Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I have just started trying OSL with blue on metallic. Take a look at the pictures below and let me know what I can do to improve on. Also, I was thinking I should do a darker metallic look to give the blue more of a pop. Suggestions?

Thanks everyone!

You've fallen into the common trap of thinking that light further from the source is darker; it is not.

When doing OSL my first priority is the environmental light (usually this is 'sunlight'). This is normally the strongest light source on the model.

NOTHING YOU DO SHOULD MAKE THIS DARKER.

This means for any surface that catches the OSL, you want to ensure that your tint is lighter than that 'base'.

Say you have a blue glow (medium blue / blue-white / blue off-white), you'll be using the blue-white portion mixed with the base colour you're applying it to mostly, and concentrating on edges facing the light source. Final point extremes with the brightest light colour (blue off-white).

Further away from the light you use less and less of the light tint. You may need to mix up something between the two (eg a blue light on a matt red surface will tint it pinky/purple. A shinier red surface would have extremes with a blue/white stark highlight). Surfaces not facing the light source should get no light.

Example:


Pay attention to the lighting difference between the leg, and the metallic pauldron, rope/braids and grenade and grenade ring.

In terms of fixing what you've done, you need to go over with your metals anything not directly facing the light and redo the tinting, concentrating on not making it darker. Going much, much brighter with the very centres of the light sources is also advisable; again, if they're darker than the environment they won't cast much noticable light.

Thank you for the information about. Any recommendations on doing this when using brushes and not an airbrush???

I don't use an airbrush for OSL; you don't get enough control over where overspray can end up, and it's very easy to overdo things.

The main technique is glazing; thin paint, very little on the brush so each stroke is very translucent. Build up intensity slowly and don't be afraid to mix paint to get a tone you need in a particular place.

However, what do you think of the metallic tone? Should it be darker?

I can't answer that; it's a factor of what you want the model to look like.

winterdyne wrote:
I don't use an airbrush for OSL; you don't get enough control over where overspray can end up, and it's very easy to overdo things.

Yeah this, totally

One little sputter, and 15 hours of work can go down the drain. You have to be so confident of your airbrush skills, and there's zero margin for error, since you do the OSL after literally everything is done. Scary stuff!!

 Talys wrote:

winterdyne wrote:
I don't use an airbrush for OSL; you don't get enough control over where overspray can end up, and it's very easy to overdo things.

Yeah this, totally

One little sputter, and 15 hours of work can go down the drain. You have to be so confident of your airbrush skills, and there's zero margin for error, since you do the OSL after literally everything is done. Scary stuff!!

Isn't that what gloss coat is for? The reset button of mini-painting.....

No, not really.

If you wait a couple of days for your gloss coat to dry before you spray (so that it's nice and solid) and then keep a bottle of airbrush thinner (or other solvent) nearby then you can *mostly* remove mistakes like splutters if you attack them quickly, but it typically ends up slightly filtering the area which may or may not be a problem depending on what colour you are spraying over what base.

Use a clean brush wetted *slightly* with the solvent (not so wet that it pools, I dab the excess off on a tissue before touching the model), wipe the area, clean the brush off, wipe the area again, repeat until you've mostly cleared it up (but don't repeat so much that you penetrate the gloss coat).

I use Vallejo Airbrush Thinner to remove mistakes with acrylics and I use White Spirit or Testors Airbrush Thinner to remove mistakes with enamels.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
OSL is a nightmare though. It almost always looks slightly "off" because people don't understand how light works. As winterdyne said, you shouldn't have anything darker than the natural brightness, OSL should ADD to the natural brightness, not subtract from it. Part of the reason OSL usually looks weird is models are painted as if it's broad daylight, so for the OSL to actually appear the object creating it would have to be blindingly bright, unless you go to the effort of painting your models to simulate night fighting. But beyond that you also have weird things people usually don't take in to account, like green light falling on a blue object should not reflect, or red light falling on a blue object should not reflect, etc etc. So if you're doing green OSL, it should be most prevalent on green or white areas of the model and be barely visible on red and blue areas.

Even once you get a handle on the techniques, actually producing something that looks correct is still an effort in understanding how light works. That's why my only foray in to OSL was on the interior of a Valkyrie where I could just pretend everything was dark, so anything that was illuminated was illuminated by my green OSL.

But it's what people like these days so I guess as long as you can produce something you're happy with.