2. An Attempt at Recess Shading

Ever since I took up painting again, a lot of my original models were painted very basically.

While I have applied base colours in their entirety, I avoided applying either the shades or the highlights, something I have since started to go back and do by completely washing my miniatures (with mixed results)

However, during the last couple of weeks, I decided to get out my Assault Intercessors (a squad of models I had painted early on) and apply their shades and highlights. However, instead of washing them, I decided to apply to the shade in the form of Recess Shading.





















The difference between washing and recess shading, as I understand it, is that washing means applying the shade paint all over the miniature, while recess shading means apply the shade into the nooks, crevices and recesses of the miniature (hence the name).

So, taking my Drakenhof Nightshade, that's exactly what I've done. For the first seven, which have been fully based painted, I simply applied the Nightshade into the recesses of their Armour (all other aspects like belts and weapons were washed).

Meanwhile, for the remaining three Intercessors, which had only been primed, I applied a couple of base layers of Macragge Blue all over (well, mostly) before applying the Nightshade into the recesses. After that,  went about adding the rest of the base colours to them before shading them as per the rest.

By the end, I must admit, I feel they came out well. Certainly their armour is more the blue I was expecting compared to my previously washed Primaris Intercessors. The only downside is the length of time it took to apply. Each model took about 2 hours to recess, while the washing was most likely (as I recall) and hour to do a whole squad.

However,  I do think the results are worth the extra time and by the end, these ten Astartes look really good.

Now, I've just got figure out how to fix the Primaris Intercessors, but first I need to highlight and transfer their Assault brethren.


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