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Hello dakkas

Having a bit discouraging development regarding the highlights, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I tried various thinning levels, but nothing seems to look good. The highlights look way too flat and wide, as if I can't get proper control of my brush.

Would anyone have any suggestions on what to try, or a guide detail for highlights?
Pretty sure I could highlight predator tanks with no problem, its the space marine size that gives me the problems. And those cracks in armors are a pain. I've done drybrushing before to highlight, but it doesn't look any good when compared to proper highlights even after glazing the model with wash.

Dunno, feels like I'm not cut out for this. Just for once I'd like to do the model properly *sigh*
Is there any alternative like drybrushing?

Can you make a picture? highlighting is ussualy just that, using a lighter color of the base color and going over the raised parts with a thin brush, dry brushing can be used but needs delicate care on the of amount of paint on the brush

My "secret" to highlighting is to have four desk lights, set the model down on the desk, and paint the actual "highlight" cast from the desk lights. It feels like I'm "tracing" but I get plenty of compliments and they do look pretty good. As long as you pick the right colors to use, then all that's left is making sure to put the highlights in the right places. And that's an easy way to find them for me.

If you "just" have problems with the width of your edge highlights some of those might have something: http://fromthewarp.blogspot.de/search/label/line (especially the two labeled as basics as there are some tips on brushes and how to hold them)
If you have more general problems with highlights you can read on and see what i currently experimenting with. It might be helpfull. But bear in mind, i'm no expert in painting.

Have you tried gradiently mixing the color up for larger areas? If you use a pallet or wet pallet apply your basic color and water it down. Then mix in a bit of your highlight color and paint it on. Add some more lighter color and paint - this time a little bit smaller until you've reached a level where you can use just the highlight color as a small spotlight in the center of your gradients.

Or if that is to much hassle and time consuming go the other way and don't use the washes as glazes but apply different layers of watered down wash towards the shadowed areas.
This way you create a gradient of shadows.

And edge highlighting can be used to finish everything. If you want nice edge highlights you can use your highlighting color and mix it 1:1 with your basic color and make a basic edge highlighting with that. Then add another edge highlight with the pure highlight color but only on the more exposed edges.

Oil paints, specifically transparent white. After a gloss coat, of course (it may work after a dull coat, but I tend to do mine in the same stage as my oil washes.) If you feel like your first application wasn't good, just wipe it off with some mineral / white spirits and do it again. Then hit it with 'ard Coat, Army Painter's AntiShine, or Testor's Dullcote (or any other matte or satin varnish, depending on your taste).

 btldoomhammer wrote:
If you "just" have problems with the width of your edge highlights some of those might have something: http://fromthewarp.blogspot.de/search/label/line (especially the two labeled as basics as there are some tips on brushes and how to hold them)
If you have more general problems with highlights you can read on and see what i currently experimenting with. It might be helpfull. But bear in mind, i'm no expert in painting.

Have you tried gradiently mixing the color up for larger areas? If you use a pallet or wet pallet apply your basic color and water it down. Then mix in a bit of your highlight color and paint it on. Add some more lighter color and paint - this time a little bit smaller until you've reached a level where you can use just the highlight color as a small spotlight in the center of your gradients.

Or if that is to much hassle and time consuming go the other way and don't use the washes as glazes but apply different layers of watered down wash towards the shadowed areas.
This way you create a gradient of shadows.

And edge highlighting can be used to finish everything. If you want nice edge highlights you can use your highlighting color and mix it 1:1 with your basic color and make a basic edge highlighting with that. Then add another edge highlight with the pure highlight color but only on the more exposed edges.

Its pretty much width, and my lack of brush control at such a small edges. But I'm not entirely sure I'd like the whole 'cartoon' highlights.
I really like the other way around with washes, totally forgot about it.

Or if that is to much hassle and time consuming go the other way and don't use the washes as glazes but apply different layers of watered down wash towards the shadowed areas.
This way you create a gradient of shadows.

Not sure how would it work with dark angels? Can you elaborate how to use washes as layers? :s which ones too?
Should I layer the dark angel in dark angels green to warpston green and finally moot green, than wash him gradually?

Pretty much I know how highlights work, its just that I lack control (plus my back are killing me, and its too time consuming)

Tyris1013 wrote:
Not sure how would it work with dark angels? Can you elaborate how to use washes as layers? :s which ones too?
Should I layer the dark angel in dark angels green to warpston green and finally moot green, than wash him gradually?

Pretty much I know how highlights work, its just that I lack control (plus my back are killing me, and its too time consuming)

I have never painted green armor so i can't say how this would look for dark angels. But what i've ment is that you use multiple layers of a wash (or shade as they are called now). You paint up your armor to a degree of green of your choise. Then you use a wash on nearly everything except that area where you want your lightest spot or edge to be. Wait for it to dry and apply another wash but this time leave a larger area unwash. If you repeat it and paint less surface with each iteration you should - in theory - have your original color in the center/edge and around it different gradients of wash-layers that gets darker the further away you are from the center/edge.

This will probably work similar like layering but instead of starting dark and layer smaller areas of lighter colors over it you need to start lighter and darken it with a wash. How well this would work i can't say. i used a more basic version of this on an already layered armor and only on the areas without light to create a smooth shadow.

But what might be an advantage of this is that you don't need to look out for armor recesses as you want to wash to be there. So you don't need as much precission for avoiding recesses while layering.

But there might be other problems.
You probably need to thin down your wash if you want smoother gradients. And you might even need to mix washes for a better result like adding black into the green wash to get a darker result.

But as i never did this on an enitire model but only in limited areas i can't say how well it would turn out. But it might be work trying.

I'll deff give it a try. Shouldn't be any problem to strip the paint down if I mess it up, as I usually thin my paint a lot that it requires 2 or more layers, so details won't have any problems there either.

So if I got this right, I can jump straight away from dark angels green to moot green, and wash it down? Or should I give it a layer of warpstone green beforehand?

Regarding the wash, would 1:1 mix work? Or more water to the mix?

Also, would this be considered as realistic look for space marines? :p I like gritty/dark/realistic look on them.