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The attached went up on GW's UK "What's New" yesterday. My own painting is a far cry from even approaching that clear and crisp. Does anyone have any tips for getting such a nice finish? I've tried with my own Dark Eldar, and end up with a vaugly linear blob (that's a little harsh, but gives an idea) I suspect I'm making rather basic mistakes. Is it all down to brush size and paint consistency, or more brush technique? I'm not sure about the scheme or the style of highlighting, but the technical ability needed to get colours and lines like that onto a model intrigue me.

Cheers.

When starting out I think you paint your blobby line, then tidy it up with the colour you've just painted over.

Learning/be bothered to tidy up is one of the first lessons I learned from these forums and it does make a hell of a difference.

I guess with time you need to do less and less tidying, i'm certainatly not there yet.

Bang some piccies up in your gallery, so dakkites can take a look.

Nice nice... i like the red/ white highlights. BUT i hate the face's ( i hate every white face) so there nice painted to

jelle

You gota do 2-3 layers.
Water it down, and build up the strength of the colour too.

Best thing is to just be willing to go back with the base color/ previous highlight and "erase" what you don't want.

Water down your paint, don't use the tip of the brush, use the side and lightly drag it over raised edges, the surface tension of the paint on the brush will basically pull itself in a fine line along the raised edge.

It's a combination of everything you've guessed at, really. Give a spaz a 3-haired brush and some tinted water - he'll still make a vaguely linear blob, it'll just take him a week to do it. Brush selection and quality is important. Proper paint consistency is important. So is technique, patience, and the aforementioned willingness to go back and forth, building up your highlights slowly, correcting errors, then lathering, rinsing, and repeating until you've got your nearly flawless line.

Hardlining edges is easier than painting a thin, even line freehand, since you can use the edge to guide your stroke, using the side of the brush. All it takes is relatively even pressure and, provided you haven't overloaded your brush or tried to paint with something the consistency of toothpaste, you'll get a relatively even line.