Build Colour, Contrast and Highlights

Transcript*

Intro

Hey there, it’s Vsauce. Yeah. Hey there, it’s Paul from Sunward Hobbies. Today we’re going to be talking about gems and how to paint them. Gem alert. Gem alert. [laughter and gasps] So yes, today we’re going to be talking about gems [music] um using gem paints. So not to fret, this paint job is incredibly simple, [music] incredibly easy. You’re going to need two paints. Basically just a technical gemstone [music] paint from Citadel. So there’s a bunch of these.

There’s a green, there’s a red, there’s a blue, and I believe there’s even a yellowish if you count Tesseract [music] Glow, which I don’t anymore. They changed the formula a little bit, but anyway, that’s besides the point. This one is soul stone [music] blue and just a generic white paint.

Inspiration

That’s it. The effect we’re replicating today can be found all over this avatar of Kane that I painted over two years ago now essentially. [music] And uh yeah, it’s the blue gems spread across his armor. So there’s three on each leg there essentially. [music] One in that shoulder pad right there on the wrist braces. There’s typically two, though. One is covered in fire there. So there’s only one there. One on the forehead and [music] one in the chest.

So, we’ll be replicating that effect on another miniature because I don’t want to paint another avatar of Kane. So, for the gem, we’ll be using this Allaris Custodian Terminator. [music] And uh we’ll paint it on the Vexilla there. There’s a little small dot. And on the other side as well. I know it’s not really a frost mini, but a blue gem is a blue gem. It’s going to look nice regardless [music] of where you put it.

Products Needed

The white I’m using today is Ionic white. By the way, this is uh a little bit of semi- gloss, which should be sufficient for our needs. And so, [music] yeah, grab your favorite somewhat precise brush. This one is [music] detail synthetic number one by Vallejo. Uh pretty decent brush overall. All you got to do is make sure that there isn’t a lot of paint on your brush.

White Paint Application

Just enough to write your initials on, basically. And you [music] just want it focused near the tip. That’s it. [music] Just light dabs. Just light dabs. [music] Looks good. So, the paint is still drying here. But let’s just get over it real quick because it’s such a small space. [music] The odds of you making some sort of quote unquote mistake is actually quite high. [music] But the reason why I say quote unquote is because it’s not really a mistake. It’s actually called the halo effect. Basically, [music] it’s the sort of glow that leaks out of stuff that may emit a glow or they themselves [music] reflect stuff and it’s going to be reflected on its immediate surroundings. So, um basically, yeah, happy little accidents [music] for any technical paints like this. Honestly, keep shaking.

Gem Paint Application

Shake a lot probably [music] up until the 2 minute mark preferably. But I’ve been shaking this a lot. This is now my third take [music] of this take. [laughter] There shouldn’t be any need to thin down the paint. Uh, just make [music] sure you don’t overload your brush because again, pretend you’re writing down your initials. [music] You want it to be thin. So, yeah, just dab it on. Keep it thin at first because you can always apply two thin coats [music] of the effect.

We’ll keep it there for now. And I will dot it on the other one [music] as well. Just make sure that all the white spots you painted, including the accidental [music] halo effect, is covered with this paint. Wow, look how vibrant that is. Just from two thin coats of the soul stone gem, and it looks radical. That tiny dot goes a long way. And that’s nuts. And you can stop here if you want, but we’re going to take it a little further. Just a tiny bit further. To finish off this gem here, what we’re going to be doing is taking a slightly lighter or a very similar shade of the color of a gem.

Enhancing the Gem

In this case, it is blue. So, we’re taking blue here from Ionic, but it could be anything. Right. Uh, and we’re going to be using that to paint maybe 50 or 40% the bottom half of this gem, orienting towards the bottom, right? Then what we’re going to be doing once that’s dry is we’re going to be hitting it with maybe a dot or two of deep cyan. And it’s just going to be again on the bottom right, but literally just a dot. And once that’s dry, we’re going to hit it with a dot of white. And it’s just going to be on the opposite corner, top left, right there, to give it that hint of glare. And it should carry through.

Final Look

And there we go. The effect is complete. The optical illusion is complete. And it looks insane. Wow. So, yeah, just to bring it back. So, you see the white dot doing a lot. And the light shining on the lighter side of the bottom there. Perfect. Completing this gem like effect. And let’s switch it to the other side. Same thing. Incredible. 10 out of 10. No notes. Um, this is how you do a gem. And it’s beautiful [music] every single time.

Paul’s Conclusion

Well, that’s it for me today. Thank you guys so much for watching. And this technique isn’t just reserved for jewelry. You can use it on eye lenses if you have uh, you know, a helmet. You can use it on a helmet. You can use it on doors with like windows. Literally anything that has glass or glass like qualities, you can use it on it. It works every single time. A lot of painting in the hobby is just optical illusions anyway. So it makes it a lot simpler uh or trekking a light, right? You know. So again guys, painting is easy. Doesn’t have to be complicated. That was like four steps, man. So yeah, that’s it for me today.

Uh my name is Paul and if you want to follow us on socials, links in the description down below. Also down below is our real time inventory. sunwardhobbies.ca. Every single product shown here is available through our website. And finally, we’re trying to hit 20K. Um, we’ve hit a little bit of a snag there because we didn’t upload for a little bit, but we’re back on track. Uh, a lot of our videos recently, especially the ones with David, have been popping off. So, thank you guys so much for watching. If you like what you seen here and you want to see more, please like and subscribe. And see you next time. Bye-bye.

About the Author:

Paul Catindig As someone who’s been building model kits since he was 8 years old, Paul is very knowledgeable and adept at model kit building! When he’s not building or painting kits, he spends his free time cooking, playing video games with friends, or at a restaurant patio somewhere. Hopes to make his very own movie one day.

*Video by Paul Catindig
Video Edited by
Daniela Castellano and Leo Nguyen
Transcript generated by youtube
Edited by Angelo Castellano