Wet Blending

If anyone knows how to do wet blending and can explain it well would you please. I really need to learn this technique to get my models looking good. I want my guard models to look exceptional. I know i probably wont be using this technique on guard but I just want to know how to do it.

I've never used wet blending, but I know several people who do. The best place to look for advice on using it is the numerous warhammer blog sites out there. I'd use Bell of Lost Souls as a starting place and branch out from their links section. The Painting Corp should also have a few articles on how to get started with wet blending.

The basic concept of wet blending is that you keep your paints wet for as long as possible. You apply a layer of paint of one color, and then apply the next layer of color above it while the first is still wet. Thus you blend the two wet paints together right on the model. The idea is to do this with things like highlights and shading, because you can blend your colors together seamlessly.

This technique is NOT easy though, and you have to have all of your paints set up in advance that you want to use for a "session". That means you'll have to work with a limited palette at a time, say doing all of the skin at the same time for a lot of models, and then going back and doing, say the armour or the hair or whatever once all the skin is done. This is because a) you have to work fast on each model, applying your wet paint before the coat underneath it dries and b) you literally have to keep your paint that you're using wet. Most people that I know that wet blend use a small Tupperware container with several layers of paper towels covering the bottom. They keep these paper towels constantly moist by adding water. When they want to paint they take a fresh paper towel and put it on top, get it soaked as well, and then put small amounts of each of the paint colors they'll be using on the towel. The layers of wet paper towels keeps the paint milky and wet, and if done right the paint will stay in a runny liquid form for days. Obviously you have to be careful about not tipping the container sideways, though!

Other ways of doing it is buying an artist's palette that has sizable divots in it. Then you can put a few scraps of paper towel in each divot and add water to keep them moist. Then you add your paints to each divot and the moist towel under them will keep them runny.

Hope that helps.

Something I use as well as what was just described is a retarder. You can get a bottle of the stuff at Michaels for like 6 or 7 and it just makes the paint take a lot longer to dry... quite handy when you are doing blending or any fading.