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I came across a blog by Gareth Nicholas (https://garethnicholasblog.wordpress.com/) and immediately fell in love with the way he painted his miniatures, particularly his Blood Angels.

However, he doesn't post a lot of information on how he painted them nor what paint he used. I've emailed the author asking him, but I've yet to hear back from him.

The only thing information I could find is that he uses a method called "glazing" when he paints them (I've looked at several glazing tutorials, and they're pretty cool).


Does anyone know what paints can achieve a similar or same effect??

In short, it'll be red, black, possibly a spot of dark blue, yellow, white.

Stuff like this is done with many layers of very thin paint, in very many mixes, concentrating on keeping contrast extremely high.

The precise mix of paints/ medium is more often done by eye and by feel than by a set recipe, and will vary from painter to painter. Some guys like to use a glazing medium, some guys like just tap water. Some guys like distilled, demineralised water.

There's no shortcut but lots of personal practice to be able to pull this off.

Top tips for glazing (remember these as you practice!):

1) Don't overload the brush. You want to be putting very little paint down.

2) Thin the paint so it flows nicely (skimmed milk is the byword). A medium can help cut opacity without having paint that's very runny - this is more forgiving with brush control, but can mean you need to wait longer beween layers as these mediums usually increase drying time too.

3) Use a clean brush, in good condition. Don't have bits of dried crap in it.

4) Pull, don't push. Your brushstroke goes toward the concentration point (strongest colour at end of stroke).

5) Sketch in transitions. You can glaze with midtones over where two different colours meet to soften the gradient. This allows you to roughly paint where highlights / shades / colour changes lie with more opaque paint.

6) Use a hairdryer to dry layers if you're in a hurry. Don't be tempted to add more layers too quickly, usually you'll end up lifting the layer underneath and adding an unwanted blemish to the finish.

Good tips from winterdyne there. May I just add an endorsement for Lahmian Medium from GW? It's pretty great for this kind of stuff.

Any paint can achieve this effect, this is not the work of the paint but the work of the artist. Check out this tutorial:




But you have to replace blue and light blue with red and dark red. Otherwise, study this tutorial hard, then start painting and expect alot of trial and error.