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Hi guys!

So I've got a new army that I'm going to start painting in a few weeks, once my last two necron vehicles are done. Necrons have taught me quite a lot, but the one thing im still not happy with is my edge hi-lighting game. I know it would be improved if i had more patience, but it still feels like im missing something.

A lot of GW's models have multiple edge hi-light layers, getting smaller and smaller as they are layered on.

How is such a neat and razor sharp effect reached? is it just brush control, or a finer brush or something else entirely?

What consistency do you thin the paint down to? Ive tried not that thinned at all to super thinned, and I feel like when I don't thin it to levels I do when blending/layering paints, it applies much more consistently to the edge.

Yes, i believe its mostly technique, patience, time and brush control. Depending on what I paint, i try to find that right milky consistency.

Having just given myself a crash course in edge highlighting, hopefully I can help you a bit.

You want your paints to be thin, but not watery. They should be thin enough not to chalk up but thick enough that they stay where you put them and don't run.

You want to make sure that you have enough paint in your brush to have some about halfway up the bristles, then lightly dab some into a paper towel. This is so that you can paint with the side of your brush, but you won't immediately smash a thick line on the edge when you lay your brush down.

Whenever possible, paint with the side of your brush instead of the tip. Try to hold the brush at such an angle that you can't hit either side of the edge. For an awful visual representation, if this is the edge: > and this is the brush: | you want to hold your brush against the edge like this: >|

When you are getting ready to paint an edge, hold your brush near the edge at the proper angle and very lightly take some test swipes of very light pressure, increasing the pressure until you know how much you have to apply to paint the edge. You may notice that you can actually paint an edge much too thin to really even see if you don't apply enough pressure, but obviously if you apply too much it's going to fatten out.

When you are painting the edge, don't try to do the whole thing in one stroke. Just do little bits at a time while trying to keep it even.

Perhaps the most important for me personally is making sure that I am holding the model in such a way that I have easy access to the edge, and can relax all of the muscles in my hands. I place the model in my left hand and rest that hand on the table, just loosely propping the model up. You will have to rotate the model in all kinds of different ways to get all of the edges. I place the pinky of my brush hand against the table, the model, or my other hand in order to stabilize it. That in particular is what really helped me improve.

You know as simple as it sounds I never thought of doing the lines in sections instead of all at once!

I feel my problem at the moment is a lack of patience coupled with a consistency problem. Its either too blobby, which leaves a terrible blow-out at the start of the line, or too watery and just ends up not lining it at all.

More practice is needed!

Thanks guys!