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I distinctly remember someone panicking a few months ago over their toddler having painted some of daddy's maweens pink with some nail polish he got his hands on. While hilarious (in that it was funny but I hope he fixed them up alright), I intend to do nearly the same thing.

Has anybody ever made use of nail polish to paint a mini to add some unique effects?

What I have in mind is a bottle of my girlfriend's iridescent nail polish. It seems mostly transparent, except that in the bottle it looks like an oil slick. I base and highlight most of my Eldar psyker bits blue, and figured this in a thin coat would look interesting. Given that I'm working with metal models, I assume it's relatively safe in my case. I wouldn't recommend it for resin, but I'm going to test it on a spare power sword I have laying about from my Troupe Leader.



---- Actually, just gave it a go. Lighting is bad and I should feel bad, but I'm pleased with the paint job:





Cloak, sword and staff all underwent the same procedure for painting: Base of Skull White primer, wash of Badab Black, wash of Asurmen Blue, light drybrush of Necron Abyss, and buildup of Temple Guard Blue and Ice Blue. After that, I had sealed it because I hadn't thought to add more to him beyond some basing and fixing the slight chip in the face on the staff that is glaringly obvious in the photo I took. Anyway, for the nail polish, I got my brush wet and applied only a small amount, spreading it as thin as possible to the selected areas. I'm not sure the pictures show it very clearly, but it provides a subtle boost to a psyker model in my opinion.

I have been using it for the crackle affect. It is looking awesome on the vehicles for my Eldar. I am still trying to figure it out on the armor for my foot soldiers. Although I recently finished a Banshee Exarch and used red crackle and it looked like blood all over her.

My GF has the magnetic nail polish and I thought it would be an interesting look. Has anyone tried the magnetic type of nail polish?

Megildur_Dorsidhion wrote:I have been using it for the crackle affect. It is looking awesome on the vehicles for my Eldar. I am still trying to figure it out on the armor for my foot soldiers. Although I recently finished a Banshee Exarch and used red crackle and it looked like blood all over her.

I was actually considering using this on my Wraithlords. I wanted to go over the blue portions of them with the crackle effect to see how it would look. Got any pictures of some pieces you did?

Deathshead420 wrote:My GF has the magnetic nail polish and I thought it would be an interesting look. Has anyone tried the magnetic type of nail polish?

I don't even know what it is, but I'm always up to experiment with new materials.

TheHarleqwin wrote:Has anybody ever made use of nail polish to paint a mini to add some unique effects?

Not with nail polish - but I use a lot of enamels which are chemically almost identical to nail polish (at least the old stuff...I don't keep up with cosmetic formulations, so things might have changed since then).

Model car paints and various scale model paint manufacturers have many things which are far and away nicer than the stuff coming out of any of the miniature paint companies. Alclad II for example makes some of the nicest metal paints you will ever find anywhere. They also do some very nice flipping paints (the iridescent ones like you just played with). Testor's probably have the largest line up with the most options right now - and a good half of their paints are only available as enamels.

When you start to play with things like those though - the way that you consider your painting changes a bit. The various blended surfaces that get a lot of oooohs and aaahhhhs on miniatures don't normally look right when painted with those paints. Instead, you use a solid color and the actual surface properties of the paint provide the interest. We did a friends Eldar army up in the prismatic chrome. It has the oil slick look to it - but is very shiney as well. The finish actually picks up and reflects surrounding objects - so when he has a load of Dire Avengers or Scorpions with their blue or green reflected off the chrome it looks really nice. We ended up only using it on the flat body panels - other parts were painted with other paints/colors (the exhaust was done using their metals though). Gemstones had a candy red finish which matched the rest of the army's color scheme.

When the army is on a battle field with terrain or on his display shelves it looks great.

Of course the obligatory safety notice must be in place to avoid the wrath of the environmental police: Enamel paints contain solvents and chemicals which are known to the State of California to cause birth defects, cancer, mutation, global warming, global cooling, spontaneous combustion... Use at your own risk and only with proper safety precautions. Don't sniff, huff or otherwise inhale the fumes as it will turn you into a blithering moron who stands outside McDonald's begging for change. Keep away from open flames and ignition sources as they will burn - which is neat, but kills the polar bears...and for some reason we should try to save an animal that wants to eat you.

I've used the crackling nail polish on a model's base or two . They seem ok but hard to not make thick.

I don't even know what it is, but I'm always up to experiment with new materials.

She has these NP that have metal flake in them , and on the top of the bottle it has a magnet in a striped pattern, once you apply the polish you put the cap close to the nail and it makes a pattern.



Someone needs to make this in acrylic, with a little mini magnet stylus.

Don't try it over regular acrylic paint. The solvents in the nail polish are harsh and eat the previous layer.

Kevlar wrote:Don't try it over regular acrylic paint. The solvents in the nail polish are harsh and eat the previous layer.

Confirmed. Tested it on an unsealed powersword, mostly smeared the paint beneath.

TheHarleqwin wrote:

Megildur_Dorsidhion wrote:I have been using it for the crackle affect. It is looking awesome on the vehicles for my Eldar. I am still trying to figure it out on the armor for my foot soldiers. Although I recently finished a Banshee Exarch and used red crackle and it looked like blood all over her.

I was actually considering using this on my Wraithlords. I wanted to go over the blue portions of them with the crackle effect to see how it would look. Got any pictures of some pieces you did?

I currently do not have any pictures yet . I hoff to bed but will put some pictures on later today. Make sure to test things out on thee sprues just to make sure it looks right, and don't use the crackle on acrylic paint.

Chancetragedy wrote:I've used the crackling nail polish on a model's base or two . They seem ok but hard to not make thick.

They have latex in them, which gives the crackle as it dryes and shrinks, which makes it thick. However, as with the paint we use not all nail varnises are the same. If your using a cheap brand it will be very lumpy, but something good like OPI or China Glaze will much better.

There's a range of paiints called "aqueous hobby colour" and they're acrylics which have some interesting paints including semi-transparent paints which are good for painting glass, I think they have some flouro paints and also the metallics are really good.

TheHarleqwin wrote:When you start to play with things like those though - the way that you consider your painting changes a bit. The various blended surfaces that get a lot of oooohs and aaahhhhs on miniatures don't normally look right when painted with those paints. Instead, you use a solid color and the actual surface properties of the paint provide the interest. We did a friends Eldar army up in the prismatic chrome. It has the oil slick look to it - but is very shiney as well. The finish actually picks up and reflects surrounding objects - so when he has a load of Dire Avengers or Scorpions with their blue or green reflected off the chrome it looks really nice. We ended up only using it on the flat body panels - other parts were painted with other paints/colors (the exhaust was done using their metals though). Gemstones had a candy red finish which matched the rest of the army's color scheme.

Yeah, I got a blue metallic from the Aqueous hobby colour range to paint my Necrons and it has a kind of pearl finish to it. It took me a little bit to realise that it doesn't need nor want to be highlighted. I kept trying to figure out how to highlight it before I realised that the natural pearl reflects the light better than I could ever highlight anyway. So in the end I just threw a wash over it then a light gloss varnish to bring back the natural pearl and left it and I think it looks great, far better than if I tried to highlight or drybrush it. It ends up looking like one of those metallic cars on the street where the colours shift as it drives by.

And that was only an Acrylic, as you say in enamels there's a lot of other interesting options (I guess since a lot of model cars and planes are painted with enamels, they have a lot of selection in the "interesting effects" department).

Makes you realise how flat and boring the Games Workshop metallics are!

I have. Got my hands on some color-shift nail polish.

Only downside is that it needs to be thinned. Get your hands on some Terpenoid (terpentine substitute, more environmentally friendly, non-flammable, doesn't smell). And previous posts are correct: seal your miniatures before using other types of paints, in case of negative effects on your already painted acrylics.

Otherwise, I've a fairly decent history using enamels. After attempting the nail polish color shift, I got my hands on enamels of the same type, but different shift colors (Teal-Purple- Blue) and used it on the chitin on my Lictors (nothing says "Camouflage" like color shifting paint!)

My secret source of power.....http://www.spazstix.com/

Here are the crackle shots of my vehicles.

There are many acrylic paints you can get wtih the same effects, that are easier to use, and won't mess with your base coats.

Look into the createx iridescent airbrush paint line (yes, you can put them on with a brush).

If the acrylic base is fully cured (3-4 days) it should hold up well enough to enamel (regular or nail polish). The problem that most people get into when mixing their various paints is that they think that dry=cured when there can be a long difference between the two.

That said - if you are looking for the various iridescent/interference paints in a water based acrylic - I would recomend AutoAir (also by Createx...but a larger selection). Unfortunately - to my eye the various acrylics don't look as smooth as the various enamels.