Some time ago I picked up an airbrush and compressor but, other than a couple of pieces of terrain, I haven't really experimented with it. So, let's see what it can do...
I'm going to try a few different airbrushing techniques on some plastic marines and an old Bloodletter. Although I undercoated all the models in black, ideally I'd use a grey primer but I only have the Games Workshop spray primers at the moment.
Pre-shade zenithal highlighting
This technique involves using the airbrush to apply highlights as a light source would. It's pretty straight forward and, basically, just involves spraying from the top downwards.
Rather than go in directly with a colour I "pre-shaded" with a couple of shades of grey, which naturally highlight the blue when it's applied.
Bulk technique
Next is a method I'd use if I were painting multiple models in the same scheme. I start with a base coat of blue, then apply a couple of highlights on the high points.
Colour zenithal
This is the same as the first technique but I just jump straight in with colour. I started with a red-brown for the deep shadow and then used zenithal with a couple of reds to build up the highlights.
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| The models. I don't even remember where I got them from... |
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| Standard GW Black primer |
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| Left marine was zenithal painted with grey and blue, middle pair of marines were just painted flat blue and the bloodletter was given a brown base coat and then zenithal painted with a dark red. I had real trouble getting the paint consistency correct but with a just a little practice I'm already much better. |
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| Left marine given a zenithal highlight with a lighter blue, the other marines were highlighted in a more traditional way using the airbrush, picking out the high points, the same with red on the Bloodletter. Unfortunately, the very nature of this effect makes it very hard to see from this angle! |
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| Despite the running drips of paint when I added too much water to the mix, the zenithal effect is much clearer. This is a rather different look to the traditional GW style of painting but definitely recognisable as an "airbrush technique" |
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| The Bloodletter was always the last model I worked on at each stage so he ended up being much better painted than the marines (plus a nicer sculpt helped a lot). The shading came out really nicely on his arms especially |
Of course, these models aren't tabletop ready yet, the details all need to be painted in by hand in the normal way but I'm really please on how the effects turned out and, once I'd got the hang of the airbrush and paint mixture, progress was a lot faster and the quality a lot higher than trying to do the same thing with a normal brush.
For those interested, I used all GW paints and distilled water as a thinner (the kind used for ironing clothes) rather than window cleaner or anything else too unpleasant. My airbrush, compressor and all the accessories just over £100 including postage. Unfortunately, the company I ordered from don't seem to do the same package any more but it's the cheap, unbranded Chinese type that you can get from ebay or Amazon (if you live in the right countries).
I also wanted to point towards Buypainted. He's a commission painter but has kindly posted a number of video tutorials on how to paint specific models. He really inspired me to get an airbrush and his videos are great for seeing professional technique in action!
If you have any advice, questions or if you've tried airbrushing and have some experience to share, please leave a comment!
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