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here's an example of what i'm talking about with the lighter colored lines on every edge/corner. i haven't really incorporated the technicque too much in my past armies and was wondering if people in general do every surface/border or just select ones. i've got 30 black painted terminators that would probably look alot better with some grey edging (or possibly another color... feel free to suggest).



not my pic but a good example of the technique from Gordy2000's battle report.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/293202.page

I vary my technique depending what I am painting and how much I can be bothered.

I'm a bit of an old skool wargamer. I don't think every model needs to win a Golden Daemon, I just want them all to look nice when viewed on the tabletop from several feet away.

As such I will do edge highlighting on some, none, or all of the edges depending what I am painting. If I do it on some edges I choose a direction of light and paint the edges facing that direction.

I usually do it on all the edges that I can reach and see. This way the minis look right no matter which angle you view them from. This is also why I don't like nmm. A single turn of the model and it looks off.

Light tends to come from above, hence I usually just highlight uppermost and vertical edges.

I usually highlight focal points on my models.

I highlight most edges, however my painting technique varies from army to army. My Orks, for instance, are painted flat colors then washed, and it looks just fine. My Marines are almost pure edge highlighting. My Guard are somewhere inbetween, with edge highlights on their guns and armor, and washes for their uniforms.

In my mind, edging and highlighting (primarily line-highlights - not talking about subtle blending over large surfaces) serve two purposes: 1) giving the "feel" of light, scaled down and 2) defining edges. If I'm trying to do something more organic, I'd probably do softer zenithal highlights. If a model has lots of angles or multiple plates in close proximity, lining every edge helps to separate individual elements, as well as add a bit of striking variety. My orks, for example, are all washes and soft, general highlights. My SM are more starkly lined, but not every single millimeter with an angle gets highlighted. Once I get to the SM vehicles, I'll probably line almost every edge (otherwise, they'd feel a bit flat and boring, compared to the troops - unless I did a ton of blending far beyond my current skill level).

I like to highlight most edges on my minis, but im still unsure on which paint i should use to highlight a blood angel model thats been highlighted blood red and my death company marines, any ideas?

Kilkrazy wrote:I vary my technique depending what I am painting and how much I can be bothered.

I'm a bit of an old skool wargamer. I don't think every model needs to win a Golden Daemon, I just want them all to look nice when viewed on the tabletop from several feet away.

As such I will do edge highlighting on some, none, or all of the edges depending what I am painting. If I do it on some edges I choose a direction of light and paint the edges facing that direction.

Ol' school stylin'

My troops, I'm not going to really bother highlighting at all, unless its a aspiring champ, or the rest of the army is done. Things like my terminators, commanders, elite troops etc, will receive some highlighting.

Although, since the OP's terminators are black- please to be highlighting or drybrushing with a lighter colour to bring out edges and detail. My nurgle marines have a scheme of green shoulders, gloves and shinguards, the rest of the model is black, and i drybrush them with bleached bone to give a weathered kind of look to them, and it really really really makes the black area of armour look much better.

the bleached bone i could see working for your nurgle models even with a black base color but probably not for mine. i've basically got black base, white aquilla, blood red head and fists/weapons. the metal bits are either boltgun or brass. i'm thinking a darker gray would be best for the lines. at first i had planned silver but eyeballing the minis led me to believe it'd be too similar to the metallics on the mini. i should be able to post some pics later tonight or tomorrow to get a better idea.

Personally?
Edge highlight everything.

I give edge highlights on most of my vehicle edges but not too contrasting a colour, and select points a second brighter one.

Infantry depends on the model. My DE warriors get much more edge lighting but before the wash/glaze which blends them in a lot more. I do it there because they give some quick definition to the armour plates. Even then I don't do all of the edges. On more important models I only do occasional and much more subtle edge highlights because I find them a bit jarring on anything looked at more close-up or with more contrasting colours... that, and I tend to be blending and shading down more gradually anyway and don't need them as much.

I am repainting my marines right now but my guardsmen were my "first" army that I painted to a good standard.

I painted them with every edge highlighted (following the guide on GW's website) and they look good... But with my Dark Angels I've been trying out my own technique which is applying a wide flat highlight on all the exposed vertical surfaces with 50/50 DA Green and Goblin Green... That makes it look like a light is above, I then apply a edge of goblin green to almost everything... So I guess it's a hybrid technique

For SM, I edge everything in a mid-tone highlight. I then apply a lighter edge highlight on the more prominant edges, where I imagine the light would be reflecting off more.



For Nid's I tend to blend up to the highlights.

I drybrush, meaning that all reachable edges get at least a small highlight. Then I highlight major edges, such as fingers or the the rim of shoulder pads.

It depends on the specularity (reflective qualities and tendency for spot-highlights) of the material I'm trying to represent.

Personally, I'm not much of a fan of edging. A lot of times it can get sloppy and artificial-looking, IMHO. I did it a bit with the Tau in my gallery and when I had the space to spread out my paint on the model I liked making the edge highlights more subtle. For my Fire Caste Warriors' armour, naturally I didn't have the patience to put that much work into it.

For my beastmen, I'm not really bothering with it except in a few places.

I'm the opposite of KK; i think everything in my army should win a GD

I blend all my colours towards the light source, then put on very fine, bright edge highlights where i think the strongest reflections are going to be.

If I want a part or edge to be visible and stand out and it doesn't, I edge highlight. If not, I don't. It's simple.