Highlighting and Final Detail

For those of you just stumbling across this page, this blog was a project I did for a college course. It is left here in it's entirety in the event anyone is interested in how I paint (or at least how I used to). I hope those who find this page can get some use out of the basic painting techniques I outline here, but it is not meant to be an exhaustive guide, rather it was made to fulfill the requirements of that course.

Have a nice day!
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After finishing your basecoat, you may be wondering what else there is to do. But when comparing your new model to those that are professionally painted, you may find it looking a bit flat. This can easily be fixed by painting highlights on your model.

When light hits something, you are likely to see it the sharpest on the edges of an object, rather than on the smooth surface. To mimic these highlights, one must simply paint a lighter color on the edges where the light is caught. It is also important to use a lighter version of the color in which you base coated with. As you will see in the pictures below, for the maroon edges of my "finished" stealthsuit I used a brighter red, and on the black edges I used a blueish grey. Often you can use opportunities like this to really make your miniatures "pop" and stand out from those that only have a base coat. While it can be tempting to use a very small brush for these highlights, sometimes the best highlights can be done using the tip of a larger brush and slowly dragging it across the edges and places that stick out. Here is what a finished model should look like.

The lenses were done with a white tinge in the top left corner to show the light's reflection on them, as well as a orange followed by a yellow highlight in the opposing corner. Then the lenses were lightly touched with a gloss varnish to give them a sheen.

The white lines found on the gun, as well as the suit's head are called "sept markings" and denote which squad the team member is from. When painting your tau, you should take care to make sure the entire squad's markings match, and that they are done in the traditional color of the sept you wish to paint. They are purely for decoration purposes and as long as they are kept consistent you can have fun with them. Remember to practice your sept markings on your palette or a scrap piece of plastic before proceeding.

Lastly, it is often not a bad idea to take pictures such as these to help catch problems you may have missed with the naked eye. For example, I see numerous highlights and mistakes that could be touched up! This is common and is not something to fret about. Good luck, and happy painting!