40K · hobby · painting · Painting Tutorial · warhammer

Tutorial: Wet Blending.

I was asked the other day about wet blending and how I do it so I said that I would run through how I do it as best as I can. I’ve taken some pictures to try and illustrate the process.

Step 1:

Wet Palette. Nothing fancy, just a take away tub, a sponge and some baking paper:

When adding water to the wet palette, I keep the water just below the top of the sponge. This is my personal preference and it is a case of finding what works for you.

Step 2:

Select the paints you’re going to use. I am painting a cloak on a Stormcast for the purpose of this tutorial and I am going for dark purple.

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Step 3

Paint the darkest colour as a base on the area that is going to be blended. Don’t worry if it looks watery or parts of the undercoat show through, this will be fixed when blending.

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Step 4:

While the paint is still wet, get the next lightest colour on your brush – not too much of it though – and mix it in the spaces you want to be lighter on the miniature. Try and make the two colours mix without any clear lines between the two.

Step 5:

Repeat this with the lighter colour for the places you want to be lighter. Again, try to do this without leaving any clear lines. I always try to get as smooth a blend as possible.

Step 6:

I also added some darker blends with dark blue because I wanted to add depth to the purple. You can see it in the second image above.

That is how I wet blend. I am aware that this is a tricky skill, or can be, for some and it takes a lot of practice. I’ve popped a couple of examples of what you can do with wet blending, though the limits are just your own thoughts. I hope this has helped!

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Larry was a speed paint in half an hour – his blend is less than perfect!

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I use wet blending for the base of all the galaxy cloaks I paint.

5 thoughts on “Tutorial: Wet Blending.

  1. I feel like my paint would dry up to fast on the model, how long do you feel the paint is blendable fore when you do it?

    If I add too much water the surface tension would start to bead the paint, I thought I would have to use something different like isopropyl alcohol to keep it runny and also sit right.

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    1. I never use anything else and I never thin the paint for wet blending unless I am doing a galaxy cloak, because I want a thinner covering. It is a case of being quick I think. What I did for the tutorial took less than half an hour so the paint did not have time to dry out.

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      1. Right… Paint faster. I think practice and not advice are the solution to that. I’ll try to practice on some cloaks or something simple. I’m not happy with my Dark Eyengel Possessed cloak, might be a good simple start

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      2. Start simple adn just keep trying – nothing beats practice, as dull as that advice is. Wet blending was something I did in high school art so I’ve had a lot of practice there too. I am lucky in that respect.

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      3. Uuugh. The only painting I’ve ever really done is minis. I’ve avoided paint otherwise as best I could (or colour all together), even through all my years of studying art.

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