Source
r/minipainting•
Vexinator

PSA: Vallejo White Glaze - great for blending highlights

I bought a bottle a while ago and broke it open yesterday for the first time. Figured I'd give it a try with highlights.

This stuff is amazing for creating smooth highlights - because it's semi-transparent, both colors below and colors mixed with it will show through very smoothly. Furthermore, because it's semi-transparent, I quickly found controlling opacity was a simple matter of controlling thickness (which is a little odd for someone who always does multiple thin coats.)

This stuff practically eliminates the chalkiness or hard transitions that I have always encountered (and surmounted with repeated thin blending coats) and the end result is amazing transitions. This is my first time trying a commercial glaze and I consider it a huge success.

Is it possible to get the same results mixing regular (miniature) paint with glaze medium?

Posted Jun 23, 2017, 8:46 AM UTC

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thvbh•

Awesome! I bet the trick is that they're using Zinc white pigment (PW4, aka transparent or "mixing" white) instead of the more common Titanium (PW6, opaque white). That would explain the translucency and lack of "chalkiness". Mini paint lines generally don't have much purpose for a transparent white because everyone wants maximum "coverage" (opacity), but Vallejo also makes artist's paint.

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VexinatorOP•

Hey, thanks! That's great insight - I figured that it might be a different pigment than normal white paint; the medium alone doesn't seem sufficient.

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HonkyMahFah•

Pics or GTFO! :-D

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VexinatorOP•

Check out the new post.

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CrossbowROoF•

Any chance of getting some before/after pics?

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VexinatorOP•

Check out the new post. I included a gnoll that wasn't highlighted using this method, but I don't think it's a good comparison. His pictures are a little blurrier than anticipated.

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VexinatorOP•

Sorry this took so long. My lightbox is packed away - I haven't taken pictures of minis in a long time. The bases aren't finished, but that's not what you're here to see.

These guys are, intentionally, a little dirtier than I normally leave my table-top standard minis - they are rats, after all. The packrat pictures show things off a little better than the others because he's got a wider variety of colors on him.

These were my experimental models - everything, with the exception of the metallic paint, was highlighted with the glaze.

Generally speaking, I did in 2-3 passes what would normally take me twice or more passes to blend nicely. One-two passes mixed with the same color as the base coat, then a dollop of pure white glaze for the brightest highlights.

http://imgur.com/a/IWqmX

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