I picked up a few things from watching the Jen Haley and Anne Foerster DVD's and tried them out on the Storm Gunners. Instead of using washes for shading, thinned paint was placed deliberately where the shadows would be. I've done this before, but watching it done right added to my confidence level. Also, I learned to leverage the fact that the amount of paint that is laid down increases from the beginning to the end of the brush stroke (when it's thin enough). This was especially useful with the highlights as opposed to shadows since it can be difficult to end a brush stroke in the crevice of a model.
The other thing I did was fully commit to the edge-highlighting. It's another thing I've played with in the past but only had to guess at how it's done right. Turns out it's pretty simple. Remove a lot of paint from the brush - not as much as dry-brushing, but enough that it won't flow off onto the model. Then, just drag the side of the brush against the edge you want to highlight. The thinner the line, the more you can increase the highlight level of the color compared to the base coat without it looking weird.
The models in the image are incomplete, but the shading and highlighting on the blue armor is done.
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| Blue armor is complete with shading and edge hightlighting |
