Game Quality Glazing

By Jason Pyett (a.k.a. No Remorse)

Many painters struggle with trying to achieve a smooth blend, without spending hours worrying about every flaw in the transition. There exist many different techniques from wet blending to feathering which all have their merits in achieving a good blend. Recently I have been playing with glazes and found that this was, for me, the quickest and easiest way to achieve a smooth blend.

Many tutorials are available to explain the proper use of glaze medium; this is not one of them. Proper glazing requires using many thinned layers and can take a lot of practice. If you are trying to achieve an army sized project within a time frame, this technique might not be viable to you. I am not trying to undermine proper glazing, it works wonders and it you have the time and patience; it is definitely a technique worth learning! The technique I am about to explain is for those of you who want to do an army FAST but also want it to look great on the table.

Game quality glazing or Heavy glazing, uses thick layers and slow dry times to achieve smooth blends. As said this technique is for army sized projects. If you plan on doing a couple of minis, it is best you have a side project going as well, because the dry times can be very long between coats.

First of all you need a good cheap glaze, yup that’s right cheap. You want a glaze that is very thick, almost like a paste. I use DeSerres glaze medium, but I am sure other companies make similar glaze mediums. You could try this technique with thinner glazes, like Vallejo, but I am not sure of the results, so you may have to adjust the technique accordingly.

The next thing you want is a large brush, either a 1 or 0 will suffice, for you GW consumers out there, that is a Standard sized brush. If you plan on using heavy glazing on a larger model, like a dreadnaught or troll sized, use a tank brush.

Last is the paint of course, I have only used VMC or VGC for heavy glazing, but I am quite sure you could use Citadel or similar paint with good results.

Now to the meat!

WARNING Make sure to clean off every mold line before starting to do Heavy Glazing, as EVERY defect in the mini will show through in the end!!!

Okay, so your mini is nice and clean and you are ready to begin priming. PUT DOWN THE BLACK CAN!!! Do you hear me, step away from the black can!

“But we are doing glazing, I hear you say, we should start with a dark undercoat” “Bah!” I say to you, “We are heavy glazing! Forget your ‘proper’ glazing technique and stay with me here”

Alrighty, now that you have primed your mini WHITE! It is time to check for mold lines again. Yes, go do it, I guarantee you will have more mold lines to clean. So clean them up and brush on some white primer over the area.

“My Gods, this is taking a long time, I thought you said this was a FAST technique.” Tsk, tsk, you should have done all those preceding steps for all your minis, you did want a nice looking army, right!?

Now, time to start base coating. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP. Take your time, do it right, stay in the lines like your grade one teacher taught you.

For base coating pick the lightest colour you want as a highlight. If you are highlighting all the way to white, then you are done, viola. If not then you will need a solid coat of your chosen colour. Thin it to about 1:2 paint to water, it will probably take two or three coats.

Base coating is the longest part of this technique, I can’t say it enough, it is the MOST IMPORTANT STEP, so take your time.

Here is a pic of a goblin I have base coated, the green is livery green. You could go a bit more solid with the base coat than I did on this one. I only basecoated one colour at a time, but if you wish you could base coat the entire mini then begin glazing.

Once the base coat is done we start to glaze. Before you begin though make sure to dullcote the mini or the moisture from the glaze will wipe off the edges, not good….

Here is a quick lesson on glazes before we begin. Glazes are a funny medium. Too much glaze without enough water and it will act like paste, too little glaze with a lot of water and the paint will dry splotchy (yes, a very technical term I know). So what that amounts to is consistency is the key to a perfect glaze. This is where a little practice comes into play. You want the glaze to flow, but not so much that it spreads only to the recesses. It should be thick enough to hold on some of the flat surfaces, but thin enough that it won’t stick to the edges and it will mostly flow into the crevices. It can be tricky, so it may take a couple of minis before you really get the hang of it.

Another fact about glazes, which is common sense, is the more glaze you add the thinner the paint will become, and vice versa. If you want a more opaque glaze, add more paint, for a less opaque glaze add, you guessed it, more glaze!

I think I rambled on enough about glazing. Now back to painting.

For the first glaze you want it to be thin, I went roughly about 4:2:1 glaze medium to water to paint. I used VMC Black Green. This is the result of the first glaze. You can see the definition already starting to appear.

The next glaze was a bit thicker, about 3:1:1. The mini is really starting to be defined now.

The last glaze is thicker still about 2:1:1. This glaze you will only want to put in the recesses, don’t worry to much about being deadly accurate, as long as it is about half way into the transition, the glazes will flow into the cracks.

The very last step, which I forgot to take a picture of, is blacklining, but you can read numerous tutorials on how to do that.

Once you are done with one colour dullcote! This is important since the glaze will rub off very easily.

I will run through these steps again with the purple. The exception for the purple is that I didn’t basecoat, I started glazing right away. Also the very last glaze was done with black, to really deepen the purple. The purple I used was VGC Hexed Lichen.

Glaze 1

Glaze 2

Glaze 3

Black Glaze

Here is a shot of the final unit, I didn’t go through all the glazed colours, I have got to keep some secrets

Heavy glazing is very quick and easy. Again I said this technique is for army sized projects, so have 20 or 30 minis ready to be glazed at a time and you will fly through the army in no time. The drying times can become quite long, especially on the final glazes, so be prepared to wait 15 minutes in between. On the good side, the more minis you have to paint the better it is because by the time you get to the last one, you will be able to start applying the second glaze to the first one faster. DO NOT try to speed up drying times, that no blow dryers or heat lamps, if you do that the glaze will dry uneven, and it will be blotchy, not the desired effect at all.

I think that about covers it, if you have any further questions, please PM me or email me at greenman_minis@yahoo.ca.

Thanks for reading!!!

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