Hey all, I have just come back from a HUGE 40K break and decided to finish off my Dire Avengers and start my Avatar. I was thinnking of making it look pretty much the same as the one in the codex but only with blue 'hair' instead of green. I was just wondering what i can do to acheive the look of the sword. I know that i have to Undercoat the sword black and then paint the runes a separate coloure but i dont know how to get the 'gradient' look on the sword where it goes orange to white.

Anybody follow?

Magia wrote:

Hey all, I have just come back from a HUGE 40K break and decided to finish off my Dire Avengers and start my Avatar. I was thinnking of making it look pretty much the same as the one in the codex but only with blue 'hair' instead of green. I was just wondering what i can do to acheive the look of the sword. I know that i have to Undercoat the sword black and then paint the runes a separate coloure but i dont know how to get the 'gradient' look on the sword where it goes orange to white. Anybody follow?

This is actually pretty easy to do, and explaining it will actually help point you in the direction that a lot of mini painters need to learn more about. Actual "painting" as an art.

First off, I'm going to give you a tip about painting that you need to learn...
Loading the brush.

Gradient transitions cannot be done properly with loading one color at a time onto a mini. Also the painting stroke should go from shallow (just the tip touching, to a mid depth (a good solid stroke) and then lift off straight up... but done along the reverse of the transition path *Do it, it'll make sense when you do it*


No, to do a proper gradient transition, you first load your brush with the color you are transitioning FROM wet, then lightly tap it out about half the bristle length on an absorbent rag or paper towel, then you load the tip of the brush with the color or colors you are tranitioning TO.

So a transition from white to orange, starts with loading white, tapping, and loading orange... and blending the transition color in the brush itself.

Here's the thing, this is the exact same technique used in painting a two toned flower in chinese stilllife paining. It's been done for hundreds of years... it works.

It's also used in japanese Sumi E painting.

Both use color paints that are very similar in consistency to mini acyrlic paints.

Get some books japanese and chinese painting styles and you'll find a wealth of ideas on how to properly apply some of the techniques used for your minis

Myself. I like using Japanese small brushes using weasel hair (called wolf hair) for painting minis because they have a lot of spring to them and naturally come to a point when wet.

The one thing about the painting tip for gradients that I gave you is that you'll frequently get paint in the ferrules of your brushes. So get some good cleaning liquid for your brushes. My #1 choice is winsor and newton brush cleaner/restorer

This stuff is literally a miracle in a bottle. It will clean the paint right off the shaft of your brush if you aren't careful, and it's non toxic and biodergradable and with low odor. It litterally restored dozens of brushes I had thought were forever unusable to like new condition... hell, some it made better than they were when they were new. I can't stress how important caring for your brushs are.