WHY You Should Zenithal Prime Your Miniatures

You've probably heard about zenithal, slapchop, etc. But what's the point, why do it? I'm here to convince you.

[johnfarscape]

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.

[jajen]

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.

[metalcollection]

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.

[brittkelly]

“Tiny little mans” is one of the best descriptions I’ve heard for 40k minis, thanks Uncle Atom

[korymov]

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.

[Rob-Awesometon]

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 .

[tmorton]

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.

[TorrentKatten]

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

[blackguardunlimeted]

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 !

[NegativeManorRebis]

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.

[xreevx]

Your older zenithal videos introduced me to this concept and that was the first game-changing technique that drastically overhauled my quality overnight.

[caiohcoutinho]

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.

[skyhymitch]

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.

[swnyto]

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

[Bishop]

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.

[seankavanagh]

Been using a zenithal highlight for years, learnt it from you 😂

[geoffstabletoptales]

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. 😀

[KaijuSenso]

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

[tychoMX]

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.

[greaterfaydark]

Loved the video. Under painting and broken colour theory applies just as much to my hobby of painting on canvas .