Hello,

I was wondering how to paint black leather with a slight gloss look to it and also how to weather it. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Justin

Hi Justin. I looked up painting black leather in Verlindens, "The System" Volume 1 Figure Painting. It says to first apply Humbrol black33. I think any other brand of black will work. Then drybrush black oils and [or] raw umber artist oil paint that come from the tube. You can get the tubes that are very small at a good arts and crafts store. As far as a slight gloss goes, you might want to let it dry the way it is without adding anything else to it. The book does'nt say anything about weathering it. Maybe you could lighten up some of the artist oils and apply it to the raised areas[top of folds]. Hope this helps, I'm sure there are some experts in the field that will give you some advice,Wingman out.

Not knowing for sure what you mean by "slight" gloss look, try painting with flat first and then dry-brush with gloss (or vice-versa). As for weathering, use flat black and then dry brush with a grey shade. I usually use Hot Rod Primer. One of the figure guys (or gals) might have some better ideas.

Art

Just a word of caution here, trying to drybrush flat over gloss doesnt work so well. Since the surface is shiny ie.. slick, the color has nothing to bite on. If you start with flat black abd lightly drybrush a light gray over this, you should get the results you are after. As to the slight gloss, try lightly rubbing your finger over the jacket once dry. Go easy here or you will actually wipe the paint off. The oils in your fingers should leave a slightly glossy appearance on the jacket. HTH "Q"

I always do them with oils, straight on the primer.

The advantage of oils is that they are a bit shiny to start of with.

I start of with mars black and highlight with blue black.

If it's more brownish, same base and then highlight burned umber.

These are all W&N colours.

Hope this helps.

Kris

Hi Kris

What color do you use as primer/base, when painting black leather?

I have read somewhere that this can be achieved by applying a basecoat of brown bess and then drybrushing with semigloss black. The inverse is also true, apply a semigloss black basecoat and drybrush with brown bess - this one I have tried, results weren't too bad...

Other sources state one should basecoat with semigloss black, shade with matt black, and highlight/drybrush with a light grey...

Sorry, doesn't appear to be any easy solution... but I guess at least you aren't trying to paint white leather

Actually, the same I give all my models, acrylic car primer...

It's a dark gray colour and onto that is apply all paints.

So this is really the primer (and the only acrylic paint I use). The base coat for leather is Mars Black.
But for tanks, I first apply preshade (mostly Matt black (33) or Panzer grey (97), humbrol colours) then basecoat (depends on the end scheme).

Kris

A good tip I got from a figure painter is to not use greys to highlight black, but use a warmer flesh colour instead.The idea is to paint the jacket first with humbrol black and a little flesh in it. Then shade with pure black and highlight with black/ more flesh.
This should give a more natural colour and weather at the same time ... as it ends up as a faded black colour.
Then dull cote whole figure. A final wash with satin gloss, some black and thinner will add the perfect sheen for scale black leather.
This was my first attempt at it.

Hope this helps some!

I use only acrylics so to get a semi gloss finish I usually mix flat black with gloss black in a 60:40 mix. Depending on how brand new the equipment I wish to portray I vary the combo. More flat black for older weathered equipment (i.e. old pistol holster) and more gloss for new equipment (i.e. brand new jackboots on a fresh recruit).

If you are really into detail, the same equipment can display different degrees of weathering. For example, a motorbike leather seat will often have a relatively dull area where a person's posterior is placed but will tend to be shinier towards the edges and below the seat where the leather is shielded from direct sunlight. That where varying the mix helps. A wash with super thin flat earth helps to emphasize the weathered parts.

Hope that helps.

Hi Justin i paint black leather work like this ! oh and i use acrylics because they have a slight sheen anyway the more you work them!
first i paint black
then a dark brown plus black 50/50
i then highlight this with the same mixture but a little tan into it then i paint along the edges of straps and add some little lines horizontally here and there or vertically on a belt ,
then a little more tan, this should give you a slightly caramel ish colour ? then highlight the tips of these lines and again in parts of the edges it gives the leather straps or belts a bit of age and wear to them ! it should look kind of like this ,obviously the bigger the scale the more you can expand on this

I always mixed the black with the flat, but what really made it look good was an old car modeler trick, when it was almost dry was to roll your finger over it to give it the leather texture from your finger prints, but make sure you don't do it in the center so it does look like a finger print.

Kerry

Try using Humbrol 85 -- semi-gloss black -- as the base, then dry brush with flat black and Testors Rubber (a very dark brown). "Full" Gloss paint never looks right in 1/35th scale, IMHO.

Hi all

As the years have moved on so has may waist band and some of my leather belts have become of no use,lol lol so as ref material i had a brown and black leather belt and and an old army belt i would leave them out in the elements rain sun and wind all the elements that would in general effect them i would bring them in hang them up in my work area .It really is a great ref as to how the elements have changed the color and texture and the highlights that weathering creates,it works for me Hope this has been of help
Tango 20 cheers chris