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I hate edge highlighting I give my best to paint a mini, and when it comes to edge highlighting i blow it. The paint is to thin, to thick, the line gets uneven, etc. When i manage to do a line just fine i have to wash the brush because the paint has dried, and then i usually screw something up. I just cant get a consistent quality. Is there an easy way to do it ?

What kind of paint do you use? If it's a decent acrylic then the best advice I can give you is to thin your paints with water but don't thin them too much. Achieve the right balance that works for you. Then make sure you have the right amount on your brush. I tend to wipe my brush on my thumb to give it a sharp point and to remove some of the paint however most people sue their palette for that purpose.

Also, remember to shake your paints really well before using them. Even if you used them just yesterday.

I find when edge-highlighting the first pass doesn't need to be perfectly neat or even at all; when I'm painting black, for instance, the first pass with a medium grey can have pretty ragged edges and it doesn't show up at all from a distance. The second pass with the light grey corner/hard-edge highlight does need to be neat, but don't worry about making sure everything is picture-perfect under a magnifying glass and you'll find it a lot easier.

As for paint consistency I will second CustomLime's suggestion; use a palette and water/medium, and spend some time practicing getting the mixture right. We can't give you a magic formula for making sure your paint is just right, you're going to need to practice and build up the intuitive understanding of how the paint behaves.

I am using citadel paints. Problem is getting the mixture right, getting the right amount on the brush, to get an even line on the edge, and to do all of that consistently. I guess i need to keep trying over and over again.

If the line being uneven is an issue for you don't be afraid to take the base/previous color and "erase" the extra line.

I know it's irritating to hear, but this is the kind of thing that comes down to practice, practice, practice.

You can cheat it somewhat, by using the base color to clean up the edge highlight when it goes astray, though.

If you're having issues with paint drying on the brush sometimes it's because you're using too small of a brush.

Also try thinning with Vallejo glaze medium or a flow improver with some drying retarder.

Flow improver helps paint flow smoothly off the brush, widening the window of acceptable viscosities, drying retarder will keep the paint at that consistency for longer. Glaze medium has drying retarder already in it so sometimes that's good too.

And of course practice, but don't hesistate to figure out ways of making your life easier as well

A wet pallette, flow improver and drying retarder will all help if you are edge highlighting a lot of minis at once.

I keep my paints fairly thin and wash the brush frequently. You can't do many lines in a row without the paint drying on you. I agree that using a wet palette, even if it's just wet paper towel with a piece of parchment paper, helps to keep control of the consistency of paint.

Practice always makes perfect. And as others have said you can always clean up your highlights if you really mess 'em up.

Personally I just prefer not to. I find it tedious. There are plenty of ways to make your models look good without using the standard GW method of base-layer-edge highlight-shade. I've been starting with a light colour and working down, using darker layers and multiple shades instead of starting in the middle and working up with highlights/down with shades.

Or you could just drybrush.

Drybrush and trim in the highlights to clean them up?

I'm still not great at it myself but I find just making lines on your palette gives you some muscle memory on how much pressure/paint you need. Same with actually painting on the mini you'll just start to do better if you try to analyse what's happening as you do it.

A good cheat is to buy a set of water-soluble colour pencils (like these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coloured-Watercolour-Colouring-US-Sense/dp/B075R5SX5B/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1528719345&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=watercolour+pencils&psc=1) then use the edge of the pencil to do your edges. You will have to varnish your models after though.
Also - are you using the edge of your paint brush? Are you using a decent paint brush (pure sable)?

Do you use the tip of the brush or the side? Using the side allows you to run along an edge perfectly without having to control the "depth" of the stroke because it won't go further.

I am using the side, but you cant do that everywhere.

 p5freak wrote:
I am using the side, but you cant do that everywhere.

Hey, I'm having the exact same difficulty as you. It's really frustrating on my eldar because most of the edges are too shallow to be painted with the side of the brush and using the tip makes the lines look crooked and ugly. The paint dries too fast and everything. My buddy paints all his highlights with the tip of his brush and they look nice so I'm sure it's just a matter of practicing until you can get an intuitive feel for how hard to push the brush. Then once you get the hang of it, I'm sure the paint won't dry as often because it won't take as long to complete each stroke.

What are you painting?

It may sound bit paradoxical, but you need a large brush capable of holding a good amount of paint on it before drying up rather than a detail brush.

Size 2 is a start - I use size 4. Sables typically hold paints better and also hold a fine tip better than synthetics.

Another tip is to add more gradients to the edge highlighting - i.e. for black armor, for black > dark grey> slightly less dark grey> light grey> white, rather than going from black, to grey to white directly. Having more gradients will make the mistakes look less bad.

 Kharneth wrote:

What are you painting?

Right now necron wraith and destroyers.

 p5freak wrote:

 Kharneth wrote:

What are you painting?

Right now necron wraith and destroyers.

Good luck!