Highlight Like a Pro with The Army Painter's Techniques

Highlighting

Highlighting is where a model can really come to life. This is where you paint a lighter colour onto raised areas on the miniature. When it comes to army painting, this technique is mostly used on character models or centre pieces. Two highlights on a model that’s been shaded with Quickshade Wash or Dip make for a very dramatic effect.

Highlighting is an advanced technique that requires time to master but it is a very rewarding process once you do. As fun as it is – highlighting can be very time consuming.

Drybrushing for easy results

Drybrushing is an easy technique that will give you great highlighting results, fast. Finishing a large army project gets quite a bit easier if you only add a drybrush step for the highlights. There are of course areas where this technique will give you better results than others. Miniatures with a lot of texture like fur, chainmail, stone, rubble and such will always prefer a drybrush to any other technique.

Make sure you load the bristles with paint, not just the tips.

Remove excess paint on a paper towel, leaving only the pigment on the bristles.

Gently flick the bristles on the raised surfaces only picking out the edge details.

Fur is a great example of an area of a model that is perfect for drybrushing.

Likewise metal, especially chainmail and mechs with lots of edges can benefit greatly from this technique.

How to layer highlight

Start by painting Snake Scales on all the raised areas of the skin.

Use Kraken Skin to build up an even brighter highlight on the smallest details, hitting only the most prominent features.

Drag the brush along the edge of the yellow armour with some Brainmatter Beige to add some scratches.

The metal is highlighted the same way as the armour, but with Shining Silver as the highlight colour.

Now we are ready to finish the model with a base. If you want you can add even more highlights, this part of the painting process can take up as much time as you want. But generally we recommend focusing your time on a few key highlights.

Highlight Charts

With our Warpaints™ we’ve created concise colours options so you don’t need to mix your highlights colours – unless you want to. We’ve designed our colours to work in varying shades so picking a highlight colour is as simple as choosing right from the rack! Read our guide for Colour Match to find some recommended highlight colours for some of our most popular paints.

Dipit says

What did the Cleric say to the Ham? YOU’RE CURED!

Finishing the base

Basing your miniature really elevates the overall finished appearance. What’s more, when army painting, utilizing a coherent base adds simple uniformity and theme to your brigade of battle-ready miniatures. The process is simple and quick but the results pay off in dividends.

Using Varnish

Sealing your models is absolutely necessary. Especially if you’re a dice hardened gamer. Protect your hard work from transport and tabletop tumbles, dull down glossiness, or add shine with our range of brush-on and spray varnishes.

A brush for every job

Brushes come in many shapes and sizes, each with a different use and purpose. We have three different ranges of brushes – all of them named so you can easily pick the right one for the task at hand. Let us show you!

More Highlights

Adding additional highlights and extreme highlights is the best way to level-up your paint job. Learn about colour choice, brush selection, and everything else you need to know on how to highlight your miniature.