Finishing off Deathwing?

[Kozemp]

I just started my first batch of Deathwing Termies. I have one pretty much painted up, and it looks decent, but the model is a little... flat? It's got a solid topcoat of bleached bone, but a lot of the detail of the armor gets lost unless it's directly under light.

Any suggestions for a wash or a method to add some depth to it? I thought about a sepia wash but I worry that it might darken the finish a little too much.

TIA.

[isotope99]

My deathwing paint scheme is as follows:

Chaos black spray undercoat
Calthan brown basecoat
Graveyard earth second basecoat
50:50 graveyard earth/rotting flesh main coat (sometimes needs two depending on how watered down)
Bleached bone highlights (probably with a bit of blending as terminators come in smaller squads so you can afford to give them the extra attention).

To actually answer your question:
A watered down wash of ogryn flesh works for me, it's too much neat and dulls the model like you suggest, but watered down seems to do the trick.
Final layer of rehighlighting any areas where the wash has pooled (you always get some puddles:mad:).
I also tend to add some sharp final highlights of pure bone or bone with a little white mixed in to the face so that it stands out a bit.

These guys get the most painting steps of any of my models because they are the deathwing:D

[FastEd]

I like to put a bit of extra time into my deathwing, but as far as a quick and easy way to do it just hit it with the sepia wash like you were contemplating. Drybrushing with bleached bone should bring the finish back up, but leave the definition. Sepia isn't actually all that dark of a wash. I'd say try the process out on a model you base coated in bleached bone, though, just to make sure you are going to be satisfied with the effect.

[Kozemp]

I ended up just washing the model in a watered-down gryphonne sepia and that turned out perfect. Brought out the detail but didn't darken the finish noticeably.

Thanks for the advice.

[Brass Scorpion]

I used Scorched Brown on mine as a shade color for seams and depressions and brought the base color up considerably from Bleached Bone to a creamy off-white. I also used a lot more accent color on some areas. I have examples in my Dakkadakka Gallery if you think it might help. Here's one example:

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2009/9/4/51523_sm-Conversion%2C%20Dark%20Angels%2C%20Deathwing%2C%20 Space%20Marines%2C%20Terminator%20Armor%2C%20Warha mmer%2040%2C000.jpg

[Lerra]

If you're up for it, don't wash the model, but try manually lining with a dark brown.

If you take a look at this photo you'll a good example of lining over bleached bone: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4nzgPbHlNo4/S5NBVnZ5KSI/AAAAAAAAHZk/_bnrP9ou1nc/s1600-h/dg-predator-0101.jpg

[Kozemp]

Lots of great advice here, but let's bear in mind I am a novice painter at best.

I may try one mini where I do a topcoat in pure white and use a sepia wash for both recesses and to darken it overall.