Dakkapedia
Painting techniques
The advanced companion to our faction paint recipes: a how-to deep dive on the techniques that take a model from tabletop to display, from edge highlighting and blending through NMM, weathering, basing, airbrushing and sealing.
Paints & consistency
Know the Citadel rangesReach for Base paints to block in main colours over primer, Layer paints to highlight raised areas, Shade for instant recess shadow, Contrast for one-coat work over light primer, and Technical for effects like texture, rust and snow. A beginner kit of Base plus Layer plus Shade already covers most jobs.
Use the alternativesArmy Painter Warpaints Fanatic gives conventional layering with pre-grouped triads (a shadow-to-highlight set per colour), while Speedpaint 2.0 is a one-coat Contrast rival. Vallejo Model Color is muted and realistic; Game Color is more vibrant and rub-resistant for gaming pieces, and both intermix freely.
Thin to milk consistencyPaint from the pot is too thick and fills detail. Thin it on a palette one drop at a time until it flows like milk (skim milk for thinner layers) and a thumbnail stroke is faintly translucent. Use distilled water or, for heavier thinning, a thinning medium so you do not break the binder.
Always two thin coatsLay each colour in two thin coats rather than one thick one. The first coat looks patchy; let it dry fully and the second staggers and fills the gaps for smooth, even coverage that keeps the sculpted detail crisp. Stubborn colours like yellow and white may need a third pass.
Work off a wet paletteSit a damp sponge under baking parchment in a sealable tray so water wicks up and keeps your paint at milk consistency for hours. Pour off excess water so the foam is damp, not flooded (if paint beads it is too wet), and dry the foam after each session to stop mould.
Priming
Brush vs spray vs airbrushSpray cans are cheapest and fastest for whole armies but are weather-sensitive and need ventilation. Brush-on primer needs zero setup and suits single models and touch-ups but can leave marks if thick. An airbrush gives the thinnest, most controlled coat indoors at the cost of kit and cleanup.
Pick the primer colourBecause base paints are slightly translucent, the primer tints everything: white for bright, saturated schemes; black to mute colours, deepen shadows and boost metallics; grey as the safe neutral and the base for Contrast. Priming in the army's dominant colour skips the first basecoat.
Zenithal undercoatPre-bake light and shadow into the primer by spraying black all over, then grey from about 45 degrees above onto the top two-thirds, then white pointed straight down onto only the highest 20-30 percent. This black-to-white value map shades the model before any colour goes on and is what makes Contrast read as shaded in one coat.
Slapchop undercoatThe brush-only version of zenithal: prime black, drybrush mid-grey from above, then drybrush white gently onto the highest points only. Keep the white restrained, since over-drybrushing leaves a chalky texture that shows through the translucent colour you glaze on top.
Layering & edge highlighting
Build colour in layersApply each lighter coat over slightly less area than the last, staying inside the previous layer so a rim of the darker coat shows in recesses and around edges. That stacked, shrinking series of colours creates the illusion of form; two coats per layer keeps each one smooth.
Load the brush rightUse a size 1 or 0 round with a good point and load only the first third of the bristles with no excess, or the highlight floods over the edge. Thin the paint so it is thinner than from the pot but still opaque in a single pass, and test the line on your thumbnail first.
Use the side of the brushLay the side of the brush tip flat against the raised edge and drag along it rather than drawing with the point. The flat of the bristle deposits paint only on the ridge it rides over, which is far more controllable than trying to trace the edge with the tip.
Hold near 90 degreesKeep the brush nearly perpendicular to the edge for the thinnest possible line, or drop to about 45 degrees for a wider highlight. Pull short strokes toward yourself with light, even pressure, bracing your elbows on the desk and holding brush and model close together.
Build to extreme highlightsRun one highlight colour along every relevant edge first, then a lighter colour on a smaller set of uppermost corners and focal points, and finally the brightest extreme highlight only on the very tips and corners. Skip downward-facing, shadowed edges or hit them far more subtly.
Edit with the base colourTreat highlighting as an editing pass, not a one-shot. If a line floods or wobbles, reload the brush with the original base colour, clean the edge back, and re-do the highlight. The tidy 'Eavy Metal look is built by paint-and-correct, not flawless single strokes.
Blending
FeatheringSmooth a transition by hand: thin the new colour to a glaze, place it at the boundary, then drag it back with a light zig-zag mopping stroke so it thins and fades into the colour beneath. Build over several translucent passes, drying between each, rather than trying to cover in one.
GlazingFloat very thin, translucent paint (mixed with glaze medium, not just water) over an area to shift its hue, re-tint after highlighting, or soften a transition. Wipe excess so it never pools, work over progressively smaller areas for a gradient, and dry between coats.
Wet blendingMix two colours directly on the model while both are wet: apply the first, place the second next to it leaving a small gap, then pull the wet edges together in the gap with a clean damp brush until the boundary vanishes. Use a retarder to extend working time, work fast, and stop before over-mixing turns it muddy.
Two-brush blendingRun two brushes at once: one applies the new colour at the boundary while a second, slightly damp brush immediately drags and softens the wet edge into the colour below. It is the controlled, on-the-fly way to feather a transition without flooding the area.
Drybrushing & stippling
Drybrush raised detailDip an old, stiff brush in near-undiluted paint, wipe almost all of it off on a towel until it barely marks, then sweep lightly across raised detail like edges, rivets, fur and chainmail so pigment catches the high points and recesses stay dark. Build with many light passes for a smooth graduated highlight; a wash over the top tidies any grain.
Stipple for textureLoad a stiff brush the same near-dry way, but dab the tip straight down onto the surface to leave random dots. Use it to add grit and texture, or to break up the boundary between two colours into a soft, speckled transition instead of a hard line.
Shading & washes
Recess shade with a pin washRather than washing the whole panel, touch a fine detail brush loaded with shade into a recess or panel line and let the wash's flow run it along the channel on its own. This keeps raised surfaces clean and avoids tide marks, which is why it is preferred on vehicles and large flats.
Control the poolingMake sure base colours are fully dry first, then work in small sections and keep a clean damp rescue brush to wick excess off flats before it dries (the single biggest defence against tide marks). Tilt the model so the target recess sits lowest, and thin with flow improver or matte medium instead of water to break surface tension.
Try oil and enamel washesFor vehicles and big panels, an oil or enamel wash thinned with mineral spirits stays workable for hours and wipes cleanly off flats. Seal the acrylic under gloss or satin varnish first (never matte), pin-wash the recesses, wait a few minutes, then wipe the flats with a spirit-dampened brush, leaving the wash only in the recesses.
Speed methods
Contrast one-coatFlood a generous, confident coat of Contrast or Speedpaint over a light primer (warm Wraithbone or cool Grey Seer) and let the medium carry pigment off raised areas and pool it dark in the recesses for base, shade and some highlight in a single pass. Do not go back into a drying coat, and wick any pooling on flats. See the faction paint page for full per-army recipes.
SlapchopCombine a drybrushed black-to-white greyscale with translucent colour: prime black, drybrush mid-grey from above, drybrush white on the highest points, then glaze Contrast or Speedpaint over the top so the built-in shadows and highlights read through. A practised painter can hit solid tabletop in under twenty minutes.
DippingBlock in flat basecoats, then dip or brush a tinted Quickshade over the whole model to shade everything in one action. The critical step is flicking off all the excess before it pools into brown sludge; cure for 24 hours, then matte varnish since the dip dries very glossy.
Advanced & display
NMM steelFake cool metal by exaggerating value contrast with hard transitions, not soft gradients. Basecoat in Dark Reaper, push black into deep recesses, layer Thunderhawk Blue then Fenrisian Grey onto lit areas with a sharp light-meets-shadow line, and reserve Blue Horror and White Scar for extreme hotspots and the razor glint on cutting edges.
NMM goldRun a warm brown-to-yellow ladder: basecoat Mournfang Brown, shadow with Rhinox Hide (plus black for the deepest cores), layer Skrag Brown then Zamesi Desert on lit surfaces, highlight Yriel Yellow then Flash Gitz Yellow, and finish the brightest point with a warm ivory like Screaming Skull. If it looks like brown cloth, your shadows are not dark enough.
OSL light logicPaint as if a source on the model casts coloured light onto nearby surfaces, and let its position (not overhead) decide what is lit. Brightness falls off fast, so glaze the most coats nearest the source and fewer further out, keep the source itself the brightest near-white thing, and use restraint since overdone OSL just reads as a smudge.
TMM shadingThin true-metallic basecoats so the heavy flakes do not bury detail, then force contrast: shade recesses with a dark wash (Nuln Oil for silver, brown for gold) or a non-metallic dark glaze, work a brighter metallic back over lit areas, and reserve the brightest metallic for edges and blade tips only. Gloss before the wash makes metallics shade more smoothly.
FreehandAlmost nobody freehands in one stroke; they sketch then refine. Paint the area fully first, sketch the design in light pencil or thinned paint, then build the design in two or three thin passes, tidying edges by cutting back with the base colour and seating it in with a faint highlight or shade so it is not a flat sticker.
EyesWash thinned black over the whole socket, lay a thin off-white (not stark white) almond across each eye leaving black above and below as lids, then dot a tiny black pupil centred in each sliver, aligning both so the gaze matches. Clean up the shape with the skin basecoat; painting eyes first lets you redo freely.
Gems & lensesDark-basecoat the whole lens, then light only the bottom half progressively while keeping the top dark (a gem catches light at the bottom, the inverse of a solid surface). Add a bright spot in the bottom corner, a tiny pure-white dot in the opposite upper corner, and gloss varnish the gem for a wet, reflective sparkle.
Weathering
Sponge chippingTear (do not cut) a small piece of foam, load it with dark brown for the chip body, and unload almost all of it on a towel until the print is light and irregular before dabbing onto leading edges, corners and wear points. Unloading is the key step; for a two-tone look, sponge a little metallic inside the dark chips once they dry.
Brush chippingWith a size 0-1 brush paint thin, irregular dark-brown scratches, then add a metallic dot offset slightly below for the exposed core and optionally a thin highlight-colour line above for a three-tone raised lip. Keep chips small and concentrated on leading and front surfaces.
Hairspray methodLay rust or bare metal underneath, coat with chipping medium or hairspray, then add the top armour colour. Reactivate with a wet brush and scrub where you want wear: damp for subtle, wet plus pressure for heavy, or a toothpick for individual chips revealing the layer beneath.
RustFor quick rust, apply Typhus Corrosion over exposed metal then drybrush Ryza Rust; for control, base Rhinox Hide, stipple an orange, and add tiny yellow-orange dots for fresh rust. Place it where water sits (lower edges, around rivets, bottoms of scratches) and remember rust streaks always run downward.
Enamel streakingPull a short vertical enamel streak down from a rivet or hatch, wait about ten minutes, then drag it downward with a brush dampened in enamel thinner for a gravity-pulled, naturally fading stain. The acrylic version is a thin dark-brown glaze in vertical lines that widen downward; two or three thin streaks beat ten heavy ones.
Weathering powdersApply dry mineral powders by drybrushing a loaded soft brush, tapping into recesses, or stippling, and mix with white spirit into a paste for heavy mud or rust. Place them low (hull, tracks, exhausts, boots) and fix with a light matte spray or pigment fixer over a matte surface, since powder will not grip gloss.
RestraintLet logic and gravity decide placement: dirt low, rust where water pools, streaks down, chips on leading edges, never uniform grime everywhere. Aim for roughly 10-15 percent coverage on a veteran or 20-30 percent on a wreck, build in thin layers, and combine two or three complementary effects rather than one heavy one.
Basing
Texture pasteSpread a Citadel texture paste with an old brush or small spatula, keeping it off the feet and rim. Let it dry an hour or two, wash it (Nuln Oil or Agrax) into the grit, drybrush progressively lighter to pick out the texture, then add a tuft and paint the rim. This is the roughly five-minute-per-model route.
Sand & PVABrush PVA on the base and sprinkle on a mix of sand and gravel grit sizes. Dry overnight, seal with a 50/50 PVA-water wash so nothing sheds, then prime, basecoat brown, wash, and drybrush lighter earth tones.
Slate & corkTear cork board into chunks by hand for cliff-like strata, glue with superglue, and fill the gaps with PVA and sand before priming and painting greys up to near-white. Real broken slate gives sharper strata; build sand and texture around it so it sits flush with the base.
Tufts & static grassPeel tufts off their backing and press on with a dab of PVA or superglue, placing fewer than you think near rocks and corners. For static grass, brush PVA, sprinkle, and press; a battery applicator charges the fibres so they stand upright for the realistic look.
Water effectsFor larger pools, paint the bed dark first for depth and pour two-part epoxy resin in thin self-levelling layers, stippling a clear gel on top for ripples. For small puddles use a still-water product tinted with ink or brown, since uncoloured it just looks shiny, and darken the surrounding ground for a damp edge.
SnowUse a snow paste like Valhallan Blizzard straight from the pot for clumpy frost or thinned for smooth drifts, building in patches that are thicker in sheltered nooks. Apply over a gloss coat and add a faint blue wash around the edges for cold shadow; a budget mix is PVA and baking soda.
Paint the rimAfter everything else, paint the base edge a clean, solid colour in one tidy ring (Abaddon Black is the most common). A sloppy rim undoes good basing, and using a consistent ground tone, tufts and rim colour across the whole army ties disparate units together.
Airbrushing
Kit basicsStart with a dual-action, gravity-feed airbrush (trigger down for air, back for paint) and a 0.3-0.5 mm nozzle: around 0.3 mm as an all-rounder, 0.4-0.5 mm for primer and large areas. A compressor with a tank gives steady, pulse-free pressure, and a moisture trap keeps water out of your spray.
Thin to milk or thinnerThin airbrush paint thinner than for a brush, from milk down to skim milk: skim for fine detail and blends, whole milk for base coats. Use airbrush thinner plus a few drops of flow improver rather than plain water, which breaks the binder and causes tip dry.
Set the PSIRun roughly 12-16 PSI for detail and blends, 15-25 for general work and base coats, and 20-30 or more for primer and large surfaces. Lower pressure gives finer control; higher pressure pushes thicker paint and primer.
Troubleshoot tip-dry and spideringTip dry (sputter from paint crusting on the needle, worse with metallics) is fixed by wiping the needle, adding flow improver and dropping pressure. Spidering (a blob with running legs) means the paint is too thin or you are too close or too high-pressure, so pull back, lower the PSI, and thicken the paint slightly.
Clean and ventilateCleaning is everything: flush between colours and fully strip the airbrush down at the end of each session, since dried internal paint is the number-one killer. Always spray in a ventilated area or booth and wear a respirator even with acrylics.
Finishing & sealing
Choose the varnishMatte is the default for most 40K models, killing shine for an even tabletop look. Satin adds a slight controlled sheen for centrepieces and organics, while gloss is rarely a final whole-model finish but is ideal for selective wet looks (eyes, blood, gems) and as the protective and decal layer.
Gloss then mattGloss first to seal the paint into a hard, smooth, non-porous shell, then matt last to kill the shine. Matt varnish's matting particulates clump and frost on porous surfaces, so the gloss undercoat lets the matt lay down evenly and gives decals a glassy bed so they do not silver.
Waterslide decalsGloss the spot first, cut the decal close to minimise film, brush on Micro Set, soak the decal, then slide it into place and press out the fluid. Apply Micro Sol over the top to make it conform into rivets and folds (do not touch while it wrinkles), then gloss and matt to blend it in.
Beat frostingMatt spray frosts in humidity, so shake the can 60 seconds or more, spray only below about 50 percent humidity at mild temperature, warm the model first, hold around 25 cm away, and always test on scrap. If it does frost, a thin gloss rescue coat re-wets and clears the haze.
Tools & workflow
Sable vs synthetic brushesKolinsky sable gives the best snap, finest tip and paint capacity for layering, edge highlights, detail and glazing, but is destroyed by drybrushing, metallics and washes. Use cheap, durable synthetics for exactly those jobs (drybrushing, metallics, washes, Contrast, terrain and bases); a size 1-2 sable workhorse plus a size 0 detail brush plus a synthetic drybrush is a solid minimum.
Care for your brushesRinse constantly, use only cool or lukewarm water, reshape the tip to a point before storing, and never load paint into the heel near the ferrule. Dried paint in the ferrule fuses the bristles into a splayed stick that never points again, so thinning and not overloading is the single best way to make brushes last.
Light it wellPaint under a daylight-balanced, high-CRI lamp (around 5000-6500K and CRI 90 or above) so colours match daylight and you can actually judge your transitions. Cheap 80-CRI 'daylight' LEDs render reds and skin badly, which is exactly where it matters most.
Use sub-assembliesPaint components separately before final glue wherever assembly blocks brush access (torsos behind weapons, faces under deep pads, vehicle interiors). Dry-fit first and split along natural seams, and keep glue points paint-free by masking contact surfaces with blu-tack before priming or by using superglue, which bonds to paint.
Batch vs centrepieceBatch troops in groups of 5-10 by doing one step across the whole group then the next (pairs well with Contrast and airbrush basecoats) to get the army on the table, and save slow layering, blends, NMM, OSL and freehand for the occasional centrepiece where there is no repetition penalty.
Fix common problemsMute chalky drybrush with a glaze or wash; thin paint is the cure for filled detail, but once it is buried the only real fix is to strip and restart. Recover a pooled wash by wicking it while wet or repainting the basecoat and re-washing once dry, and clear frosted varnish with a gloss rescue coat.