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Is this something that can be done? I've tried drybrushing Yriel Yellow->Flash Gitz-> Vallejo Model Color Light Yellow onto a Model that was given a clear glossy yellow/orange spray (Tamiya Orange Clear) and it doesn't seem to stick. Any ideas as to why?

Will not work over gloss. You would need to matte the color to take paint over top. Need to ungloss it

Why did you prime Tamiya Orange Gloss?

Some propainters varnish inbetween steps but not a gloss varnish. Vallejo Model Color Light Yellow if I recall is watery and sort of mediocre to go over.

What is the model?

 Stevefamine wrote:
Will not work over gloss. You would need to matte the color to take paint over top. Need to ungloss it

Why did you prime Tamiya Orange Gloss?

Some propainters varnish inbetween steps but not a gloss varnish. Vallejo Model Color Light Yellow if I recall is watery and sort of mediocre to go over.

What is the model?

It was an Imperial Fists test model. I had primed the model beforehand and put down Zandri Dust with a Wraithbone zenithal. Then I sprayed the Tamiya Orange Clear over top.

It came out good, but I couldn't brighten it any further with Drybrushing. I'd prefer not to simply layer (takes time to make a smooth transition) or do edge highlights (too cartoony imo), so looks like that method is a bit of a bust.

Well, fortunately I'm still planning a metalic Orange 30k Blackshields force, so I can do the Drybrushing beforehand and still get good use out of the Tamiya Orange Clear.

Thanks!

The drybrushing should be done before as stated. It won't stick well to gloss at all, and it will looks weird due to the paint not being gloss. Personally I can't stand any sort of glossiness on miniatures, but it's your scheme.

Layering is a must if you want a good scheme with any sort of contrast, and edge highlights are also a must if you want to be able to distinguish details. Don't write these techniques off as too 'X' for Y. All techniques have their place and should be considered when painting.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
The drybrushing should be done before as stated. It won't stick well to gloss at all, and it will looks weird due to the paint not being gloss. Personally I can't stand any sort of glossiness on miniatures, but it's your scheme.

Layering is a must if you want a good scheme with any sort of contrast, and edge highlights are also a must if you want to be able to distinguish details. Don't write these techniques off as too 'X' for Y. All techniques have their place and should be considered when painting.

Well I do edge highlights on Weapon casings, Trim, and the like; I just don't want it everywhere. Like, GW everywhere.

Oh, and faces/skin I absolutely layer. Details are too small for wet blending and you need a clean semi-smooth progression. Leather I bounce between drybrush and layer, depending on how worn I want it to look.

Basically, beyond a more dirty look, I'm using drybrushing when I want a smooth transition quickly, as I don't own an airbrush and I'd save stuff like wet blending for character models and smooth cloth.

You can drybrush over gloss but you have to build it up gradually. Apply a very small amount of paint, let it dry, then subsequent layers of drybrushing will build up more easily. If you try and do too much before letting it dry, you'll just end up wiping it off the raised surfaces versus letting it build up on them.

You can also start you drybrush with more of a stippling motion, and again letting that dry first before moving on to more traditional drybrushing, as that will leave a layer of rougher matte paint that the drybrush can stick onto later.

But I'm not really sure it will look any good in the context you're talking about. The Tamiya Clear paints have a lot of depth via their transparency, as the light hits them in different ways you see different colours (basically, the less thickness of paint the light passes through before reaching your eye, the more you'll see the underlying colour). So when you drybrush an opaque paint over the top, it's just going to look flat (not flat as in matte, flat as in lacking depth).

Usually with Tamiya clear paints you create your contrast in the pre-shade stage. So before you apply the clear you create the gradients you want in your undercoats, then those gradients will (somewhat) remain after applying the clear. The clear will wash out some of the gradients, so you want to overdo it to the extreme, like near black on the darker areas and near white in the lighter areas.

If you want more contrast than that achieves, usually the approach is just to weather it with rubbed off / damaged paint on the raised areas and dirt in the crevices.

Maybe you could try building up brightness by glazing on other similar clear paints (like maybe GW's "gem" paints) but I have absolutely no idea if that'd work, not something I've tried.

Clear paints tend to make use of ambient lighting, I feel they make models that look good in person but don't necessarily photograph well. Because of the way the effect is dependent in the interaction with the lights in your room which is lost on a static image.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

Usually with Tamiya clear paints you create your contrast in the pre-shade stage. So before you apply the clear you create the gradients you want in your undercoats, then those gradients will (somewhat) remain after applying the clear. The clear will wash out some of the gradients, so you want to overdo it to the extreme, like near black on the darker areas and near white in the lighter areas.

All of your post was helpful advice, so I thank you for that, but I wanted to specifically thank you for this bit here. I'm going to be using it over a gold metallic (method below) so I'll be sure to keep the gradient stark. Might even change the base color to a darker brown.

The gold will be achieved with the following (I know it works because I painted a Chaos dude based on this, see attached):

Prime: Army Painter Fur Brown

Drybrush progression: Runelord Brass->Retributor Armor->Liberator Gold->50:50 Liberator Gold : Stormhost Silver