas with a black undercoat made them look too dark. Also, this technique can be challenging with the models arms are tight to the front or sides of the body. This makes it difficult to get a brush (I dry brush my highlights) in those areas that should get overhead light. For those, I end up having to dab a smaller brush to apply the proper highlight, but it can yield an inconsistent level of highlight relative to the rest of the model. I'm sure airbrushing removes that problem, I'm just not interested in moving into the airbrush space. One thing I've found is that rattle can grey primer can be very dark and help you shortcut your highlights. Rather than priming black, the dark grey is dark enough to do the job of black and I can just do the white drybrush slightly more aggressively. The difference between a black/grey/white vs grey/white base on near-identical models was indistinguishable on the table.
Hi again! I think I'll grab rattlecan of white to try this. I never heard of zenithal till I saw it on your channel this week. When I first started many years ago, I primed white but then I got "white holes" even when I was "done" painting. Love black cause I can get some gritty look to it, looks good and covers small hidden places so no "white holes". Watching videos to try and understand better.
The zenithal speedpaint/contrast paint with added highlights is literally the only way I paint now. As a dad in college its a huge time saver to allow me to paint minis to a tabletop standard quickly and most importantly in fun way.
100% use. I might not even use it as a light/dark reference, but just to improve the visibility for figuring detail and "peaks and valleys" in the model. One exception is for directional light - but I might still spray the "zenithal" colour from where I think light will b coming from. And yes, for sure black/white are not the only choices. I much prefer yellow over ivory, and warm greens over brown - especially organic surfaces.
I also like to do a zenithal coat of an under color to tint the speed paint/contrast. My Necrons get primed, all over dark silver, zenithal bright silver, then a brown contrast. It can really help the contrast pop. A yellow zenithal under a green contrast is also great for getting a more interesting highlight.
I haven't tried slapchop yet but have been zenithal priming/base coating/highlighting, for ages. Still, this channel is one of my happy places and I enjoyed this one. I also realized I was missing something: black undercoat with zenithal basecoat out of an airbrush with some models (like those halo guys) would look awesome and I'm going to try that. Thanks!
For dnd minis that I 3d print, but don't expect to use or see very often, I'll frequently just zenithal prime and then seal it, that's how good it looks by itself.
I do a drybrush zenithal prime for my Necromunda collection. I go with three stages; a heavy drybrush of dark grey over black spray primer with no real thought of light direction, then a pale grey built up lightly on upper surfaces, followed by white only on surfaces I can see from directly above the model. The white layer makes for a transition withvthe greys that's pretty stark but I feel it suits the artificial lighting of a hive.
I generally use a combination of black primed over with a thin layer of white from the zenith making mostly gray and shadows. Then I pick 1-3 focal points and push them into pure white. Usually the face, and/or weapons. If the model is a character or iconic model with a cool pose, then I shift my zenithal to be more directional and not from straight up and down. That being said, I will totally try the colored zenithal! I heard of some people doing a similar method. They would prime in a dark basecoat color then zenithal with a bright hue of magenta or yellow. This requires knowing color theory, but it makes your highlights look more saturated! As if you mixed in some ice yellow into your paints instead of white paint to.make them brighter.
I tend to be one of those types who are resistant to using zenithal techniques, although I have definitely experimented with them. My own preference is to prime with a gloss or satin white, then do an ink wash, usually a dark brown by preference. This serves the same purpose of identifying highlights and shadows, and I think using a brown rather than a black gives a warmer and more saturated feel to the final appearance.
I was a thinker of “what’s the point, it’s getting covered anyway” but now I may try it and see, especially because I use more speed paints these days. So the jury is still out for me, but I will try it because you made some good points.
Zenithal fan here, even though I tend to use a traditional layered approach with opaque paints. One of the greatest benefits for me is that it makes detail way easier to see so I can plan the paint job better - big plus since my eyes aren't getting any better with age XD
Finally started getting a good zenithal with my airbrush, and using contrast paints makes getting mobs on the table much faster. It's also helped me get PC minis blocked in with a quickness to start building up to a more complete look.
I don't do a white on black zenithal, but I do use a variety of shades of blue for the armour on my marines - from very deep blue to a much lighter blue for the highlights. It gives them a nice overall depth.
Your older zenithal videos introduced me to this concept and that was the first game-changing technique that drastically overhauled my quality overnight.
Depending on the model, the concept I have for it and sometimes size; I usually Zenithal before I start painting. Or, I will do a Zenithal then go in with some more defined undersketching using whites, greys and blacks.
It does depend on the model. Most times I prime white, wash in black, purple or brown, dry brush highlights then attack with inks or Contrast Paint. If it's a predominately dark model or has way too many deep or under cuts, I'll prime black in sub assemblies then slap-chop a zenithal.
I am using a dark gray as base with drybrush of a mid brown and the hightest points with a small drybrush white. Then i use the speedpaints and after that highlighting with layer paints of citadel. The models have a nice grimdark tone after that with warm midtones.
I tried this on my tyranid army on which I used all contrast paints. But I used the mid to dark brown ones (wyldwood snakebite leather). Found it really didn't make much of a difference compared to straight white primer.
I use this technique all the time, if for no other reason than it makes the detail of the model pop out a bit more when you come to paint it. I tend to do thinned out washes to overpaint (depending on the pigment of the paint - some colours don't cope well with being thinned). I find it works even better when you apply a bit of colour theory towards the dark and light tones - being mindful of how you are going to overpaint. The dark tones are less important; as our eyes tend to be less able to distinguish between very deep colours - but it's worth understanding the interplay between your major tones and the highlight as white can often be a poor choice that leads to everything looking desaturated. You might be better suited with something warmer like a yellow or orange or cooler in the green / blue / violet sort of space.
I base coat in black. Then dry brush in light grey followed by white. Then use Army Painter Speed paints. I actually enjoy painting my miniatures this way, used to hate painting them.
Tried it a while back & guessing I was so new to the hobby I was doing something wrong as painting the mini looked like it was just primed in a flat colour. I will add to this with a strong recommendation even for those not into the zenithal highlights to lightly dry brush the mini with a lighter colour just to make the details easier to spot for the initial painting process. Thanks for the video & I'll have to try it again plus going back at the end to just dry brush from top to bottom direction to paint in a little light on the mini.
I base coat my models black then use a makeup brush to brush Monument Hobbies white primer on the models. This picks out all the details I’d have a hard time seeing when it’s all black, helps me pick out my colors to paint it, and it looks like I put more effort into them while they sit in my pile of opportunities
I normally do a black base and a zenethal with white ink. But last time in addition to that I used green ink as a base color for a Warsong Revenant (Sylvaneth) base and cape and green adapted its tone depending on if it was a zenethal region or a shadow one. That was really interesting to see.
This is amazing advice. Zenithal made my productivity improve so much. I heard painters spending over ten hours on one model, and to use a phrase from internet past, "ain't nobody [me] got time for that". Plus, the shade paints even look better, in my opinion, after painting zenithal. Awesome video!
Really recommended if you are doing zenithal priming to use an airbrush just recently got one and it works so much better than white rattle cans in my opinon not to mention they can also be super useful for other tasks like plasma weapon glow
I always prime black and zenithal white to varying degrees on all my minis. Partly to save money so that I only need basic black primer, but mostly so I don't have to worry about getting paint into those deepest recesses no matter if I'm using regular paint or contrast.
As I've gone from painting in my pre and early teens, through my 20's and now my 30's - the biggest asset for Zenithal priming is just the amount it saves my eyes when trying to see detail and clutter on some of the newer minis.
I like a three stage, black to a lightish grey normal zenithal, and then white directly from above, or wherever you want the light source to be coming from.
my only memorable use of this general technique was a reverse zenithal undercoat on a big bad Cthulhu DmD Black Goat model, where I sprayed it white first and then zenithal'd black from the top. the result was really odd to look at, it gave a kind of iridescent effect, that didn't actually end up really showing through in the final result, but was a cool bit of inspo for possible future projects...
I haven't used it a lot, but I am getting into playing with underpainting. I've got the Krieg kill team set up where I did a reversal of it, I primed them a really light grey and did a cool dark red sprayed from beneath, to have some shadows to counter point the cool greens and blues I'm planning on painting them. I do have a set of Tau that I did a zenithal on before airbrushing the same blue as the ones I did the base coat on, and at least with the airbrush there's a noticeable difference in how that base coat came out.
People REALLY don’t know how much the primer shows through opaque paints. I learned from watching shows about car customization that the color of the primer really matters-especially for reds or yellows. I would recommend never painting a room in your house red, because it’s a nightmare to get a consistent color. You have to use a dark gray primer on your walls because the white will lighten it up too much and if you’ve ever primed a wall you know how inconsistent the color is and unless you want to put on multiple coats of primer (not really a good idea) there is no way to make it look uniform. Car guys will use a white primer on candy colors, because they’re amazing at painting cars and can get an even looking coat of primer. With minis I just like priming in black and adding lighter colors on top. It’s a little more time consuming and uses more thin layers of paint if you need to make something on the model white eventually but you get better looking results. I never thought about doing an extreme contrast of primer colors like this, but knowing what I know about how paint covers and shows from underneath-I think this is going to be a game changer. I love the idea of having a guide for the shadows because when I paint I use the maximum amount of light I can get to make sure I don’t miss any tiny details. I can’t wait to try this one out, thanks for sharing!
I prefer the latter way of the air triads. Prime black with a spraycan (fast, no fuss), use the triad in a zenithal fassion, Basecolour on metals, enamel wash all over, wipe away as much as you like, Drybrush the sharpest edges and you get an amazing looking Modell in no time at all.
Thanks for the video. I've used zenithal on 28mm and I think it helped. I tried on 15mm WWII infantry and vehicles, but because of paint I was using I couldn't see much of an effect except to define shadow areas. If I can get some Army Painter Speed Paints in the military colors I need I may try again.
I'm going to have to try zenithal highligting. I used to block paint with perhaps a wash or drybrush on certain areas, over a gray or white rattlecan primer, for my D&D character minis. Been trying the Army Painter Speedpaints the last couple of months, and it's taking some getting used to.
I tend to: Xenithal highlight plastic GW models (Blood bowl, space hulk). Drybrush a harsh white to black on metal models for a sort of comic book look. Prime white and then use washes to recess shade any models I'm painting to look like medieval marginalia drawings (a significant portion of my collection).
Hey Adam This was a fantastic video I hope u have recovered from Covid U sounded a little out of breath Take care at Nova man Hope u r having a good time
It depends on the mini and the feel or look I’m going for if use a zenithal. Same with the the paints I use for zenithal. I sometimes will start black the a gray and then a wraith bone. I will use off white or white for the final highlights. If I’m using just contrast type paints. Other than that how I paint it just depends what I think it should look like. I strive for a higher table top standard. So my eyes are getting bad as I get older I generally don’t paint eyes anymore or highlight belt buckles and such that are not in lighted areas. .
Great video. I use a zenithal prime on all my minis. I start with black all over then white from above. I find this really useful in terms of the “readability” of the model. I can see all the details clearly as well as the highlights and shadows.
Almost all my minis nowadays start with a black to light grey zenithal, then I drybrush white in a top-down direction. It's 1 extra step, but really pops the highlights in preparation of my paints
i over brush matte titanium white. for where im at, airbrushing or spraying covers too much detail that I can cheat out by using a brush. with a brush i get more dramatic effects for very little effort. im a lazy table top painter just trying to cover a LOT of minis, and this has REALLY helped take things to another level. next steps are adding in more highlights after, but for now im just slaying gray :P
Getting real envious of all these folks getting a hold of the gencon editions of flashpoint while I'm still waiting to find out when I'll get my box 😂. So I'm still relatively new to the hobby, but right now I have a bunch of stormcloaks for call to arms done with contrast and zenithal, and I'm finishing some scout Marines that I did with the "traditional" blocking method. I can really appreciate how much time it saves in the end. That being said, the scouts where a chance for me to teach myself something rather than JUST get them on the board and I still love how they are coming out (just not the fact that I've basically been building them for close to 7 months now).
I dont zenithal because I don’t have an airbrush. But I do give a quick drybrush whether I’m going to use speed paints or not. Makes it so much easier to see everything and gives a good quick payoff of looking much better right away.
I use to do ether a solid black or white prime when i started back in 2016 and wanted to try zenithal after i learned about it in 2019 but ever really come to mind when i primed. Now that we have some speed paints come in this week going to have to experiment with brushing it on. Did attempt to zenithal prime with spray cans before and i think i didnt have enough white on the models but they also had some pretty big hats on so i rolled with it just to see what the end product will be.
I have gave zenethal a go on a couple of Orruk Gutrippaz models from AoS shields with one paint of Mephiston Red, it looks good. I may give the contrast method a go as I paint other parts of the Orruks.
I found for some colours, AP speedpaints and Citadel contrast actually look better without a zenethal highlight. . . But I do zenethal for regular paints.
I've had that experience, and I think it's because I did white over black, and the black took all the vibrancy out of the transparent paints. Going lighter in the shadows, grey or even a fitting base color, has potential to look pretty cool with only transparents over zenithal
@@johnfarscape I didn’t know we were talking about just skin tones… browns not bad for skin tone away from the light then pure white on top… but for most materials having a desaturated colour in the shadows isn’t bad when going for a quick paint job
So I have a Raven Guard KT. And I have no idea how to do their armour correct, because edge highlighting isn't my gig and dry brushing gives a rough texture. Any help from you Brothers?
I switched to black undercoat years ago when I realized any place I was unable to reach with a brush was likely to be black anyway… These days I use varied styles depending on how I plan to paint the model. If I’m doing opaque 3-color style, zenithal is just a waste of time IMHO. For contrast/stain style, it depends on how dark I want the final result to be. For very bright models, flat white still wins.
I don't zenithal as much as dry brush white over black primer. It doesn't get into the areas that you want dark and you can use different brushes to hit the spaces you need to. Really helps on sisters of battle with how annoying those are to deal with.
Potential follow-up video: Zen and the art of miniature painting. The connection between collecting and painting figurines and Bonsai has always seemed a fertile field for exploration to me but remains largely ignored as far as I can tell.
I have tried zenithal priming for months, on hundreds of models. I have to say that it isn't just an easy no brainer operation. I have messed up more than have worked. But when it works, it works well.
Great breakdown as usual, though going back to start back up some Bloodbound Khorne warriors I realized the subtle risk of zenithal, I thought I'd covered all the skin with some Crusader Skin, turns out I left massive grey patches under the arms lol
Once you've learned the basics of zenithal priming and transparent paints, learn CMYK color theory and try using other colors for the zenithal. I love doing dark magenta then cyan from above. Great for when my main colors are going to be green blue and purple. Also great for doing smooth gradients.
Personally i stopped using the zenithal highlight because i felt building up from black was giving me better results. Maybe i was just trying to rely on the zenithal too much before. Also i cant get speed or contrast paints to work at all for me regardless of how i prime.
I tried zenithal many years ago but found that my painting style is so heavy (all my grimdark and battletech minis were overbrushed to begin with) that I couldn't see a difference. Also, I do prefer to prime on the frame and paint in subassembly, it that makes it rather difficult, but I salute others who find it useful.
I would like to start Airbrushing, with priming -> Zenithal -> mid colour -> dark colour -> highlight colour, would that be the correct order? because using a brush I would always go from dark -> mid -> light.
I'm just getting started and have a question about this. Why not just apply the primer everywhere and then use an overhead light while painting to show where the darker parts of the figure will be and add a darker layer of paint then?
That’d work for figuring out where to put shadows on an opaque paint job (although you’d want to keep the light source and the model steady, otherwise the shadows will move) but it won’t work if you’re using transparent paints like Speedpaints and Washes. Thanks for watching!
The end of the video is really important to keep in mind. To steal a popular saying from Uncle Atom, anything can be a zenithal if you believe in yourself. I find that browns/tans work better for models with a lot of flesh. A gunmetal base with a silver highlight can lead into really easy heavily armored miniatures with colored metallic armor. Anyone who has tried to paint historical miniatures will understand the benefits of zenithal as well. With Napoleonic miniatures or anything else with highly ornate uniforms it has almost become a must for me.
I need to try this method with my fledgling Ad Mech army but I'm wondering if this will work well with metallic spray paints. I'm still going to get into the drybrushing + contrast paints for the more detailed miniatures though. I've heard it more than once that all the mechanical detail on Ad Mech models is nice but a real chore to paint. Perhaps they were referring to the old base-layer-shade-highlight process? I'm looking for short-cut methods for metallic machine bits but then also not something that will then make the capes and cloaks too much of a bother to paint over.
With most Ad Mech, I zenithal for the cloaks and then paint in the metallic parts with a brush. The cloaks have more surface area. Thanks for watching!
Zenethal is how we were taught to paint in the 80s, with the first space hulk, we drybrushed genesteslers white over a black undercoat, then used really thinned down paints to colour them, pretty sure it was worm purple.
Slapshop before it was named Slapshop
Slapchop* 😂
@@B3457LY I think that's what they call it now, just someone else trying to reinvent the wheel, it was actually easier with the acrylic paints in the 80s, as they were less pigmented, now I have to water them down a lot more. . we used to also use burnt umber oil paints thinned down for running rust effects, and general weathering, and coloured inks for panel line shading, old staples of the airfix modelling community in the 80s, someone will probably give that a fancy name next ;)
@@johnfarscape I was just correcting @ag39944 calling it "Slap_S_hop"
@@johnfarscape yeah, me too.
But I'm glad it now has a silly name (slapchop, as others have said) as people now know what you're talking about, or able to search for tutorials, in fewer words.
The trick that helped me with Slapchop/Zenithal highlighting is to actually not prime in black, but dark grey. If you do the classic slapchop - black primer, heavy drybrush with grey and then white on the edges, you can end up with a very dark miniature, which is a common complaint when people are trying out Slapchop for the first time.
Get yourself a dark grey primer, like Vallejo Panzer Grey or Army Painter Uniform Grey, then do a heavy white drybrush and slap on some speedpaints/contrasts. Saves you the time and makes your miniatures better looking.
Also don't be afraid to actually paint stuff that supposed to have lighter colors in very diluted white on top of the drybrush. Yellow and few other light colors don't like grey beneath it and often looks bad in darker places.
And final trick, 5 minutes extra work on some edge highlighting can elevate that slapchopped miniature even further.
The original person to make a video and call it 'slapchop' used grey primer and speedpaint.
I thought everyone was already doing this honestly. But then the term 'slapchop' gained popularity and videos popped up using black primer.
I actually like the flat look of blocked in models. I paint my minis as game pieces so it gives them a similar look to my action figures from my childhood. My collection is also large, so simple blocked in flat colors allows me to get my models on the table faster. Given the opportunity costs, getting models on the table is what I'm after. But I can see how zen priming is a great technique for those who want more realistic details on their models.
Same here, I go for the bright candy look. Often using white as my primer coat to really brighten things up. If I'm going darker, I'll go black primer with a heavy dry brush white. Then block paint like you say. I try for a minimum of colors too. Like I've done Space Marines all blue, then red dots on the eyes, and a black gun. 3 colors. Nice and bright, looking like an action figure like you say.
Do you seal them with glossy? I've been doing semi gloss.
Yes sir. Me to.
painting 2nd ed 40k looks miles better over a plain white undercoat.
“Tiny little mans” is one of the best descriptions I’ve heard for 40k minis, thanks Uncle Atom
The battlefoam container ship, maybe that was what was stuck blocking the Suez canal a few years ago. Someone was late to the 7foot scale tournament and paid for express shipping
It's also worth noting that a zenithal highlight CAN effect regular paint over the top as long as its not super heavy (which it shouldn't be if your using thin coats). Theres a reason some people use black primer, others white or grey. It can affect the saturation. Often if your doing a bright mini you start with white. It may be subtle, but a zenithal will lend a little but of a natural shade in those places. If you took two identical minis, one base coated white and the other black you will be able to tell, again, aslong as the paint isn't too thick, even if everything else is identical.
Indeed - that was kind of the point of the pa-chow to the “Understanding Underpainting” video I did way back before Contrast paints were released. Thanks for watching!
Completely agree with working using regular paints.
I'm currently painting a unit of grots with a dark grey prime, and a desaturated yellow drybrush as a zenithal highlight. Even after just 1 coat of paint, without manual highlights, there is already significantly less flatness in the model. It also makes the highlighting stage easier.
There is also the advantage of coverage. When working with a black prime, you will often need a lot of layers to get decent coverage. With a Zenithal, you have the advantage of dark shadows, and the easy coverage of a lighter undercoat where you want it.
I use grey. The main reasons is I find it hard to “recover” from solid black (when using lighter tones) and grey is a bit more forgiving in that area.
Also, Grey is just easier on my eyes. Not too dark like black and not too bright like white. It makes everything stand out and is a neutral enough color to take just about any base color you need.
I use a Zenithal on every model, beyond that I’ve tried colored Zenithal, for example starting with a very dark brown prime then highlighting with a light brown.
I love using Zenethal undercoats, and especially whenb not using black, my favourite at the moment is The Fang spray base and then Greyseer, then use transpratent paints over the top of that to block in all the colours if im doing a cold colour scheme, or using Zandri dust & wraithbone if I want a warm tone to the final mini .
Great information. I used to zenithal, until the mechanics of light finally just clicked. Now, that I understand light better, I simply start from my deepest shadow tone and work up to the highlights
That's the strategy for sure. Start with the darkest colors, and build up to the lighter highlights
Another good thought from you, informative video. Yes, you taught me about Zenethal priming and I use it often. When going with opaque paints, I hadn't thought of using it to show the light source....hmmm...good thought. Case in point - my "not Zerg"...well "not Tyranids" either...OPR Alien Hives. Basically painted in Army Painter's fanatic line of purples, But a zenethal of brown base with bone on top would have worked very well. But you got me thinking...I'm in between some Not Zerg, I'm currently painting Space Dark Elves...using Vallejo color shifting paints. This was a situation where I wouldn't Zenethal because the color shift needs black to work against. But now I'm thinking of some other color to zenathal against next time. Great video, anytime someone gets me thinking along new paths, it is a good thing.
Super helpful video! My LGS has some Citadel black and white rattlecans and some Army Painter speedpaints that I was on the fence about trying together, but this convinced me to go for it for my first 40k army.
Finding zenathal priming was a big step in me understanding light on minis better. Taking a reference picture of a zenathal prime has become a pretty standard part of my workflow these days.
As you said, if you are using one coat paints, a 2 or 3 stage zenethal as a base, will make the end result 2-3 times better in terms of contrast and detail.
I always do it, it helps with the understanding of the shapes/details and shadows... even if you need to do metallics over, it is still a good base for the rest !
I use zenithal priming since my very first miniature. Started with dry brush and recently moved to rattle cans. Its one of my favorite steps on the painting process. So much done with so little effort.
I approve of you proposal of 32mm scale Battlefleet Gothic miniature ships.
Buy that point just build the actual ship
Took me a few years to get the hang of it but now I always do a 3 step zenithal (black -> grey -> white) as I find this really helps with shadows and speed/contrast paints. Sometimes I’ll also do additional line/recess shading as I’ve had some great results from that extra step, but agreed that starting from a zenithal undercoating is better than not.
Love your videos as always Uncle Atom!
I would also suggest doing a 50:50 mix of dark blue with black instead of 100% black black if you're going for a brighter (as opposed to grim dark/grunge) aesthetic. Your shadows will pop instead of being a black hole for the brighter colors you'll be using.
Thank you! Gonna check this out this weekend on some Iron Hands!
Thanks a lot for the inspiration. So far, I was pretty fine without having extra highlights. But it is a very easy way to create a nice and plastic effect. I’ll give it a try on my next project. 😀
Perfect timing for this. Just started trying to figure out how to do zenethal properly and having difficulty with trying to dry brush the light color without having the dark color overwhelm the contrast paint
I'm still pretty new to painting miniatures and I got into it via the Slapchop video, so I almost always use Zenithal highlighting and Army Painter SpeedPaints. I've found that in some cases, however, it's not very good for what I want. Larger models, like the wolves for my wolf rider models, seem to be big enough to provide their own natural shading in the underbelly and inner leg areas and darkening those areas with a black undercoat made them look too dark. Also, this technique can be challenging with the models arms are tight to the front or sides of the body. This makes it difficult to get a brush (I dry brush my highlights) in those areas that should get overhead light. For those, I end up having to dab a smaller brush to apply the proper highlight, but it can yield an inconsistent level of highlight relative to the rest of the model. I'm sure airbrushing removes that problem, I'm just not interested in moving into the airbrush space.
One thing I've found is that rattle can grey primer can be very dark and help you shortcut your highlights. Rather than priming black, the dark grey is dark enough to do the job of black and I can just do the white drybrush slightly more aggressively. The difference between a black/grey/white vs grey/white base on near-identical models was indistinguishable on the table.
Loved the video. Under painting and broken colour theory applies just as much to my hobby of painting on canvas .
Been using a zenithal highlight for years, learnt it from you 😂
Hi again! I think I'll grab rattlecan of white to try this. I never heard of zenithal till I saw it on your channel this week. When I first started many years ago, I primed white but then I got "white holes" even when I was "done" painting. Love black cause I can get some gritty look to it, looks good and covers small hidden places so no "white holes". Watching videos to try and understand better.
The zenithal speedpaint/contrast paint with added highlights is literally the only way I paint now. As a dad in college its a huge time saver to allow me to paint minis to a tabletop standard quickly and most importantly in fun way.
100% use.
I might not even use it as a light/dark reference, but just to improve the visibility for figuring detail and "peaks and valleys" in the model.
One exception is for directional light - but I might still spray the "zenithal" colour from where I think light will b coming from. And yes, for sure black/white are not the only choices. I much prefer yellow over ivory, and warm greens over brown - especially organic surfaces.
I also like to do a zenithal coat of an under color to tint the speed paint/contrast. My Necrons get primed, all over dark silver, zenithal bright silver, then a brown contrast. It can really help the contrast pop. A yellow zenithal under a green contrast is also great for getting a more interesting highlight.
I haven't tried slapchop yet but have been zenithal priming/base coating/highlighting, for ages. Still, this channel is one of my happy places and I enjoyed this one. I also realized I was missing something: black undercoat with zenithal basecoat out of an airbrush with some models (like those halo guys) would look awesome and I'm going to try that. Thanks!
For dnd minis that I 3d print, but don't expect to use or see very often, I'll frequently just zenithal prime and then seal it, that's how good it looks by itself.
I do a drybrush zenithal prime for my Necromunda collection. I go with three stages; a heavy drybrush of dark grey over black spray primer with no real thought of light direction, then a pale grey built up lightly on upper surfaces, followed by white only on surfaces I can see from directly above the model. The white layer makes for a transition withvthe greys that's pretty stark but I feel it suits the artificial lighting of a hive.
I generally use a combination of black primed over with a thin layer of white from the zenith making mostly gray and shadows. Then I pick 1-3 focal points and push them into pure white. Usually the face, and/or weapons.
If the model is a character or iconic model with a cool pose, then I shift my zenithal to be more directional and not from straight up and down.
That being said, I will totally try the colored zenithal! I heard of some people doing a similar method. They would prime in a dark basecoat color then zenithal with a bright hue of magenta or yellow. This requires knowing color theory, but it makes your highlights look more saturated! As if you mixed in some ice yellow into your paints instead of white paint to.make them brighter.
I tend to be one of those types who are resistant to using zenithal techniques, although I have definitely experimented with them. My own preference is to prime with a gloss or satin white, then do an ink wash, usually a dark brown by preference. This serves the same purpose of identifying highlights and shadows, and I think using a brown rather than a black gives a warmer and more saturated feel to the final appearance.
Lately zenithal rattle can with a drybrush on top l is my go-to. Some things are classic for a reason!
I was a thinker of “what’s the point, it’s getting covered anyway” but now I may try it and see, especially because I use more speed paints these days. So the jury is still out for me, but I will try it because you made some good points.
Zenithal fan here, even though I tend to use a traditional layered approach with opaque paints. One of the greatest benefits for me is that it makes detail way easier to see so I can plan the paint job better - big plus since my eyes aren't getting any better with age XD
Finally started getting a good zenithal with my airbrush, and using contrast paints makes getting mobs on the table much faster. It's also helped me get PC minis blocked in with a quickness to start building up to a more complete look.
I don't do a white on black zenithal, but I do use a variety of shades of blue for the armour on my marines - from very deep blue to a much lighter blue for the highlights. It gives them a nice overall depth.
Your older zenithal videos introduced me to this concept and that was the first game-changing technique that drastically overhauled my quality overnight.
Depending on the model, the concept I have for it and sometimes size; I usually Zenithal before I start painting. Or, I will do a Zenithal then go in with some more defined undersketching using whites, greys and blacks.
It does depend on the model. Most times I prime white, wash in black, purple or brown, dry brush highlights then attack with inks or Contrast Paint. If it's a predominately dark model or has way too many deep or under cuts, I'll prime black in sub assemblies then slap-chop a zenithal.
I am using a dark gray as base with drybrush of a mid brown and the hightest points with a small drybrush white. Then i use the speedpaints and after that highlighting with layer paints of citadel.
The models have a nice grimdark tone after that with warm midtones.
I tried this on my tyranid army on which I used all contrast paints. But I used the mid to dark brown ones (wyldwood snakebite leather). Found it really didn't make much of a difference compared to straight white primer.
I use this technique all the time, if for no other reason than it makes the detail of the model pop out a bit more when you come to paint it. I tend to do thinned out washes to overpaint (depending on the pigment of the paint - some colours don't cope well with being thinned). I find it works even better when you apply a bit of colour theory towards the dark and light tones - being mindful of how you are going to overpaint. The dark tones are less important; as our eyes tend to be less able to distinguish between very deep colours - but it's worth understanding the interplay between your major tones and the highlight as white can often be a poor choice that leads to everything looking desaturated. You might be better suited with something warmer like a yellow or orange or cooler in the green / blue / violet sort of space.
I base coat in black. Then dry brush in light grey followed by white. Then use Army Painter Speed paints. I actually enjoy painting my miniatures this way, used to hate painting them.
Tried it a while back & guessing I was so new to the hobby I was doing something wrong as painting the mini looked like it was just primed in a flat colour.
I will add to this with a strong recommendation even for those not into the zenithal highlights to lightly dry brush the mini with a lighter colour just to make the details easier to spot for the initial painting process.
Thanks for the video & I'll have to try it again plus going back at the end to just dry brush from top to bottom direction to paint in a little light on the mini.
I’ve used zenithal highlights on some of my 1:72 scale armor and troops. Really does make a positive difference.
I base coat my models black then use a makeup brush to brush Monument Hobbies white primer on the models. This picks out all the details I’d have a hard time seeing when it’s all black, helps me pick out my colors to paint it, and it looks like I put more effort into them while they sit in my pile of opportunities
I normally do a black base and a zenethal with white ink. But last time in addition to that I used green ink as a base color for a Warsong Revenant (Sylvaneth) base and cape and green adapted its tone depending on if it was a zenethal region or a shadow one. That was really interesting to see.
This is amazing advice. Zenithal made my productivity improve so much. I heard painters spending over ten hours on one model, and to use a phrase from internet past, "ain't nobody [me] got time for that". Plus, the shade paints even look better, in my opinion, after painting zenithal. Awesome video!
Really recommended if you are doing zenithal priming to use an airbrush just recently got one and it works so much better than white rattle cans in my opinon not to mention they can also be super useful for other tasks like plasma weapon glow
Yep, this works great. I generally start with ProAcryl Dark Neutral Grey or Mechanicus Standard Grey.
I always prime black and zenithal white to varying degrees on all my minis. Partly to save money so that I only need basic black primer, but mostly so I don't have to worry about getting paint into those deepest recesses no matter if I'm using regular paint or contrast.
Zenethal/under painting all the way. As you said even with opaques to clue me into highlights and shadows.
As I've gone from painting in my pre and early teens, through my 20's and now my 30's - the biggest asset for Zenithal priming is just the amount it saves my eyes when trying to see detail and clutter on some of the newer minis.
I like a three stage, black to a lightish grey normal zenithal, and then white directly from above, or wherever you want the light source to be coming from.
my only memorable use of this general technique was a reverse zenithal undercoat on a big bad Cthulhu DmD Black Goat model, where I sprayed it white first and then zenithal'd black from the top. the result was really odd to look at, it gave a kind of iridescent effect, that didn't actually end up really showing through in the final result, but was a cool bit of inspo for possible future projects...
Yep I’m a Zenithal convert, love your hobby tips!
Midwinter Minis painted a life-sized (or at least very large) Space Marine that was a leftover advertising piece for Dawn of War.
I haven't used it a lot, but I am getting into playing with underpainting. I've got the Krieg kill team set up where I did a reversal of it, I primed them a really light grey and did a cool dark red sprayed from beneath, to have some shadows to counter point the cool greens and blues I'm planning on painting them. I do have a set of Tau that I did a zenithal on before airbrushing the same blue as the ones I did the base coat on, and at least with the airbrush there's a noticeable difference in how that base coat came out.
People REALLY don’t know how much the primer shows through opaque paints. I learned from watching shows about car customization that the color of the primer really matters-especially for reds or yellows.
I would recommend never painting a room in your house red, because it’s a nightmare to get a consistent color. You have to use a dark gray primer on your walls because the white will lighten it up too much and if you’ve ever primed a wall you know how inconsistent the color is and unless you want to put on multiple coats of primer (not really a good idea) there is no way to make it look uniform.
Car guys will use a white primer on candy colors, because they’re amazing at painting cars and can get an even looking coat of primer.
With minis I just like priming in black and adding lighter colors on top. It’s a little more time consuming and uses more thin layers of paint if you need to make something on the model white eventually but you get better looking results.
I never thought about doing an extreme contrast of primer colors like this, but knowing what I know about how paint covers and shows from underneath-I think this is going to be a game changer. I love the idea of having a guide for the shadows because when I paint I use the maximum amount of light I can get to make sure I don’t miss any tiny details.
I can’t wait to try this one out, thanks for sharing!
I prefer the latter way of the air triads. Prime black with a spraycan (fast, no fuss), use the triad in a zenithal fassion, Basecolour on metals, enamel wash all over, wipe away as much as you like, Drybrush the sharpest edges and you get an amazing looking Modell in no time at all.
I generally use some form of zenithal prime, even if to keep track of all the little bits and bobs that are on the model.
Thanks for the video. I've used zenithal on 28mm and I think it helped. I tried on 15mm WWII infantry and vehicles, but because of paint I was using I couldn't see much of an effect except to define shadow areas. If I can get some Army Painter Speed Paints in the military colors I need I may try again.
I'm going to have to try zenithal highligting. I used to block paint with perhaps a wash or drybrush on certain areas, over a gray or white rattlecan primer, for my D&D character minis. Been trying the Army Painter Speedpaints the last couple of months, and it's taking some getting used to.
I tend to:
Xenithal highlight plastic GW models (Blood bowl, space hulk).
Drybrush a harsh white to black on metal models for a sort of comic book look.
Prime white and then use washes to recess shade any models I'm painting to look like medieval marginalia drawings (a significant portion of my collection).
Hey Adam This was a fantastic video I hope u have recovered from Covid U sounded a little out of breath Take care at Nova man Hope u r having a good time
It depends on the mini and the feel or look I’m going for if use a zenithal. Same with the the paints I use for zenithal. I sometimes will start black the a gray and then a wraith bone. I will use off white or white for the final highlights. If I’m using just contrast type paints. Other than that how I paint it just depends what I think it should look like. I strive for a higher table top standard. So my eyes are getting bad as I get older I generally don’t paint eyes anymore or highlight belt buckles and such that are not in lighted areas. .
It works great for my Scuba Marines, but I find for Orks I gotta work up from black to get it how I want it.
Great video. I use a zenithal prime on all my minis. I start with black all over then white from above. I find this really useful in terms of the “readability” of the model. I can see all the details clearly as well as the highlights and shadows.
Almost all my minis nowadays start with a black to light grey zenithal, then I drybrush white in a top-down direction. It's 1 extra step, but really pops the highlights in preparation of my paints
i over brush matte titanium white. for where im at, airbrushing or spraying covers too much detail that I can cheat out by using a brush. with a brush i get more dramatic effects for very little effort. im a lazy table top painter just trying to cover a LOT of minis, and this has REALLY helped take things to another level. next steps are adding in more highlights after, but for now im just slaying gray :P
Getting real envious of all these folks getting a hold of the gencon editions of flashpoint while I'm still waiting to find out when I'll get my box 😂.
So I'm still relatively new to the hobby, but right now I have a bunch of stormcloaks for call to arms done with contrast and zenithal, and I'm finishing some scout Marines that I did with the "traditional" blocking method. I can really appreciate how much time it saves in the end. That being said, the scouts where a chance for me to teach myself something rather than JUST get them on the board and I still love how they are coming out (just not the fact that I've basically been building them for close to 7 months now).
I love all Tabletop Minions videos!
I dont zenithal because I don’t have an airbrush. But I do give a quick drybrush whether I’m going to use speed paints or not. Makes it so much easier to see everything and gives a good quick payoff of looking much better right away.
I use to do ether a solid black or white prime when i started back in 2016 and wanted to try zenithal after i learned about it in 2019 but ever really come to mind when i primed. Now that we have some speed paints come in this week going to have to experiment with brushing it on. Did attempt to zenithal prime with spray cans before and i think i didnt have enough white on the models but they also had some pretty big hats on so i rolled with it just to see what the end product will be.
You have a dedicated group of followers who are “fighting” to be first every week.
Bots, it seems from the profile pictures. It's the world we live in. Thanks for watching!
I have gave zenethal a go on a couple of Orruk Gutrippaz models from AoS shields with one paint of Mephiston Red, it looks good.
I may give the contrast method a go as I paint other parts of the Orruks.
I found for some colours, AP speedpaints and Citadel contrast actually look better without a zenethal highlight. . . But I do zenethal for regular paints.
Grey or brown base with white usually looks pretty good… if it’s black base yea it looks terrible
I've had that experience, and I think it's because I did white over black, and the black took all the vibrancy out of the transparent paints. Going lighter in the shadows, grey or even a fitting base color, has potential to look pretty cool with only transparents over zenithal
@@fischziege I found skin, either ork, human or elf, worked much better over pure white, zenithal made it look too desaturated.
@@CaptinCrofty White base, worked much better for natural looking skin tones, zenethal gives it a desaturated look.
@@johnfarscape I didn’t know we were talking about just skin tones… browns not bad for skin tone away from the light then pure white on top… but for most materials having a desaturated colour in the shadows isn’t bad when going for a quick paint job
So I have a Raven Guard KT. And I have no idea how to do their armour correct, because edge highlighting isn't my gig and dry brushing gives a rough texture. Any help from you Brothers?
1:30 Emperor Qinshihuang: "hold my beer"
I switched to black undercoat years ago when I realized any place I was unable to reach with a brush was likely to be black anyway…
These days I use varied styles depending on how I plan to paint the model.
If I’m doing opaque 3-color style, zenithal is just a waste of time IMHO. For contrast/stain style, it depends on how dark I want the final result to be. For very bright models, flat white still wins.
I don't zenithal as much as dry brush white over black primer. It doesn't get into the areas that you want dark and you can use different brushes to hit the spaces you need to. Really helps on sisters of battle with how annoying those are to deal with.
Potential follow-up video: Zen and the art of miniature painting. The connection between collecting and painting figurines and Bonsai has always seemed a fertile field for exploration to me but remains largely ignored as far as I can tell.
I have tried zenithal priming for months, on hundreds of models. I have to say that it isn't just an easy no brainer operation. I have messed up more than have worked. But when it works, it works well.
Is there a way to reverse zenethal? I’ve already primed so many models all white
I use a zenithal/ slap-chop combo. Zenithal black to gray. Slap-chop white
Great breakdown as usual, though going back to start back up some Bloodbound Khorne warriors I realized the subtle risk of zenithal, I thought I'd covered all the skin with some Crusader Skin, turns out I left massive grey patches under the arms lol
Once you've learned the basics of zenithal priming and transparent paints, learn CMYK color theory and try using other colors for the zenithal. I love doing dark magenta then cyan from above. Great for when my main colors are going to be green blue and purple. Also great for doing smooth gradients.
I'm definitely gonna try this technique on my second griffin.
Personally i stopped using the zenithal highlight because i felt building up from black was giving me better results. Maybe i was just trying to rely on the zenithal too much before. Also i cant get speed or contrast paints to work at all for me regardless of how i prime.
I tried zenithal many years ago but found that my painting style is so heavy (all my grimdark and battletech minis were overbrushed to begin with) that I couldn't see a difference. Also, I do prefer to prime on the frame and paint in subassembly, it that makes it rather difficult, but I salute others who find it useful.
Oh, I really hope you do a review on Halo Flashpoint! I can't wait for ours to come!
Thanks that explained a few things for me.
I would like to start Airbrushing, with priming -> Zenithal -> mid colour -> dark colour -> highlight colour, would that be the correct order? because using a brush I would always go from dark -> mid -> light.
I primed wrongly some miniatures, how can i get rid of the primed paint? HELP PLEASE
Soak in alcohol for an hour and scrub away with a toothbrush under lukewarm water
I'm just getting started and have a question about this. Why not just apply the primer everywhere and then use an overhead light while painting to show where the darker parts of the figure will be and add a darker layer of paint then?
That’d work for figuring out where to put shadows on an opaque paint job (although you’d want to keep the light source and the model steady, otherwise the shadows will move) but it won’t work if you’re using transparent paints like Speedpaints and Washes. Thanks for watching!
The end of the video is really important to keep in mind. To steal a popular saying from Uncle Atom, anything can be a zenithal if you believe in yourself. I find that browns/tans work better for models with a lot of flesh. A gunmetal base with a silver highlight can lead into really easy heavily armored miniatures with colored metallic armor. Anyone who has tried to paint historical miniatures will understand the benefits of zenithal as well. With Napoleonic miniatures or anything else with highly ornate uniforms it has almost become a must for me.
I need to try this method with my fledgling Ad Mech army but I'm wondering if this will work well with metallic spray paints. I'm still going to get into the drybrushing + contrast paints for the more detailed miniatures though. I've heard it more than once that all the mechanical detail on Ad Mech models is nice but a real chore to paint. Perhaps they were referring to the old base-layer-shade-highlight process? I'm looking for short-cut methods for metallic machine bits but then also not something that will then make the capes and cloaks too much of a bother to paint over.
With most Ad Mech, I zenithal for the cloaks and then paint in the metallic parts with a brush. The cloaks have more surface area. Thanks for watching!
Can we elaborate on the 7" tall space marine collection, please, thanks
ty 4 the video UA!! Love me some Zprime!!
i've begun doing zenithal on my minis, and at first i couldn't tell if it made any diference. i can only notice any diference with Contrast paints :3