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A New Tool To Rule Them All- Painters Tape

By Rob Baer | April 3rd, 2013 | Categories: Dark Angels, How To Tutorial, Moron, Warhammer 40k

Moron here, writing again, this time about a new handy tool that has found it’s way into my box. I have all the standard tools: glue, clippers, hobby knife, files, and paint brushes. But now I am adding a roll of painters tape to that list. 

I haven’t been very good at painting vehicles in the past, but I’ve finally found a way that works for me. I’ll go over my process and show you how useful that roll of tape can be.



This is a Dark Angels Dreadnought that I painted in only a couple of hours.

I started by priming the whole model black, then a heavy drybrushing over the whole thing with Necron Compound. This simple paint recipe is great for all the internal machine parts of a dread.

Next I wanted to paint all the panels of the dreadnought green, but I’d have to be really careful not to hit the parts that need to stay metal. 

In comes the tape! I put strips of tape all over the model, covering up all the bare metal parts. When the tape is on the model, I used a hobby knife to cut the tape off around the big panels to be colored. This part actually takes up the most time, but the time and frustration it saves is priceless.
Now that all the metal parts are hidden we can paint the armored plates. You can use a simple big brush here, with no worries of a sloppy painting spilling over onto the metal parts. For a really smooth coat, an airbrush would be ideal. Another idea, and the one I used, is to paint this part with a colored spray paint. I used Army Painter’s Color Primer Angel Green.  Then I did a quick easy highlight by spraying a lighter green only from the top, zenithal highlighting style. No worries about messing up the silver metal parts, they are still covered by tape.
After the basic armor color is done, you can peel off the tape. You’ll end up with something like this:
Now all that is left is to do some small details such as gold or silver trim, maybe some line highlights on the armor, a few details of red here or there. Add some weathering and battle damage. Follow that all up with a couple of my favorite washes over the whole model, Nuln oil and Agrax earthshade to add shadows to the model and to blend it all together.
Up next for me is finishing my other 4 dreadnoughts and my 6 Land Raiders in preparation for a big apocalypse game. Tape and an airbrush are gonna be my best friends.
Good luck with your painting  -Moron
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About the Author: Rob Baer

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Rob Baer

Job Title: Managing Editor

Founded Spikey Bits in 2009

Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X

About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.

Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls. 

Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.

Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.

With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.

While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.

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