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So I'm looking at doing a few models with a "ghost" paint scheme, trying to make them have the sort of green glowy ethereal look of the Lord of the Rings Army of the Dead. I got the gist of what to do from an article some guy wrote a while back (link at bottom of post) and while picking up white spray paint today I came across this...

http://www.krylon.com/products/glowz/

I've never used any sort of glow in the dark paint, much less a spray version. What I'm curious of is, do any of you lot have some idea of how it's going to behave with other paints? I was thinking of doing white primer, watered down grey coat, heavy drybrush white, and then the glow in the dark stuff before a generous wash of green and finishing with white highlights. Does this stuff allow other paints to stick on top? Will my other paints kill the glow?

If nothing else I always appreciate well-meant guesswork

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2009/05/lotr-painting-army-of-dead.html

Acrylic photoluminescent paint works like other acrylic paints, but the problem is the regular paint DOES ruin the glow effect. Maybe not kill it off entirely, but if you do highlights or washes it will dull or eliminate the glow effect in certain spots.

The best use of thinned glow-in-the-dark paint would be for freehand or thin edge highlights.

If you want a ghostly glowing look I think you may be better off doing GW's 'Eavy Metal style like for the VC ghost wagon where they just do a blend of white and pale green.

If you only use glow in the dark paint it will look cool under a blacklight or in the dark, but in normal lighting your models will look very plain.

Mmm I've never used glow in the dark paints, but I've been looking for tips on painting 'spooky-ethereal' models like that for a few days now, gonna try it out on a zombie now, was literally exactly what I was after - so thank you for the link!

bit more on topic though, I can't imagine the glow in the dark paints will still glow with other paint layered on top.. and I can't imagine they're as good quality as the ordinary paints because (I imagine) they're not usually used for miniature or fine painting - saying that, I'm pretty sure other paints will still stick to it, couldn't see why they wouldn't. Although as I said I haven't used them, so could be completely wrong! It's a really interesting question, would love to see some more informed replies =D

Have you considered UV paints? they'd give off a much stronger colour, although you would need to see them under a UV light.. > . <

edit: just did a quick wikipedia search, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_paint apparently ''The scale model of Minas Morgul in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was sprayed with phosphorescent paint'' so perhaps there is some merit in it.

I'm not sure but looking at that link you posted for Krylon, I think it might be a clear coat type paint that glows in the dark. From what it said, it uses light to glow for up to a certain amount of time, then you need more light to have it glow again. So any paint you put on top of the glow in the dark paint will not glow. That's just a guess though, you will have to mess around with it an let us know it it works.

As much of a Krylon fan as I am, I haven't heard too good of things about the Glowz spray. It's expensive, you don't get much, and the glow ability apparently fades over time. I'd think you could probably get it to work under black light, just be a dull green without. You can read what Amazon peeps have to say here.

As to painting with glow-in-the-dark paint, I've used some acrylic GitD hobby paint on top of scorpion green to give a little bit of extra green glow in dark / under black light. Haven't done much on minis, usually on rings and other accessories for clubbing ... where there are a lot more black lights than the gaming table

- Salvage

The Krylon glow spray is not very good. I would definately NOT use it on any miniatures. its for making scary trees and such for Halloween.

An acrylic brush-on Glow-in-the-dark paint should only be used as a top coat on a miniature. It has a semi-transparent nature when dry. I have used it drybrushed over a model ship, hard to tell it's even there in daylight, but in the dark or blacklight, voila! Ghost ship.

Any flourescent paint is transparent. Best used over white for brightest effects.

Well, the Krylon was cheap so I'll find some use regardless In that case, do you guys have any recommendations on specific acrylic GitD paints? I haven't had much time to do a thorough search, the best I came up with is the stuff from glowinc.com which looks like it's for RC airplanes more than anything.

That's the bottle I have. Can't have cost me more than $2 at Michaels Like all craft paints it's pretty thin so you'll need many coats to get significant glow. No doubt there's a more expensive hobby GITD paint out there ...

- Salvage

I used that same craft paint the last time I did a glow-in-the-dark project. The glow effect is minimal. It does look good in photos, though:

Lights on - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dullspork/6890961578/in/set-72157628073057163

Lights off - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dullspork/7037056343/in/set-72157628073057163

Keep in mind that the "lights off" photo is a pretty long exposure.

I had a similar idea a while back, here is my thread as a resource for you..

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/486749.page

My Nids took a whole different route in the end

I've used fluourescent paints, which is a slightly different matter. However I don't think pure glow in the dark paints would be very useful for common purposes as you can't actually play games in the dark.

The fluourescents I used came from the Humbrol range and were enamel based.

 Boss Salvage wrote:


That's the bottle I have. Can't have cost me more than $2 at Michaels Like all craft paints it's pretty thin so you'll need many coats to get significant glow. No doubt there's a more expensive
- Salvage

That brand works well. It needs to be stirred before use as the components tend to separate when it sits around too long.