Five Billion Thin Coats

I have heard it said that red is a hard color to paint. With my Adeptus Mechanicus army, this difficulty is combined with the fact that cloth is also hard to paint. Over the course of the last year, however, I think I've finally created a method that gets me pretty good results, so I figure I'll share it with you.

Step One: Zenithal Highlighting

 

Shown here with the basecoat on, but you can get the picture. Zenithal highlighting means taking a model, priming it with a dark color, then adding a lighter color from the top. When you apply the semi-translucent basecoat, some of the light shines through, giving you a little boost when you start laying down the lighter layers later.

I believe that this technique is sometimes called "undercoating."

Step Two: Basecoat and Shade

No picture here, because who doesn't know how to put down a basecoat and slop a wash on it? For my dudes, I'm using Citadel's Khorne Red and shading it with Carroburgh Crimson. Make sure to think out the Khorne Red a little so its semi-opaque, otherwise the zenithal highlighting will have been a waste of time.

Step Three: Thin Coats

The next thing I do is many thin coats of Wazzdaka Red.

Many thin coats.

So many thin coats.

More thin coats than you thought humanly possible.

Normally, I'd use the coats on edges and upper surfaces, but because of the shape of these coats, I like to alternate between thin edge highlights and thin, almost wash-level applications over pretty much the entire surface. The way thin paint tends to pool on these coats reinforces, rather than washing out, the way light would pool on the flared bottoms of the coats and has the added benefit of smoothing the transition between the different levels of light - cloth has notoriously smooth transitions, which is part of what makes it harder to paint than armor plates.

It will take many thin coats to achieve this effect. Put on a podcast, have a couple of other projects on hand to work on while they dry, and be ready to add layers over the course of several days.

Step Four: Edge Highlight

The last thing you want to do is add some edge highlighting to make the folds of cloth really pop.

I think he looks pretty good, if I do say so myself!

Airbrush or Hairbrush?

The last thing I should do is admit that I am a recalcitrant weirdo. A lot of people have told me that it's easier to get this effect with an airbrush, to which I say... so?

Personally, airbrushes aren't ideal for me for a variety of reasons: my wife has asthma so I would have to be scrupulous about setting up an (expensive) ventilation system, I tend to paint in little spurts rather than sitting down for a long time, and airbrushes rely on numerous finicky and breakable components, which just plain irritates the hell out of me.

And of course, I think I've gotten pretty good with the conventional brush. You'll have to be the one to judge.