I needed a dreadnought for a new list. A couple of hours on the printer and 15 minutes of stippling later....
I've started to use a quick and dirty method for painting vehicles. It is a Reaper triad stippled over black primer. I think the vehicles turn out great for a quick tabletop ready paint job.
Drybrushing over black is a great quick & dirty way to do armor, especially printed. I also do something similar by priming black and spraying the armor color from above, then drybrushing highlight colors. Works if you have the armor color spray on hand.
Oh yeah. That sounds like a good way to do it. I was considering getting an airbrush but I haven't pulled the trigger yet.
I may start trying this technique on some of my marines. This is just stippling with a drybrush progressively lighter. I'm not sure how it would work on smaller details but like you say, for armor, it works great. Plus it really gives it that grim dark look.
Cosmetics brushes are commonly used for large area dry brushing. If you want to do armor or knock out squads of marines without a airbrush or spray, that’s what I’d look at.