Contrast Paints for a Lens Effect Tutorial
Most pleased with the result!
Painted Lens Effect.
Hello friends, here’s something I’ve been wanting to test out and share with you. Painting faux lens effects with the new - to me! - Contrast Paints from Games Workshop.
The results I had seen online had me suspecting they might work something like a transparent ink mixed with an acrylic matt medium as I had used this before to good effect so yes, you may also use a similar approach. Plus to allow for multiple retries, I decided to use a gloss pure white in an acrylic lacquer so that the water based product would be both easy to remove and not damage the base. Additionally, the gloss effect should help with reflected light shining through the glaze and yes it does!
The base.
First the frame with painted with an acrylic lacquer - Starbright Iron from Gaianotes. A beautiful and durable paint.
Gloss White painted in very carefully. Must be smooth and flawless.
A beautifully smooth and clean Gloss White is best used.
Next the base of the lens was carefully painted with gloss white and then allowing a few minutes to touch dry. Yes hand painting small details with lacquer paints is a little scary so make sure you have been practicing your hand brushing skills and are confident for this step but it really does produce a wonderful finish and dries very quickly. If in doubt, perhaps use something more forgiving such as a water based acrylic paint instead but the results will also shift and it is more likely to stain rather than glaze.
A gloss white enamel would also work well but do allow for a few hours or overnight for it to cure.
Paint in just enough and set it aside to dry.
Next I carefully glazed over the gloss white with Aethermatic Blue from the Contrast Paint range.. I let the model dry face up so as to allow the glaze to settle with the aid of gravity and stay as centred as possible.
Most happy with the effect here and as you can see, I’ve worked it in with the color scheme for this mobile suit and it makes for a nice, odd number of 7 points of light blue interest along with the shoulder jets and recessed feet details.
Would you like to watch this in action in a video tutorial?
Here it is!
Please let me know if you try this out on your Sci-Fi models and adapt it to your world, your color choices and themes.
Happy modelling my friend!
Linc
You might also like…
A BASIC GUIDE TO PAINTS FOR PLASTIC MODELLING