Tutorial: Glazing = Good

So you've got a base coat or an initial wash or two on your model. You've started building up the highlights and it's looking pretty good. If you've gone this far, your model is more than tabletop worthy and is probably already impressing the local gang. Want to take it a step further and try a new technique? Then glazing may be for you.

Glazing over a model is just that - you're creating a thin and slightly tinted film of paint that will inform the colors underneath. Think of it like placing one color of stained glass over another.



Glazing is a boon when used sparingly, but watch out. Too much glazing will drain your piece of it's immediacy and impact. It's just like Xanax - sure it will get you on the plane, but take too many and you're not going to be very interesting company when you get where you're going. Too much glaze can also create a glassy effect that will rob the model of the light it's trying to reflect. I often follow a glaze with another round of slight highlights to add a bit more punch to the surface of a model. The acrylic medium you would use to create a glaze comes in many different forms with varying viscosity, sheen, etc. I prefer a fluid medium for minis. So we're all on the same page, here are links to some of the products that I like to use: Medium








To illustrate some basic glazing techniques, let's take a look at some work-in-progress shots of the Stegadon currently on the bench. The first two pictures show the model after receiving a few green and blue washes to develop a starting tone and some built up highlights to the belly. This guy is looking pretty good, but what if you would like the transition of color between the highlights to be a bit more smooth? Simple - time to mix up a glaze!

The process of making a good glaze depends on the color and how much you'd like to knock the undercoat back, but in general, a mixture of about one-third paint, one-third medium, and one-third water will be a good starting point. Unless you are going for a specific effect, glazes should go on thinly. Make sure your brush isn't overloaded and sagging with paint - using an appropriate amount will take some practice. The nice thing about glazes is that they are very forgiving. If they go on too thick, you've enough open time to work any large deposits out with your brush. One application should usually alter the color only slightly.






Let's focus back in on that Stegadon's belly. Here are shots of the model after receiving his first glaze. I mixed up a very light yellow and brushed it on over the majority of the underside. Take a look at the images after the jump and you should be able to see a distinct difference between the model after this first glaze and the previous stage with highlights only. The glaze evens out all the pronounced highlights and makes them gel together.














The glaze was starting to work, but I felt that it could benefit from one more light application. The images to the left show the result of this second pass. There's now a unified, but not entirely even and boring coat of paint. This is starting to achieve that beautiful sort of surface that comes from glazing.

Though as mentioned above, if you compare these shots of the model after a second glaze to those of the first two images with only the highlights, you can see that some of the immediacy and impact of the bold strokes of paint in the original highlights has been knocked back by the glaze. This is why I often like to finish with another layer of highlighting as shown below.










With this final step, the model comes full circle in a way. Hopefully you can see what glazing adds to the final piece. The foundation we laid down through all that painting created a rich surface on which our final highlights can ride. What if you find your final highlights are again too stark? You guessed it - glaze it back again and rework your way to the highlights!

Ultimately, glazing is one more trick in your painting bag and I hope it's one you can use. Please let me know what you got out of this article. Was it useful? Anything confusing? Could anything be better? Thanks for taking the time to make it to the bottom :)

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Tutorial: Mordor Troll

My goal in writing this is to give you an idea of my working and thought processes as a project like the Mordor Troll comes together.

As always, the model was primed white. I like both Krylon and Games Workshop spray primer, but I like the price of the former much better and used it on this project. This excellent website is a great visual reference for anything from the films and I used it again here: Lord of the Rings Image Library

Painting on the troll began with a series of controlled dark brown washes on the flesh areas. By controlled, I mean that large pools of color in places where they didn’t belong were removed with a separate dry brush that’s readied at the side of my painting area for that purpose. Thin your paint considerably – I go about 20% pigment to water, but it’s a very touchy-feely process depending on the color and will come better with experience. Getting the hang of doing clean work with thinned paint isn’t easy, but it will pay dividends once you start to master it. Think about these initial layers as your first chance to describe the model. Brush strokes should match the movement of the area being painted. For instance, paint laterally across a bulging stomach or beefy thigh; don’t just slop on a wash without thinking about how the paint is being applied and settling onto your model. The troll's back was washed an additional time to deepen the crevasses and complete the initial coloring.


I like starting from white and washing on the first few base coats because it immediately gives the model some life and quality to the paint coverage. Now that there was a rich brown base, I started building up the highlights on the skin. My paint is always thinned to about the consistency of whole milk, but not to the point of the beginning washes. The model is nicely sculpted and it's fairly clear where areas of light and shadow should go. Generally all but the most recessed areas were painted with a slightly lighter shade than the wash. Increasingly smaller surface areas were painted with increasingly lighter shades - almost like a topographical map. Where the transition wasn't smooth, I mixed up a glaze of about 30% gel medium, 40% water, and 30% paint. This was brushed on thinly and smoothly to help even out and blend the highlights together. Then, if needed, more highlights were brought back on top of this glaze. You can see the product of this in the skin tones of the face and arms of the troll. Again, let the paint help describe the shape of the model when you apply it - almost like a wire frame model. For example, the paint was applied laterally around the legs like a mummy would be wrapped. This helps define the shape of the object being painted. Take a look at the picture above left. I thought this was easier to see in black and white.


Next up was the armor. I used metallic paints, but still applied them in a non-metallic fashion in order to heighten the effect of the highlights. All the armor areas were first base coated with a bright orange. Yes - it looks terrible at first, but helps to eventually give the appearance of well-worn metal when thin metallic layers are painted over it. This was coated with GW Chainmail mixed with a small amount of black. The small pieces of the armor that I felt would receive the most wear were left orange. Paying attention to where the light would strike the figure, I highlighted up to a mix of about 1:1 Mithril silver and white. Areas that needed a bit more shadow were glazed with a mix of dark brown and black.

Details of the model were then painted. These include the fabric of the troll's tattered blue rags, gloves, and leather belts and buckles. All were done with an awareness of how light would spill across the model. The parts that would be most exposed to light were slowly brought up to a lighter shade.





I worked on the base separately. It was built up with modeling clay and covered with sand and small pebbles. A rider of Rohan was lightly converted and placed where he could be easily crushed by the pitiless metal troll. This was all primed white. Take a look at my previous basing tutorial here for some more ideas. Birch seed pods were broken apart and used for the leaf clutter. There's some great information here. Now's the time to find them outdoors - so hit those local parks! The troll was pinned into both points where his feet touch the base and a small bit of heavy duty epoxy was used to make sure he wasn't going anywhere.

I hope this gives you some insight into the model. Some pictures will be coming soon!

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A Poor Man's Oven

I'm impatient and I use modeling epoxy frequently. I also have a bad habit of sticking my thumb right into a painstakingly crafted sculpt that is not yet dry. Are you in this boat as well? No!?... Then go hang out on this website with my wife: (i like to party)

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For the handful of you not distracted by the lifestyles of the wealthy and woebegone - I present to you, a can. This will become our oven and mine originally held 30 oz of beans. If you can still find coffee in one of these, buy it, throw out or freebase the contents, and get to work.

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Is that Darth Vader's nerdish brother?

Safety first with projects like these. I'll be using a rotary tool to cut into this thick can and the fumes and flash can get unpleasant. Respirator and cool-goggles are a must. See here for the repercussions of doing this with another in the area.

I want a door for my creations and a vent for the heat - this cut will accomplish both.

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Finally, a cheap-o incandescent lamp is mounted above the can. Voila! One poor man's oven. The heat can be controlled by moving the light source away from the can - what a feature! I find that positioning it about 2" above the lid and cooking for 10 minutes gets the piece to the point that an errant finger won't mangle a fresh sculpt. Be careful - too much heat and your greens can melt.

Don't try to heat up any nachos in here after baking your epoxy sculpts either. That's not healthy.

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Basing 201

The tried and true bases made of sand, painted in increasingly lighter brown colors, and finished with a hint of static grass are a functional way to dress up large numbers of core units. You can see some examples of these in the Dwarf of my earlier posts. I wanted to add more interest and higher relief to the bases of the larger critters in my Lizardmen army. What follows is a step-by-step walkthrough of how I tried to accomplish this - missteps and all. Follow along and succeed where I half-succeeded, intrepid reader!

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Here's the Kroxigor on the table today. The pose and bulk of these older 5th edition models is great. Looking at the model gave me a sense of how I wanted the scene to play out. The mini seemed to be asking for some space to look menacing, so he was placed in the back corner.

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Taking a fine Sharpie in hand, I next drew out a map of where key elements in the base would be situated. Not look like much yet? Stick with me!

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Taking a step sideways, I decided that some bits of ruined civilization might look nice out there in the jungle. Time to make some cobblestone. Green stuff was flattened out on a piece of glass with a bit of Vaseline underneath to keep from sticking.

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This was scored with a knife and beaten up a bit to look more weathered. Just push in the corners of some stones and make some dents here and there.


I like to use natural rocks and you can see some bits of slate arranged along the lines that were drawn. These are glued down with super-glue and covered in some air-drying clay where I didn't want the tops of the rocks jutting out.

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After the green stuffed cobblestone sheet has cured, some pieces were broken off and incorporated into the base. I wanted them to look a bit sunken into the landscape, so some more clay was built up around them.


One of my favorite new basing elements was also employed beginning in this picture: moss! The three piles of fine sand glued to the top of the right-hand rock formation might not look like much at the moment, but they will bloom into something much more interesting shortly.

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In comes the priming. The rocks and cobblestone have been painted a flat black, and the moss a deep brown.

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The rocks are beginning to come alive with some lighter and lighter shades of grey. I start with a medium gray that's applied liberally, and work up to a shade closer and closer to pure white, highlighting smaller and smaller areas on the rocks. Think of where light would naturally be hitting the features of your base and focus on lightening those parts.

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This was the first time I tried water effects. I originally thought a deep blue base would be appropriate, but changed my mind mid-stream (ouch! I know I know) and switched to brown. Ahhh... much more fitting for a little river.

The moss is looking good after being drybrushed in greens. They begin with a deep forest green and finish with a very light shade that is about 75% white and 25% green. Allow each layer to dry in between applications and paint an increasingly smaller area as you move up. This moss has about 5 passes in it.

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Next I did some tests on the color water I wanted to use. Only a very small amount of paint is added. I touched the tip of a size 1 brush into the color I wanted and mixed it into a dollop of product about the size of a half-dollar. Both of the colors depicted above looked great to me, so I tried to incorporate both into the little stream. My idea was to place one color at each end and seamlessly blend them into each other in the middle.

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Here you can see the result: meh! The brown base seemed to mute the effect (and I believe it is even further muted by the photograph). It was apparent, but very subtle. As the material dried, it became more clear and did have a really beautiful translucent effect as you looked through the water into the riverbed. While the 'water' was still wet, I placed some tall grass into the mix - this is a useful product, but can be a bit clumsy with which to work. A pair of tweezers is very helpful.

The stream seemed a bit shallow after one pass, so I did another with the same blue-tinted composition. This took away the nice effect of being able to see the riverbed - my greatest regret with this piece. On the next attempt, I will use a less intense blue paint in the mix, and less paint in general.

That being said I'm very happy with the way this first effort turned out. The base was dressed up with some cattails and some clump foliage.

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A weak stream.. just like grandpa

Stay tuned for the finished piece- Kroxigor and all.

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