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Alright, I am a Super Noob at painting Mini's. As of now I have painted only my Zombicide games and Blood Rage but I wasn't too worried about there paint job. Right now I am painting my Super Dungeon Explore collection and I want these to be the best they can be. I have been kinda following the Miniature Painting 101 from Miniwargamer Jay. Right now I am getting to the point where I need to add a glaze. I watched his video and he uses colored glazes on his figure. You can watch that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzaxN4J69s0&t=67s
Now I went to hobby stores like Michael's and Jo Anns and of course they dont have anything like that. I would go to my local card and game store but there is none around. Now when I started looking up online of what to buy I found things like this: https://www.amazon.com/Vallejo-Acrylic-Paint-Glaze-Medium/dp/B000PHBES0 But the problem is it doesn't have color to it. Or is that not a problem? I am going to attach pics of a werewolf I am working on. You'll see that the purple is not fully blended with the gray beneath. My idea was to use a purple glaze to blend that together. What should I do? What should I buy? What do you recommend?

Games Workshop's 'Druchi Violet' is a purple shade which should tie it together nicely.

It's also a bit darker than your purple, so it would add some shading.

A glaze is a very thin paint. So just water down a paint a lot and there you go!

Acrylic medium can be used to make a glaze just like water. It's probably better as the paint won't "break up" like with water. You'd need to toy with the consistency.

I'd do some testing. Your model looks good!

PossumCraft wrote:
Games Workshop's 'Druchi Violet' is a purple shade which should tie it together nicely.

It's also a bit darker than your purple, so it would add some shading.

I see you recommended a shade from games workshop. is there a difference between a shade and a glaze? In an early step I had already used nuln oil shade.


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 3orangewhips wrote:
A glaze is a very thin paint. So just water down a paint a lot and there you go!

Acrylic medium can be used to make a glaze just like water. It's probably better as the paint won't "break up" like with water. You'd need to toy with the consistency.

I'd do some testing. Your model looks good!

THANK YOU! So just to clarify, if I was to purchase an acrylic medium, I just add it with some paint until I get the consistency I want?

Im not really up on the shade/glaze difference so I can't answer that.

For what you described, the shade would do the job though.
At the same time, using a medium like Lahmium Medium or the one you linked, with some paint added, would do the same job.

glazes are thin paints as mentioned above, that are used to blend your shading of a colour together... eg if you use multiple layers of progressively lighter blue for a highlight, put a blue glaze over it and it will make any layer distinctions less noticeable, helping to create a smoother blend. they cann also be used to add tints and create different effects over other colours. a shade is just that..shading, eg it will find the recesses and sit in them.

Be careful adding a medium to acrylic paint. These will lower your pigment ratio, so you may find the paint takes more or thicker coats to cover - this will cover fine details.

You should start with a fine base coat - any primer will do. Then use a mixing plate to add your paint and just a drop of water, if needed, to get the paint to be nice and fluid.

The Nuln Oil Wash is great to set the recessed areas darker. You can also use other wash colors. Experimenting with different colors is kind of fun for me. For instance, if I have red and I want a deep, musty red, I would just use a different color wash that if I wanted a nice, bright red, etc. You can also add a bit of water to washes to lighten them a bit if you find them too dark.

After a base coat and a wash to set the recesses, you are ready for a quick dry brush highlight. Then you are done!

The difference between a wash (what GW likes to call "shades") and a glaze is often down to how it's applied.

As others have mentioned, a wash is applied more heavily, so that the thin consistency can run and pool into creases and crevices in the model, creating a shadowed effect.

A glaze uses a similar consistency, but is applied more thinly over the entire surface. Rather than wanting it to pool, the glaze is applied so it creates a smooth tint over the whole area.

Glaze Medium is handy for a couple reasons. While you can thin down paint with water to create a glaze, you're not just thinning down the pigment in the paint - you're also diluting the binder that holds the paint together. This can cause the glaze to dry with a patchy or chalky appearance. Glaze Medium contains more binder, so it can thin the pigment without creating this problem. It also contains other additives to help the glaze apply smoothly and dry a bit more slowly when it's applied thinly over the miniature.

It also makes the glazes a bit easier to apply, since the medium is thicker than ordinary water but will still thin down the pigment. Since the glaze will still be transparent but behaves a bit more like a paint, it's easier to apply over the surface without it pooling up like a thinner wash would.

In your photo above, a purple glaze should do a fine job blending together the line between the grey and the purple areas. You could use something straight out of the pot like Druchii Violet, or thin down some ordinary purple paint with Glaze Medium (and maybe a little water). It's best to start subtle, and add additional layers of glaze if you want to strengthen the purple tint.

Hope that helps! Happy painting!