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Hey there, a buddy of mine just picked up some board games with some awesome minis and asked me to paint them for him. The kickstarted games(or at least 1 of them), came with the option for sun drop zenithal priming. I have not worked with zenithal highlights before, but since the games haven't come in I figured I'd start researching and practicing. I have an airbrush but have only used it for basecoating and I'm not really comfortable with it. I always rattle can prime stuff and do everything via brush. Any links or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Are you looking for advice on zenithal priming via airbrush? Because if so, Youtube has a million tutorials available. That's always my go-to resource when I need information on painting miniatures. It's helpful to see the process in action. Seriously, search "airbrush zenithal prime" and you'll find at least a dozen results.

Next step, if you're not comfortable with your airbrush, is to do some research and learn some tips and tricks. Again, Youtube is great for this. Learn how to assemble and disassemble your airbrush so that you can clean it more easily if you need to. Get some older minis and just start practicing - prime them, try out various colors, and so on. You can always strip them later.

I know my advice basically comes down to "watch a lot of Youtube", but honestly for me at least that's a great way to learn, since I get to see what's happening instead of just reading the steps.

So zenithal priming at its base level is there to help you with your highlight and shadow placement on a model and it acts as a canvas that helps you see the mini more clearly as black primed minis tend to be harder to see. When you prime this way, you can take photos as reference points for your painting down the line as you get a fairly decent idea of where the light hits a model from a static point, which you won't have the advantage of when you're moving your mini around as you paint. Rattle cans can be used, but be aware light coats can be grainy from a can and if you don't want textures I'd recommend zenithal priming with an airbrush. A lot of people swear by white ink as it's a very smooth and glossy application but you can get better effects with Tamiya acrylic lacquer paint. If you don't have either, stick with a rattle can, I wouldn't torture anyone trying to spray normal white paint through an airbrush.

Miniac does a decent short video explaining it but there are others who are more technical like Vince Venturella who go hard on explanations



If you're using an airbrush (or indeed a brush), the zenithal prime can act as a fast pre-shade for your minis and acts as a base to modulate the colours you put on top.

Some examples using a zenithal prime as a preshade:



Hope this helps, I highly recommend base coating with an airbrush as a zenithal prime can make your stuff look decent without any real work!