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So i have a farseer model that i,am currently painting and i want to make some little details here and there. I tried to find a tutorial on painting those thin lines like the blue one on the autarchs cloak in the pic but i found nothing. Is it just freehanding or can i use masking tape or is there some other technique?

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That's a freehand. To do that it takes practice. Just start trying stuff out on paper. Beginning with getting straight lines, trying to make those thinner and thinner.

It could be possible with masking tape. Might be a real pain in the ass.

it also helps to sell your soul to some fell power for skill with the brush.

For those us us with mortal skills, just find your best time of day with a calm hand and steady brush and hope for the best.

You could cheat with a small micron felt pen.

use it to black line the areas you want with the detail.

then come back on top of it with blue paint or whatever you want.

just make sure its 100% dry. some inks take a bit of time to be set.


still not super easy but at least with the pen you could get a more consistent line over worrying about the supper thinned paint drying up quickly.

also use slow dry and thin the blue very well.

Basically the same as what Desubot has said. I find drawing freehand details in first on the model using a mechanical pencil then using that as a guide to paint over worked wonders for me

you can absolutely put some sort of tape down to create a line. the issue then becomes the build up of paint on the edge of the tape (if that bothers you)

i paint as much of the model before i put it together and even parts that need gap filling i will paint and then use magic sculpt (which tapers with water) to fill afterwards and just paint over it for things like this.

I imagine that cape would be easier to paint a thin line if the model was not in the way.

A couple of tips from my own personal experience in improving my own freehand line work:

1. Get that perfect flow, either with a mixing medium or water where the paint can just barely hold the shape you stroked, is most ideal. Once truly realized, this step really helped me out a ton.

2. I found that if you drink any caffeine, do it before you're going to get your freehand lines done or well after. My hand shakes uncontrollably just ever so slightly and never noticed it until painting minis. Big jump in quality once this was realized too, however ridiculous it sounds.

 hybridmoments82 wrote:
A couple of tips from my own personal experience in improving my own freehand line work:

1. Get that perfect flow, either with a mixing medium or water where the paint can just barely hold the shape you stroked, is most ideal. Once truly realized, this step really helped me out a ton.

2. I found that if you drink any caffeine, do it before you're going to get your freehand lines done or well after. My hand shakes uncontrollably just ever so slightly and never noticed it until painting minis. Big jump in quality once this was realized too, however ridiculous it sounds.

I’ll second that point #2. I drink like half a pot of coffee every morning. I do not ever attempt anything related to detail work until it wears off. Base coats, rough washes, that sort of thing is fine. Also, if I’m going to have a drink in the evening, no painting eyes or fine lines for me.

Detail: after coffee, before booze.

(makes for a tight window to work in )

Thanks for the the tips everyone . I guess ill have to start trying out freehanding. And i can paint till the evening before the booze since i dont drink coffee

There is an old pinstriper trick for following contours at an even distance that could be modified to help here. Say you want the stripe 20mm from the cloak edge (just making the number up, not important). Hold the brush so it's parallel to your middle finger and 20mm away. Now run your middle finger along the edge of the cloak. The brush follows the finger and the finger perfectly mirrors the cloak edge