Wondering if anyone on the forum is familiar with the so called Vallejo BSL Painting System. BSL standing for Base Shade HighLight.
I obtained a Vallejo color chart pamphlet at my LHS recently that has this in it.
I’m intending to post shade the inside of the cape of my Phantom of the Opera project, so I bought the 70.851 (Bright Orange) and 70.926 (Red). I already have 71.003 Red and I figured that would work for the base color, instead of the 70.909 indicated on the chart.
Researching this BSL System has come up with zero results toward my query about it. Vallejo’s website has absolutely zero information about it. Although I gather it was developed for the Game Color line, it is clearly referenced in the brochure as a “system” for Model Color as well.
Long story to a simple question…I’m wondering if the intent of this “system” is to mix the Light and Shadow colors with the Base color, or are they to be used as is (read: stand alone, no mixing), for shadowing and highlighting.
Or,… why bother with this? Just go with mixing white with the base red for highlights, and black with the red for shadowing.
Any input/suggestions/advice will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Mark
1 Like
Hey Mark,
I haven’t seen anything about this BSL system from Vallejo, but I will say it’s very similar to the way that games workshop (Citadel) has set up their entire paint line — it’s very similar. Base, shade, layer.
It can be useful in terms of learning how colors work to artificially show lighting on something much smaller than real life, but honestly, once you understand how their system works even a little, you can intuit the rest.
These formulaic painting “systems” can be really helpful (for me at least) when I’m trying to learn something at the most basic level. I’d say give it a try especially if the “why” of it isn’t clicking just yet.
For example, the colors specifically — you’ll find that using pure white and pure black to lighten and darken paints doesn’t work very well. Red is the perfect example of this: adding white gets you pink, not a “brighter” red. Becuase white doesn’t just lighten a color, it also desaturates it.
What you want to add to red is likely a yellowish/orangish shade, for a warmer look, or a blueish/purplish shade, for a cooler look, depending on the ambience or atmosphere you’re after. This is also a way to tie all the colors in your model together, by leaning warm or cool, for example.
I’m still learning this stuff myself (minipainting is where this stuff is really explored in depth), so someone else may come along with corrections, clarifications, etc!
2 Likes
@Toimi_Tom Okay. Thank you so much for this. I think I’m understanding it more now. I suppose some experimenting is in order, as opposed to diving into post shading the cape head first. I’m going to airbrush some coffee cup lids same as I want to do the cape. Primer. Pre-shading. Base coat. And then experiment with mixing the L (bright orange) with the B and the S (70.926 Red) with the B.
I also suppose being naturally artistic and understanding colors would also help, but I digress. Just thankful for forums like this to maybe get at least halfway there.
Cheers,
Mark
1 Like
Thank you for sharing this Mark, I too was unaware of this paint system. Definitely something I am going to review.
1 Like
Reaper Miniatures has something similar in their Triad system, a base color, shadow, and highlight. Bronzed skin, bronzed shadow, bronze highlight. Goul skin, bloodless skin, mouldy skin. Khaki, Khaki shadow, Khaki highlight. I particularly like their Olive Drab, olive shadow, olive highlight. Great for both uniforms and vehicles.
1 Like
@Toimi_Tom I’ve watched the Citadel tutorials. Very informative. Thanks. Hoping to get some experimenting in later today.
Cheers,
Mark
1 Like
