Painting Black Legion, or "How I Went Mad and Turned to Chaos" [How I Paint Things]

[@HyperEwok1]

"I feel the Warp overtaking me! It is a good pain!" -local Chaos player after having painted too much trim

[@DarkAchron]

As someone who regular paints Black Legion, I prefer priming with black, followed by a quick touch of Abaddon black (or equivalent) and then do the trim. Initially it felt like a chore, but after the first few models you get used to painting neatly on the trim (and you can easily cover any blotches of gold with some more black). I think I find it easier because the trim is all raised off of the armour (rather than trying to fill in between the trim - seriously, trying to get black into some of the cracks, without ruining the gold, where the metallic has settled is a pain). But massive props for this, it looks incredible (also nice to see some heresy - love CSM).

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I've done both ways now and it feels as though the 'armour second' step is sliiightly easier overall, but part of that might come of me generally having pretty good paint control.

[@RMCbreezy]

I had the same thought. We shall see how able i am at painting when im willing to botch it

[@euansmith3699]

"Abaddon Black isn't up to the task..." Sounds about right. Still, he is a tryer; so let's give the poor guy a big hand! The paint job looks great.

[@epicdigital]

Great video!

[@ElDavePhoto]

"I'll be honest with ya... that was So Boring!" Genuinely laughing out loud here

[@TheEccentricMan]

Just watched your let's paint. Perhaps when you can produce a decent let's paint video you will be qualified to comment with the grown ups.

[@ElDavePhoto]

@@TheEccentricMan Not sure what this is about, but thank you for checking out my video!

[@ballzetr4652]

​@@TheEccentricManwhat is you yapping about

[@petermaloney8146]

This is one *outstanding* "Happy Little Chappy!" The paint control required laying down that black background, though exhausting, seems less mind-warping in the long run than returning to repaint the trim over and over instead. Lovely work.

[@kariranta-ojala5181]

this is a great tutorial. One of the best ive seen so far of black legion. It was simple to understand using simple techniques and the end product looked sharp. Id play with it on my table. Thanks. Ill be following along when i paint my chaos space marines and Chaos Lord

[@yawgmoth55]

You summed up my feelings about painting chaos perfectly. Its like an army of Guilliman light, to hell with that!

[@tungstentoothpick6788]

That is one good looking chaos marin, well done as always

[@zackcook5123]

Ah chaos Marines my favourite GW minis. Now as a masochist who has painted alpha Legion, black legion, word Bearers, night lords, world Eaters and iron warrior's (not full Armies, a few dudes) Trim first is the best way. It's easy to drybrush as you showed meaning you can highlight nearly all edges instantly. With a nice opaque paint blocking in quicker and teaches brush control

[@GheyForGames]

that VJ black is really nice and i think it was a great tip recommending that, the coverage looks great for 1 coat!

[@damiencrespan8957]

This was the most helpful video I've seen on Black Legion, thank you

[@spilledpaintpot]

Great looking CSM! I think I'll try priming my next squad of Iron Warriors the trim color and see if that makes the process any more enjoyable.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Iron Warriors are one of the few I'd probably do it the other way around! XD Because bronze or gold will cover so easily over a silver primer, it'll be way easier to just paint the trim over the silver armour colour than this method, I'd suggest. Iron Warriors are definitely the way to go!

[@timothyyoung2962]

The miniature looks fantastic. My son has a whole squad of Red Corsairs with cultists and some chaos war machines. Every time I look at them all I see is ALL THAT TRIM! I've been thinking about a chaos team for Killteam, but I keep putting it off to paint minis that won't make me want to shoot myself.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

He's a braver man than I if he's already got a full squad of those bad boys! 🤣

[@heartsickruben]

Absolutely fantastic I won't do it but the results really speak for itself. Goodjob!

[@robisonwells1]

How have I never thought to paint the trim first? That's genius!

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I think it was actually on WarhammerTV that I first saw it!

[@Monkeyshaman]

Only way to make poor workmanship and terrible self control look like an art. Trust me. 😳 T R U S T M E

[@sleepsinleaves]

Bookmarking to watch later today! Grabbed a box of chaos marines for the new Kill Team!

[@danielaskew6057]

Lovely looking finish on this mini 👌 Well done for persevering 👍

[@breakinmedia]

Have you tried contrasts paints? maybe lead belcher prime, washed with nuln on the body, except the trims & gold details use skeleton horde for that. finishing off with black templar on the body again

[@georgialeighparry3847]

I’m new to this as in I’ve just bought my first ever like set, and this has helped me more than anything I’ve watched so far so thank you

[@lukewithann7256]

As someone who has to juggle perfectionism and lack of patience your video has become my go-to method for painting these guys :)

[@novacrash52]

I would've never thought to prime in gold but that's so smart. I'm thinking about priming in silver since I have a can of that and then drybrushing gold everywhere to get a similar effect. Looking forward to trying it. Great video!

[@losmanzani6849]

Really makes me want to start painting Black Legion. Looks great

[@leeperry7068]

One way or another, it turned out amazing. For me, I think instead of a pure black fill, I think I'd lighten it up just a hair, so the later wash layer is going to darken it anyway and you'll get some cool shading around the curves anyway. But the pure black does look great, super clean!

[@Fluffykeith]

That’s a really really nice finish on the black. I’ve found that Contrast paints work really nicely for filling in the armour on Chaos Marines. You need several coats to get the finish right, but they flow so nicely that it’s still quite quick to apply.

[@kaniala5]

I liked your idea but I agree with HEwok about painting the trim after priming black. I get a nice highlight under the gold from the black. You are right about needing to do multiple washes of gold paint though. I am new to this and the first kit I dug into was a Forgefiend/Maulerfiend kit (I have three of them to do) The first one I primered light grey and, using the GW video, started by painting the gold on by had first then filling the black. Took forever for both colors. The second which I am currently working on, I primered black and I am doing the gold trim second. Part of the reasoning behind that is that the trim is not perfectly square with the model and looks crappy if you fill the edges in some places. It actually sticks out in a bad way and makes it look sloppy. This second model is going smoother and I am having a better time with it doing the black first. The only thing missing from you video (and every other one I have seen so far) is the type of brush used for each technique demonstrated with the exception of the dry brush using a make up brush (type but not size). Thank you for the lesson. I enjoyed every thing you had to say about these models, especially the part about the trim 🙂.

[@pliskin100]

Usually you would paint it the other way around, outside in, with the black first and then the trim 2nd, but you did it the other way around and I think the basecoat of gold really gave it like this shiny gloss finish, even the black parts. Idk maybe its the lighting but i'll try this method out with a few models and if it makes them look like this I might actually consider putting myself through the pain and agony of fucking an hour doing trim on a single model.

[@jonbathurst953]

brilliant method for a batch paint.

[@johnkelley9877]

It looks great but I can see it was a lot of work. Thanks for sharing this and I always learn something new from your tutorials.

[@Denison512]

your timing is perfect as always i've been thinking about a chaos kill team XD

[@RobbieB2606]

A lovely paint job

[@joesturn7740]

Just gorgeous!

[@AllThingsCubey]

This is exactly how I do my Serverys Raiders, only I do a silver base, paint the gold trim onto that, wash/ drybrush, and then go to the colours. Same method in effect though, and it works excellently, if I have something to listen to to remove the edge off the boredom. I agree on vallejo vs citadel black paints. Coverage is way better. I don't know how GW made a black that wasn't opaque in one coat, didn't think that was possible.

[@alrethianscraftsbattles]

Great tutorial again man 👍👍. You did the legion of abbadon justice 🤘

[@UntiltedName]

After like 3000pts of black legion I have to say it doesn't matter whether you prime black or gold. Ya gonna end up spending ~30 minutes per dude to do the trim, or paint around it. So it really depends on your dry brushing plan. I like to dry brush german grey on top of my vallejo black. So I prime black. But your way made some nice looking gold trim.

[@James-xb7qc]

Great stuff, I might give this a go on some of my Slaves to Darkness army.

[@matteomeloni3681]

Usually I start black and then do a quick and dirty gold drybrush on the trims, it's reeeeally fast that way. Usually I do a wash after that, so I get to fix mistakes with highlights!

[@stevepickering5978]

WOW That is Brilliant brilliant love it chaos

[@oldschoolfrp2326]

That is a great point - The trim is the star of the show, so order the painting for the best results on the trim. The actual armor isn’t what the eye is drawn to first.

[@craigwall5865]

Another fantastic tutorial.

[@invictarussuzerain]

Glad I'm not a Black Legion armourer. What a load of faffing about. That said, thanks for the tutorial - excellent as always!

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

On the one hand, it does look absolutely stunning on the table. On the other... Gordon Bennett, what a palava!

[@lenoks_de]

Really looking good. Normally I think black surfaces look a little boring, but yours with the shine looks really good.

[@rooneg]

I've tried both ways, and they're both miserable to paint. Fortunately, the end result looks really cool. I personally do the trim after I've primed everything black, but even that basically always results in a substantial cleanup step where I fix everywhere I've gone over onto the armor.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

It's a mission no matter how you go about it, I think! Still, the end result is really cool if you can stomach the work that goes into them.

[@Serpsor]

I like doing the trim afterwards so I can varnish with a more matte finish than the metallics

[@loupiscanis9449]

Thank you , Troy .

[@plunktone4162]

Interesting solution to use gold spray instead of black, this seems to be easier to paint further because black has much more surface and doesn't require that much delicacy in brushing

[@alexg2933]

I still don’t think it’s easier to paint in the armor than the trim afterwards lol. But looks great nonetheless!

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

It's hard to do it justice with an explanation, honestly. It didn't seem like it was easier at first, but after applying the armour colour I found I had very little clean-up to do afterwards, which would ordinarily be the step that got me the other way around.

[@rousselalexandre1653]

Magnifique /super mega nice i like love !

[@TsarPII]

so between priming black and doing any trim or detailing i like to add a 2-1 black-leadbelcher dry brush. it keeps the black gives a super easy contrast and gives the armor a metallic and realistic character. also personally prefer nuln oil for that final instead of the agrax. but truth be told i havnt tried it yet i may stop by my local shop tomorrow and grab a pot ive been meaning to anyway

[@defadus7210]

Awesome, love it 👌

[@mikey_vengenz]

Honestly, I paint the trim over black. I still do some drybrushing but I find it's easier to go back and touch up the black than to fill in the panels all over the model with black.

[@messaroundhandleit]

Damn this is the color scheme I had in mind when I was thinking of starting a chaos army back in 3rd edition.

[@bullnut2013]

Having painted a KillTeam of Thousand Sons. I can confirm that trim first is Way easier than trim second.

[@mirage809]

As a guy who has a Chaos army, a Black Legion army no less. They are indeed pain to paint. Very fiddly with all the little bits and trims on them. The end result is worth it though. Protip for any Alpha Legion enthusiasts: get yourself a pot of Akhelian Green contrast paint. Paint that over Leadbelcher and you will have a super easy (well, as easy as Chaos Marines get) method for getting that dope metallic blue that Forge World like to do on their Alpha Legion models for Horus Heresy tabletop.

[@feefifofum6383]

Love me some chaos. I actually have a lot of old metal chaos warriors. I’d love to see some vids on painting old metal figs…

[@schwegburt3002]

The perk of playing Emperor's Children is you can skip filling in all of the armor plates and leave the trim black. It's a lot less time consuming lol.

[@karloskarlinderstrom6943]

I love this style actually. I think the normal way of highlighting chaos is often a bit to much. This color scheme, together with the varnish acrually make the mini look realistic.

[@beybladechallenge7536]

Thanks for the video!

[@thepag1358]

Liked that, I am afraid I am a sucker and have 3 full chaos armies #(with demon engines) and after a while painting trim doesnt seem that much of a bind, until you go back and paint something normal without the trim and then you wonder why you wasted 6 months of your life painting 40 minis.

[@JZStudios2]

And now we know Mr. Troy will never paint a full army of Chaos marines.

[@CooperAceProductions]

Great work :)

[@tylerdurden108]

can you make a video for cleaning your painting brush?

[@boskojal1681]

airbrush the model in black, zenithal or dry brush some kind of dark grey and then do the gold trim with brush, far easier

[@USALibertarian]

"Sir, how much gasm?" "Troop, I want MOREGASM!!!"

[@selnik9088]

Great video, why not word bearers next!

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Eventually is the short answer there! 😂

[@Adi031978]

Did you try the Vallejo Liquid Old Gold paint (the alcohol based one)? That stuff tends to cover on the first try for me

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I still haven't got my hands on some of the Vallejo range. Some of it's a little hard to come by - I try to stick for the most part to Citadel stuff while painting Citadel miniatures. It makes answering questions far easier, on the whole!

[@Adi031978]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio for your videos citadel paints make sense, for the readon you mentioned. But should Chaos really have gotten its claws into your soul, that paint might at least make you only ho mad gor woreshipping the dark gods and not for painting their tiny foot soldiers

[@swolehammer]

Honestly for Chaos, we prime the model the trim color and fill in the armor. WAY easier and faster from what we found. 💪🏽👹🎨

[@UndaLupus]

I'm going to attempt a black legion kill team soon, and i found this "how to" super helpful but now i'm also scared to start with the 45min armour filling comment XD, would you advise attempting to do this with black legion contrast? but love the content and a thank you for your tip's i used your sons of horus vid to paint up my army

[@petersaczko6192]

Is it wrong to get more enjoyment watching someone else paint miniature then if I paint one myself? Can anyone imagine a day when governments around the world have official lists of hobbies that sound like: Knitting Embroidery Fishing Gardening Watching Sonic Paint Yoga

[@USALibertarian]

Priming gold is very clever.

[@HAZZZZZZZZZAAAA]

late to this video but I started doing my world eaters by basing gold then adding red and it felt a lot less painful than going red and painting gold

[@torros1839]

So when is the Very special how I paint a Chaos Marine unit?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Not any bloody time soon, I can promise you that! 🤣

[@furiousv775]

9:29. Praise Chaos.

[@vladimirpotrosky7855]

"So that the bullets can come out" 🤣🤣

[@michaelrossel7339]

"if you have the mental fortitude for a chaos army...." does death guard count?

[@Gabbiano88]

love it

[@adriant1654]

I prefer to paint all black then the trim because there is much less trim.

[@Rocks_in_my_brain]

Ooh I really like this, I was debating which tutorial to follow and I think I might have to choose this one. Which box did this guy come from? I like his pose!

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

He's from the standard Chaos Space Marines box set. The instructions will give you specific arms to fit to each body, but they all fit as you like - this dude's pose was tweaked a little from the suggestions, but it's honestly as easy as picking different arms.

[@BeanisBags]

Hey Sonic, absolutely love that base - im currently painting some Chaos raptors and love the contrast of colours. I was wondering what paints you used to accomplish that?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Armageddon Dust, Seraphim Sepia, then drybrush Tyrant Skull. Bosh, real quick!

[@BeanisBags]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio BOSH. Thanks!

[@RyanVillamonte23]

"sO tHaT tHe bUllEtS cAn cOmE oUt" 12:15

[@firstname2072]

I just bought my first minis in 25 years and built warp talons. I think I made a mistake 😂

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

They're certainly a busy first choice! 😅

[@guillempons4854]

Me ha gustado exagerado tu video

[@ravelzxcvb]

personally i prefer priming it in Abaddon black, and add retributor as golden trim.

[@TheTigerspy]

Not sure why everyone snubs Chaos, that looks amazing. Best dressed army in the universe. But why are the packs always painted brown? Kinda looks like matching an Armani suit with a Wal-Mart bag.

[@alexsp7086]

Confused Whats wrong with Abaddon black..... Sorry does it not cover properly or ?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

It's fine, but it doesn't cover quite as well once it's thinned down as Vallejo's Black does. You'll save a lot of time and effort using something else.

[@alexsp7086]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio cool thanks for the explanation. Great vids.

[@MrLeeRony]

nice way

[@mal2ksc77]

What was the weather like when you varnished him? I thought I was going nuts but my wife confirmed that the lad has a purple sheen to him while he's on the spinner. It doesn't look bad but it looks like a purposely done effect.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

It's a reflection from the varnish of the UV lamp I have to have on nearby in order for the spinner to actually spin during the winter months. Ordinarily you wouldn't see it in a matt varnished figure, but this time... yeah, he kinda glows. 😅

[@mal2ksc77]

I think it looks cool!

[@KimHarderFog]

Chaos looks so good, but soooooooooo much trim to paint

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

It is non-stop faffing about!

[@HANUMAN7454]

I do it the other way. No matter what u do it takes forever.

[@torros1839]

Did you invest in a new cardboard box?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Just resprayed the old one!

[@escapebeyond7078]

wow

[@colinb9884]

What do you use to get the sand looking effect on the base?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Armageddon Dust, Seraphim Sepia, Tyrant Skull and a couple of tufts. Done!

[@longhunter5935]

HERESY!!! NOOOOOO!

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Heresy? Well, that really rather is the point... 🤣

[@samsowden]

abaddon black isn't up to any task other than painting base rims. Horrible stuff

[@rickyl3136]

Don't do it the other way. It is way worse cause you feel like you made a huge mistake over ever little mistake. Might have been that it was one of my first models I painted but it was just horrible to me. Great army just not fun to paint.

[@Level30Commoner]

Please don't waste your time on stuff you don't like. :-)

[@malyxxplays7949]

Literally faster to do black first

[@ungface]

I use black templar contrast paint in the same manner as this for my chaos marines. i.redd.it/oevd2khmz0a51.png