Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I recently discovered the miracle technique of using spirit/oil washes to get that super-clean look you see on GW models. The ability to just magically erase overspill kind of broke my mind with awesome.

This got me thinking - the other part of painting I dread is edge highlighting. It's so frigging easy to screw it up I always go super conservative. But I'm wondering if I'd have the same magic "cleanup" ability if I used a spirit/oil mix to do the edging. Anyone tried this?

Considering oils are super vibrant compared to acrylics then I guess if you find the right tone you can use them for edge highlighting. Just don't thin them down to wash consistency.

Ive not seen this done but would be interested if you ever experiment. Check out my article edits for an article on using oil paints - there might be some bgeneral advice yoi find helpful. Most oil work i have seen has been making things more realistic and edge highlighting is not that commonlu seen outside of wear...

You might find it hard on such a small sacle at first but the long working time would help.

Just remember to seal your model first of the thinner will eat your acrylics. Then dry fpr about 3 days then seal again to protect the oil layer.

Try using coloured pencils instead.
You will need to varnish them as you go as they will rub off otherwise.

The thing with oil paints is they are quite thick. To paint with them you need to thin them down quite a bit. This results is a coverage that is most comparable to inks. That is you get great color intensity, but not so much coverage. Doing the edge highlighting would require several coats with sufficient time between for the coats to dry. I do not think it would be effective.

However if you want to use oil for natural shades and highlights I think it can work quite well. Here are a few examples of things I have done with oils;

The highlighting and shading on this guy, around the rocks we all done in oils;



All the shading here was done with oils;



On these IF's the yellow highlights and dark shading were oils;



The blues and yellows on this Librarian were done in oils;



In fact on all my IF's the yellow highlighting and shading was done with oils;





And finally Lysander was done mostly in oil as well. Only the yellow really, the blues I did in acrylic;




So oil paints are really versatile, I just think they work better with gradual shading than stark contrast. I would be happily proved wrong, experimenting with it would be the best way to find out.

Ashton