Fiend
7th Jan 05, 5:10 AM
edit: Note that the original, non-cleaned, thread remains here (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=53274) to enable you to add techniques to the list. - Ap0k
Edited 09/07/05: Thinning, undercoating, NMM, a more belligerent title ;).
This is a thread to collect commonly asked and answered painting questions on this forum into one place. I'll post the ones I've answered in this first post, and update it whenever I answer another.
Others are contributing useful advice to this thread, so please read through it for more information.
Feel free to add comments, technique suggestions and technique questions - but please keep it to painting techniques rather than other painting related stuff, e.g. "How do I highlight black", "My tips for drybrushing", NOT "What colour should I paint my Eldar", "Hey check out my 0rk boss" etc etc.
I've also done a series of tutorials on how to paint in the style I do:
Tutorial 1: Eldar Wraithguard. (http://www.fiendy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutorial1.html) Original thread here. (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=54892)
Tutorial 2: Escher Ganger. (http://www.fiendy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutorial2.html) Original thread here. (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=55772)
Tutorial 3: Nurgle Marine. (http://www.fiendy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutorial3.html) Original thread here. (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=56320)
Tutorial 4: Marine Land Speeder. (http://www.fiendy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutorial4.html) Original thread here. (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=57774)
------
:here: General technique reference
The first thing if you're unsure about how to do painting techniques is to buy the Citadel Painting Guide (http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.uk?do=Individual&code=60049999072&orignav=300810) - this is a genuinely useful book (unlike previous guides) that covers a wide array of techniques and painting styles to use as reference. Almost all technique questions will be answered in there. If you can't afford the book (you should probably choose a different hobby) or have a question that isn't answered there, read on and ask it here.
------
Forum FAQ: Part 1: General Technique
(For Colour Technique see post below)
Note: These are my own answers copied from previous threads, based on many years of painting experience. See site below for my figures.
I don't understand any of the terms you use!
How can I paint faster?
How do I paint neatly and get a smooth finish?
How should I thin down paints?
What is the best way to undercoat?
How do I highlight in general?
What is shading?
How do I do crisp highlights on edges?
How do I blend?
How do I do basic detail work?
How can I paint indented lines?
How do I get a non-glossy varnish finish?
How do I remove paint (without brake fluid)?
:?: I don't understand any of the terms you use!
Then the next thing you should looking at is this:
http://www.battlescar.co.uk/store/pics/howto.jpg
:?: How can I paint faster?
Painting fast in an army style is quite straightforward - using basic techniques and basic colours, you can produce a reasonable result that's suitable for the table top. Equally painting high quality figures can be easier than it looks - it's mostly a matter of really taking the time to paint each bit well throughout the whole figure. However, trying to paint well AND speed up your painting so it doesn't ridiculously long is more challenging. I've struggled with this myself but have found a few ideas:
1. Undercoat well, and choose the appropriate undercoat. Often a black undercoat, perhaps drybrushed with white, can save a lot of time for shading and lining.
2. Decide what at the more prominent aspects of the figure, and make sure you paint them well. Decide what are the minor areas of the figure, and save time by painting them more basic.
3. Be neat to start with - neat painting with simple highlighting / shading will look better that messy painting with complex highlighting / shading, so it will save you time in the long run. However, for the very first coats, it might not be appropriate to be too fussy.
4. Pay attention to which colours cover better over other colours, and plan your painting appropriately. If you are painting a pale colour and dark colour on the same area, it's usually best to paint dark over pale as the paints cover better that way.
5. Generally paint from the inside out and/or paint the larger areas first - this is so you do the stuff that might be the messiest first, so you will paint over any paint spillage and have less tidying to do later.
6. Learn which simple techniques are most effective for the standard you're aiming for. For example, drybrushing is quick, but messy, and blending is high quality but slow. Thus, layering can be a good compromise. Combine techniques if needed.
7. Choose the most natural colour tones for shading and highlighting - this is really important, and can allow you to get a great result with many less layers than trying to fade into an unnatural tone of your basecoat colour.
8. Don't waste time on unimportant areas. E.g. vents, rivets, tubes, grilles, etc etc, all the minor little details can often be painted very quickly (undercoating these areas in black can be very useful) and there's no need to lavish time on them. Equally, even more prominent details, if they are really small, will look good with simple, but dramatic painting. The smaller they are, the less need for complex techniques.
9. Layering up from a darker colour can be very effective and effecient, particularly on a textured or highly detailed surface, it often looks good and saves time with shading etc.
10. Think about what steps you can miss out in painting the model. E.g. Are 3 coats of drybrushing the fur necessary since the second coat covers the first anyway? How many layers do you need on the armour given the main result is from final lining? Is an inkwash really useful on that gem as you're painting over it anyway? etc etc. Quite often you can miss out stages, save time, and still get a good result.
:?: How do I paint neatly and get a smooth finish?
This is an expanded answer to the earlier question. Painting neatly and smoothly is THE cornerstone of good painting. From that basis all other techniques and styles can be applied well, but without that one will struggle to get a good overall effect. Some tips:
1. Spray undercoat - better coverage and takes paint better.
2. Use high quality brushes and keep them in good condition. I find GW's brushes are fine. Use the right size for the job.
3. Thin down your paints. This will produce a smoother finish whether it's basecoating or shading or whatever.
4. Apply 2-3 thin coats instead of one thick coat. One thick coat will dry lumpy and ugly. A few thin coats will gradually build up the paint.
5. Focus on neatness as a priority. Keep the paints in the right area of the figure, use the brush at a good angle to flow over the surface, don't worry about other techniques at first. However, there are some areas that are necessarily messy, so don't worry if you can't get everything neat.
6. Realise that being neat takes longer. Don't rush. Don't expect good results quickly. It always takes more time to do, and takes practise to do it quicker. But the results are worth it.
7. Be wary of washing and drybrushing. These are useful and quick techniques, but they are messy ones because there is less control over the paint, and they cover wide areas so are prone to getting mess on other bits of the figure. They have their place, for example washing metals, or drybrushing textured surfaces, but learn to not rely on them.
8. Conversely, both layering and blending are neater techniques. The former produces a simpler, cruder result, but if painted neatly can be very effective - and it's a good basic technique to start with The latter is very smooth and often neat, but very time consuming.
9. Choose the most natural colour tones for shading and highlighting - as well as being important for speeding up painting, the final result will look neater as the right colour choices will allow the highlighting/shading to look like a smooth transition.
10. Be prepared to touch up mistakes - invariably they will happen, it it will produce a much better paint-job overall if you take a little time to tidy and neaten up mistakes.
:?: How should I thin down paints?
Most paints will be more useful if they are thinned down a little first - you can apply a thinner coat which will leave the detail crisp, and it makes blending easier too. The simple way to thin down paints is to put some on a mixing tray and add a little water until the paint is "thin enough". There is no magic formula for how much water to add, it depends on the paint, the technique being used, personal preference etc etc (and I personally never measure the ratio). Like many techniques, test and practise. There is a more complex way of thinning paints using dry-time-extenders, which can be more useful, this has been covered by Tinweasel on page 3, post 33.
:?: What is the best way to undercoat?
Undercoating is recommended because it makes subsequent paint coats adhere better and gives a consistent surface to paint on. You can undercoat with normal acrylic paint (e.g. Citadel) or with a spray undercoat (again, e.g. Citadel). The latter is preferable as it is quicker, easier for several models at once, adheres to the metal/plastic better, and gives a smoother coat to paint over. You just need to take care not to drench the model whilst spraying - spray from a medium distance and in short bursts, and once the figures is covered, don't spray much more on. If in any doubt, get a few cheap plastic figures to test it on.
:?: How do I highlight in general?
3 main methods of highlighting:
Drybrushing (very quick, messy, useful for fur, chainmail, highly textured surfaces (and vehicles if you're careful and use a very dry brush)): Using an old brush, put some lighter paint on and wipe it off until the brush is pretty much dry, flick the brush back and forth across the area to be highlighted, repeat to build up the highlights.
Layering (fairly quick, simple, effective from a distance, good for general army painting): Using a slightly lighter paint, paint a medium line close to the edge of the surface to be highlighted (the more subtle the colour, the better the finish). Then choose a lighter colour still, and repeat painting a thinner line closer to the edge. Repeat until you finish off lining the very edge. If the highlights go naturally somewhere other than an edge, layer them towards that final highlight point instead.
Blending (slow, gives a smooth, high quality finish, useful for larger areas, colour transitions, and display figures): Start the same as layering, except use slightly thinner painter, and as you paint each layer on, quickly use a clean, damp brush to smudge and feather the edge of the layer, so that the colour appears to blur back into the basecoat colour. You might need to do this a couple of times for each layer, and of course repeat for every layer.
All of these will take some experimenting to get right, and to judge which is best in which situation.
:?: What is shading?
Shading is basically painting darker tones in the recessed areas of a model to make it look more 3D (just like highlighting does on the raised areas).
The two main alternative methods are to start with a darker tone as the basecoat, and apply plenty of highlights on top of that (including the main colour you want the area to be, and then further highlights), OR start with the main colour you want the area to be, and paint darker tones into the recesses. Which method is more useful depends on the figure and the area in question, but generally painting up from a dark tone is better for darker colour areas, while starting with a mid tone and painting down is better for lighter colours.
For the first method you would apply highlights in one of the methods described above e.g. layering, drybrushing, or blending.
For the second method you would apply the shading with either: Layering (as described above), Blending (as described above), or a Wash of a darker colour (a wash is simply a thinned down coat of a colour or ink, painted over the surface, so that it pools in the recesses and darkens those in particular - it is comparable in use to drybrushing, i.e. it's messy, changes the texture of the surface, but is quick and useful on textured surfaces).
As with highlighting and painting in general, the usual guidelines about using thin coats, choosing natural tones of the main colour, painting/blending more layers for a smoother effect, etc etc apply.
:?: How do I do crisp highlights on edges?
Tips for that sort of highlighting:
1. Thin your paint down a bit.
(1a. This applies to your base coat too - you MUST have a smooth clean basecoat to start with, and that usually comes from using a couple of coats of slightly thinned down paint)
2. Choose a colour that is a natural lighter tone of the base colour (usually just add a little white, but sometimes there will be an appropriate GW colour, and sometimes adding a little white AND yellow will be useful to give it warm - in the example shown, the highlights are a little too orange, but they shouldn't be too far the other way, either, i.e. too pink).
3. Use a clean, well-maintained, high quality brush. For this sort of stuff a GW Detail brush is ideal, Fine Detail may be a little small.
4. Take your time, you'll need to do it reasonably slowly to take the care needed to get a clean line.
5. Don't overload the brush with too much paint, and keep dipping it in water, drying it, and re-tweaking the point fairly often.
6. Where the surface is adequately raised, use the side of the brush not the point, and carefully slide the brush along (not across) the edge of the surface, following it as it contours around the model. On the Marine shown, this would work best on the packback, bottom and tops of legs, elbow/hand pads, and helmets.
7. Where the detail is not so distinct, use the tip of the brush and carefully draw a fine line along the raised edge of the surface, this will take a steadier hand. On the Marine, this would be needed for the shoulder pad insets, the fingers, feet, and all the detail on the legs.
8. Use the base coat colour to touch up any mistakes.
9. To make the effect more realistic, subtle, and attractive, do a slightly wider highlight first with a colour that is only slightly lighter than the basecoat colour, perhaps 0.5 - 1mm around the edges. This will need to be painted on with the brush tip, not with the edge of the brush. Then do the above highlighting with a lighter colour again on top of that intermediate colour. For a final touch, you could also take an even lighter colour, and just highlight the most raised surfaces that would catch the light (e.g. top of knees, top of hands, edges of helmet), these highlights should be kept very fine and subtle.
:?: How do I blend?
Standard blending technique i.e. fading a thinned down and slightly different colour into the original colour (this is detailed in the Citadel guide, btw). The way I do it is:
1. Choose the right colour. I tend to go for as natural a highlight/shade as possible, usually adding white for a highlight or using the closest match darker shade (I start with a mid-tone basecoat, shade it, then highlight it, rather than painting up from the darkest shade).
2. Thin the paint.
3. Using a good brush, paint a thin line at the edge of what you're highlighting.
4. Immediately suck the brush to remove the tiny bit of paint - if there's a lot on, dip it in water first. This needs to be fast so to get to the fresh paint before it dries. (Disclaimer: Drink paint at your own risk. If you get ill or die, Fiend accepts no responsibility.)
5. With the clean and damp brush, rub it across where the highlight colour meets the base colour so that the boundary is blurred. This is the crux and takes some practise. Sometimes you'll need to blur it a lot, sometimes a little will do. Sometimes you'll rub the brush along the boundary, sometimes you'll flick it across the boundary. Don't worry if the colour fades too much or the highlight looks weak, beause...
6. Almost certainly, repeat those steps with the same colour until the highlight is more prominent and better blended in.
7. Repeat with a slightly lighter colour, painted closer to the edge. Repeat again if needed - more stages will make it look smoother, but take more time.
8. When the blending stages are done, if the edge is crisp, paint a fine line of the lightest highlight along the edge.
:?: How do I do basic detail work?
1. Take your time and focus on neatness - because your working with smaller areas, it's easy to make mistakes. Don't rush it.
2. Use a smallish good quality paintbrush that's been kept in good condition. This is really important.
3. Use dark colours and possibly black lining to get the detail distinct from the rest of the figure.
4. On details the areas are smaller so you often don't need to blend highlights and shades, layering will often be just as effective.
5. Avoid washes and drybrushes as they can spill over onto other areas.
6. Try to make the highlighting and shading fairly vivid as it will help the detail to stand out.
:?: How can I paint indented lines?
These are a common feature of Tau in particular but also Marines and some other power armoured troops. Basically they're a sculpted indented line to represent the gap between two smooth armour plates. There's a couple of methods to paint these lines, for both methods you need a to use thinned down paint, a good, small brush, and try to hold the figure so you're running the brush bristles down the line of the indent.
1. Paint the lines in a dark colour (usually black, but maybe a normal dark colour if the armour plates are a light colour), either as part of a dark undercoat, or line them after the undercoat. Then carefully paint the base coat colour over the armour, making sure it doesn't go in the indent, and then highlight (including along the edges of the indent) and shade as normal. This is most useful when the indents are convoluted, with lots of joins, or in a small area.
2. Paint the basecoat and highlight and shade as normal, but leave off the very final highlight lining along the armour. Then take a dark colour as above and carefully line the indents. Touch up any mistakes with the basecoat or a highlight colour (depending on how many stages you're doing) and finish off by carefully lining along the edges of the indent with the final highlight colour. This is most useful for longer, clearer indented lines.
:?: How do I get a non-glossy varnish finish?
Any of GW's matt/satin varnishes will turn glossy if you spray them on too heavily. You need to use the correctly to get a good satin/matt finish. The trick is to spray them lightly, waving the spray across the model in short bursts, and build up the varnish with a few light coats. This will produce a matt/satin finish (BTW, satin is not gloss, satin is in between gloss and matt, pretty much like matt with a slight sheen). However, don't spray too lightly as it can give the model a rough, bitty surface. Best to practice on a couple of models first.
:?: How do I remove paint (without brake fluid)?
In the UK, you can use normal Flash cleaning liquid (Simple Green is the equivalent in the US I think). Soak your figures in neat Flash for a day or so, take them out and scrub them with a stiff brush under running water. You might need to use a brass brush (can get from a cobblers, used for brushing suede) and/or a knife/pin to scrape out the recesses. This works for metal and plastic, and varnished figures - and your figures end up smelling Pine Fresh =).
Note: Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner and Mr Muscle Kitchen Cleaner both work very effectively too, taking just a couple of hours. Hardly surprising they can strip paint from metal given they're both good at stripping flesh from bone so be careful with those stronger chemicals.
:werd:
Edited 09/07/05: Thinning, undercoating, NMM, a more belligerent title ;).
This is a thread to collect commonly asked and answered painting questions on this forum into one place. I'll post the ones I've answered in this first post, and update it whenever I answer another.
Others are contributing useful advice to this thread, so please read through it for more information.
Feel free to add comments, technique suggestions and technique questions - but please keep it to painting techniques rather than other painting related stuff, e.g. "How do I highlight black", "My tips for drybrushing", NOT "What colour should I paint my Eldar", "Hey check out my 0rk boss" etc etc.
I've also done a series of tutorials on how to paint in the style I do:
Tutorial 1: Eldar Wraithguard. (http://www.fiendy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutorial1.html) Original thread here. (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=54892)
Tutorial 2: Escher Ganger. (http://www.fiendy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutorial2.html) Original thread here. (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=55772)
Tutorial 3: Nurgle Marine. (http://www.fiendy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutorial3.html) Original thread here. (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=56320)
Tutorial 4: Marine Land Speeder. (http://www.fiendy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutorial4.html) Original thread here. (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=57774)
------
:here: General technique reference
The first thing if you're unsure about how to do painting techniques is to buy the Citadel Painting Guide (http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.uk?do=Individual&code=60049999072&orignav=300810) - this is a genuinely useful book (unlike previous guides) that covers a wide array of techniques and painting styles to use as reference. Almost all technique questions will be answered in there. If you can't afford the book (you should probably choose a different hobby) or have a question that isn't answered there, read on and ask it here.
------
Forum FAQ: Part 1: General Technique
(For Colour Technique see post below)
Note: These are my own answers copied from previous threads, based on many years of painting experience. See site below for my figures.
I don't understand any of the terms you use!
How can I paint faster?
How do I paint neatly and get a smooth finish?
How should I thin down paints?
What is the best way to undercoat?
How do I highlight in general?
What is shading?
How do I do crisp highlights on edges?
How do I blend?
How do I do basic detail work?
How can I paint indented lines?
How do I get a non-glossy varnish finish?
How do I remove paint (without brake fluid)?
:?: I don't understand any of the terms you use!
Then the next thing you should looking at is this:
http://www.battlescar.co.uk/store/pics/howto.jpg
:?: How can I paint faster?
Painting fast in an army style is quite straightforward - using basic techniques and basic colours, you can produce a reasonable result that's suitable for the table top. Equally painting high quality figures can be easier than it looks - it's mostly a matter of really taking the time to paint each bit well throughout the whole figure. However, trying to paint well AND speed up your painting so it doesn't ridiculously long is more challenging. I've struggled with this myself but have found a few ideas:
1. Undercoat well, and choose the appropriate undercoat. Often a black undercoat, perhaps drybrushed with white, can save a lot of time for shading and lining.
2. Decide what at the more prominent aspects of the figure, and make sure you paint them well. Decide what are the minor areas of the figure, and save time by painting them more basic.
3. Be neat to start with - neat painting with simple highlighting / shading will look better that messy painting with complex highlighting / shading, so it will save you time in the long run. However, for the very first coats, it might not be appropriate to be too fussy.
4. Pay attention to which colours cover better over other colours, and plan your painting appropriately. If you are painting a pale colour and dark colour on the same area, it's usually best to paint dark over pale as the paints cover better that way.
5. Generally paint from the inside out and/or paint the larger areas first - this is so you do the stuff that might be the messiest first, so you will paint over any paint spillage and have less tidying to do later.
6. Learn which simple techniques are most effective for the standard you're aiming for. For example, drybrushing is quick, but messy, and blending is high quality but slow. Thus, layering can be a good compromise. Combine techniques if needed.
7. Choose the most natural colour tones for shading and highlighting - this is really important, and can allow you to get a great result with many less layers than trying to fade into an unnatural tone of your basecoat colour.
8. Don't waste time on unimportant areas. E.g. vents, rivets, tubes, grilles, etc etc, all the minor little details can often be painted very quickly (undercoating these areas in black can be very useful) and there's no need to lavish time on them. Equally, even more prominent details, if they are really small, will look good with simple, but dramatic painting. The smaller they are, the less need for complex techniques.
9. Layering up from a darker colour can be very effective and effecient, particularly on a textured or highly detailed surface, it often looks good and saves time with shading etc.
10. Think about what steps you can miss out in painting the model. E.g. Are 3 coats of drybrushing the fur necessary since the second coat covers the first anyway? How many layers do you need on the armour given the main result is from final lining? Is an inkwash really useful on that gem as you're painting over it anyway? etc etc. Quite often you can miss out stages, save time, and still get a good result.
:?: How do I paint neatly and get a smooth finish?
This is an expanded answer to the earlier question. Painting neatly and smoothly is THE cornerstone of good painting. From that basis all other techniques and styles can be applied well, but without that one will struggle to get a good overall effect. Some tips:
1. Spray undercoat - better coverage and takes paint better.
2. Use high quality brushes and keep them in good condition. I find GW's brushes are fine. Use the right size for the job.
3. Thin down your paints. This will produce a smoother finish whether it's basecoating or shading or whatever.
4. Apply 2-3 thin coats instead of one thick coat. One thick coat will dry lumpy and ugly. A few thin coats will gradually build up the paint.
5. Focus on neatness as a priority. Keep the paints in the right area of the figure, use the brush at a good angle to flow over the surface, don't worry about other techniques at first. However, there are some areas that are necessarily messy, so don't worry if you can't get everything neat.
6. Realise that being neat takes longer. Don't rush. Don't expect good results quickly. It always takes more time to do, and takes practise to do it quicker. But the results are worth it.
7. Be wary of washing and drybrushing. These are useful and quick techniques, but they are messy ones because there is less control over the paint, and they cover wide areas so are prone to getting mess on other bits of the figure. They have their place, for example washing metals, or drybrushing textured surfaces, but learn to not rely on them.
8. Conversely, both layering and blending are neater techniques. The former produces a simpler, cruder result, but if painted neatly can be very effective - and it's a good basic technique to start with The latter is very smooth and often neat, but very time consuming.
9. Choose the most natural colour tones for shading and highlighting - as well as being important for speeding up painting, the final result will look neater as the right colour choices will allow the highlighting/shading to look like a smooth transition.
10. Be prepared to touch up mistakes - invariably they will happen, it it will produce a much better paint-job overall if you take a little time to tidy and neaten up mistakes.
:?: How should I thin down paints?
Most paints will be more useful if they are thinned down a little first - you can apply a thinner coat which will leave the detail crisp, and it makes blending easier too. The simple way to thin down paints is to put some on a mixing tray and add a little water until the paint is "thin enough". There is no magic formula for how much water to add, it depends on the paint, the technique being used, personal preference etc etc (and I personally never measure the ratio). Like many techniques, test and practise. There is a more complex way of thinning paints using dry-time-extenders, which can be more useful, this has been covered by Tinweasel on page 3, post 33.
:?: What is the best way to undercoat?
Undercoating is recommended because it makes subsequent paint coats adhere better and gives a consistent surface to paint on. You can undercoat with normal acrylic paint (e.g. Citadel) or with a spray undercoat (again, e.g. Citadel). The latter is preferable as it is quicker, easier for several models at once, adheres to the metal/plastic better, and gives a smoother coat to paint over. You just need to take care not to drench the model whilst spraying - spray from a medium distance and in short bursts, and once the figures is covered, don't spray much more on. If in any doubt, get a few cheap plastic figures to test it on.
:?: How do I highlight in general?
3 main methods of highlighting:
Drybrushing (very quick, messy, useful for fur, chainmail, highly textured surfaces (and vehicles if you're careful and use a very dry brush)): Using an old brush, put some lighter paint on and wipe it off until the brush is pretty much dry, flick the brush back and forth across the area to be highlighted, repeat to build up the highlights.
Layering (fairly quick, simple, effective from a distance, good for general army painting): Using a slightly lighter paint, paint a medium line close to the edge of the surface to be highlighted (the more subtle the colour, the better the finish). Then choose a lighter colour still, and repeat painting a thinner line closer to the edge. Repeat until you finish off lining the very edge. If the highlights go naturally somewhere other than an edge, layer them towards that final highlight point instead.
Blending (slow, gives a smooth, high quality finish, useful for larger areas, colour transitions, and display figures): Start the same as layering, except use slightly thinner painter, and as you paint each layer on, quickly use a clean, damp brush to smudge and feather the edge of the layer, so that the colour appears to blur back into the basecoat colour. You might need to do this a couple of times for each layer, and of course repeat for every layer.
All of these will take some experimenting to get right, and to judge which is best in which situation.
:?: What is shading?
Shading is basically painting darker tones in the recessed areas of a model to make it look more 3D (just like highlighting does on the raised areas).
The two main alternative methods are to start with a darker tone as the basecoat, and apply plenty of highlights on top of that (including the main colour you want the area to be, and then further highlights), OR start with the main colour you want the area to be, and paint darker tones into the recesses. Which method is more useful depends on the figure and the area in question, but generally painting up from a dark tone is better for darker colour areas, while starting with a mid tone and painting down is better for lighter colours.
For the first method you would apply highlights in one of the methods described above e.g. layering, drybrushing, or blending.
For the second method you would apply the shading with either: Layering (as described above), Blending (as described above), or a Wash of a darker colour (a wash is simply a thinned down coat of a colour or ink, painted over the surface, so that it pools in the recesses and darkens those in particular - it is comparable in use to drybrushing, i.e. it's messy, changes the texture of the surface, but is quick and useful on textured surfaces).
As with highlighting and painting in general, the usual guidelines about using thin coats, choosing natural tones of the main colour, painting/blending more layers for a smoother effect, etc etc apply.
:?: How do I do crisp highlights on edges?
Tips for that sort of highlighting:
1. Thin your paint down a bit.
(1a. This applies to your base coat too - you MUST have a smooth clean basecoat to start with, and that usually comes from using a couple of coats of slightly thinned down paint)
2. Choose a colour that is a natural lighter tone of the base colour (usually just add a little white, but sometimes there will be an appropriate GW colour, and sometimes adding a little white AND yellow will be useful to give it warm - in the example shown, the highlights are a little too orange, but they shouldn't be too far the other way, either, i.e. too pink).
3. Use a clean, well-maintained, high quality brush. For this sort of stuff a GW Detail brush is ideal, Fine Detail may be a little small.
4. Take your time, you'll need to do it reasonably slowly to take the care needed to get a clean line.
5. Don't overload the brush with too much paint, and keep dipping it in water, drying it, and re-tweaking the point fairly often.
6. Where the surface is adequately raised, use the side of the brush not the point, and carefully slide the brush along (not across) the edge of the surface, following it as it contours around the model. On the Marine shown, this would work best on the packback, bottom and tops of legs, elbow/hand pads, and helmets.
7. Where the detail is not so distinct, use the tip of the brush and carefully draw a fine line along the raised edge of the surface, this will take a steadier hand. On the Marine, this would be needed for the shoulder pad insets, the fingers, feet, and all the detail on the legs.
8. Use the base coat colour to touch up any mistakes.
9. To make the effect more realistic, subtle, and attractive, do a slightly wider highlight first with a colour that is only slightly lighter than the basecoat colour, perhaps 0.5 - 1mm around the edges. This will need to be painted on with the brush tip, not with the edge of the brush. Then do the above highlighting with a lighter colour again on top of that intermediate colour. For a final touch, you could also take an even lighter colour, and just highlight the most raised surfaces that would catch the light (e.g. top of knees, top of hands, edges of helmet), these highlights should be kept very fine and subtle.
:?: How do I blend?
Standard blending technique i.e. fading a thinned down and slightly different colour into the original colour (this is detailed in the Citadel guide, btw). The way I do it is:
1. Choose the right colour. I tend to go for as natural a highlight/shade as possible, usually adding white for a highlight or using the closest match darker shade (I start with a mid-tone basecoat, shade it, then highlight it, rather than painting up from the darkest shade).
2. Thin the paint.
3. Using a good brush, paint a thin line at the edge of what you're highlighting.
4. Immediately suck the brush to remove the tiny bit of paint - if there's a lot on, dip it in water first. This needs to be fast so to get to the fresh paint before it dries. (Disclaimer: Drink paint at your own risk. If you get ill or die, Fiend accepts no responsibility.)
5. With the clean and damp brush, rub it across where the highlight colour meets the base colour so that the boundary is blurred. This is the crux and takes some practise. Sometimes you'll need to blur it a lot, sometimes a little will do. Sometimes you'll rub the brush along the boundary, sometimes you'll flick it across the boundary. Don't worry if the colour fades too much or the highlight looks weak, beause...
6. Almost certainly, repeat those steps with the same colour until the highlight is more prominent and better blended in.
7. Repeat with a slightly lighter colour, painted closer to the edge. Repeat again if needed - more stages will make it look smoother, but take more time.
8. When the blending stages are done, if the edge is crisp, paint a fine line of the lightest highlight along the edge.
:?: How do I do basic detail work?
1. Take your time and focus on neatness - because your working with smaller areas, it's easy to make mistakes. Don't rush it.
2. Use a smallish good quality paintbrush that's been kept in good condition. This is really important.
3. Use dark colours and possibly black lining to get the detail distinct from the rest of the figure.
4. On details the areas are smaller so you often don't need to blend highlights and shades, layering will often be just as effective.
5. Avoid washes and drybrushes as they can spill over onto other areas.
6. Try to make the highlighting and shading fairly vivid as it will help the detail to stand out.
:?: How can I paint indented lines?
These are a common feature of Tau in particular but also Marines and some other power armoured troops. Basically they're a sculpted indented line to represent the gap between two smooth armour plates. There's a couple of methods to paint these lines, for both methods you need a to use thinned down paint, a good, small brush, and try to hold the figure so you're running the brush bristles down the line of the indent.
1. Paint the lines in a dark colour (usually black, but maybe a normal dark colour if the armour plates are a light colour), either as part of a dark undercoat, or line them after the undercoat. Then carefully paint the base coat colour over the armour, making sure it doesn't go in the indent, and then highlight (including along the edges of the indent) and shade as normal. This is most useful when the indents are convoluted, with lots of joins, or in a small area.
2. Paint the basecoat and highlight and shade as normal, but leave off the very final highlight lining along the armour. Then take a dark colour as above and carefully line the indents. Touch up any mistakes with the basecoat or a highlight colour (depending on how many stages you're doing) and finish off by carefully lining along the edges of the indent with the final highlight colour. This is most useful for longer, clearer indented lines.
:?: How do I get a non-glossy varnish finish?
Any of GW's matt/satin varnishes will turn glossy if you spray them on too heavily. You need to use the correctly to get a good satin/matt finish. The trick is to spray them lightly, waving the spray across the model in short bursts, and build up the varnish with a few light coats. This will produce a matt/satin finish (BTW, satin is not gloss, satin is in between gloss and matt, pretty much like matt with a slight sheen). However, don't spray too lightly as it can give the model a rough, bitty surface. Best to practice on a couple of models first.
:?: How do I remove paint (without brake fluid)?
In the UK, you can use normal Flash cleaning liquid (Simple Green is the equivalent in the US I think). Soak your figures in neat Flash for a day or so, take them out and scrub them with a stiff brush under running water. You might need to use a brass brush (can get from a cobblers, used for brushing suede) and/or a knife/pin to scrape out the recesses. This works for metal and plastic, and varnished figures - and your figures end up smelling Pine Fresh =).
Note: Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner and Mr Muscle Kitchen Cleaner both work very effectively too, taking just a couple of hours. Hardly surprising they can strip paint from metal given they're both good at stripping flesh from bone so be careful with those stronger chemicals.
:werd: