Glazing With The Airbrush - Featuring Andy Wardle & NEW Leviathan Space Marines

Renowned expert miniature painter Andy Wardle from ‪@cultofpaint‬ unveils his masterful technique for glazing with the airbrush.
Watch as Andy paints a Space Marine from the Warhammer 40K 10th Edition Leviathan box set, demonstrating this simple yet highly effective airbrushing technique for gaining full control over colour shade and transitions.
We're thrilled to have Andy join us for this series of practical and easy-to-implement miniature painting videos, exclusively using the airbrush. Be sure to subscribe and stay tuned for more down-to-earth, efficient, and fuss-free tutorials!
What other techniques would you like to see us over here on the channel? Drop a comment below, and we'll cover it in a future video! Your curiosity fuels us!
Music from www.epidemicsound.com
#airbrushing #miniaturepainting #warhammer40k #cultofpaint #harderandsteenbeck

[@PeachyPixel28]

I can't wait to be in a room full of people and pronounce "Macragge" like Andy did

[@kitoushi66]

I did a double take when he said it as well. lol.

[@harderairbrush]

Viva la Revolution.

[@kurogiza]

@@kitoushi66 like pronouncing Target as Targé.

[@quitamgogh]

Andy "The Hobby Menace" Wardle

[@AllHailTheAle]

Monsieur with this Macraggé blue, you is spoiling us! Great technique 👌

[@harderairbrush]

Ah the memories... I was waiting for this comment!

[@Novastrom]

Hahahaha Mac-ragee blue, love it!😊

[@curtcleancut]

Loving the miniature videos guys. Great stuff!

[@harderairbrush]

Thanks Curt - we're fortunate to have Andy's help with them :-)

[@youtousim]

Love using a somewhat different hue/temperature when applying a filter like that. E.g. Magenta on Blue makes for a nice purple-ish shift in the shadows.

[@harderairbrush]

Yes a little hint of purple in shadow really gives richness to the blue. This is what I love about the airbrush! The colour control and vibrancy that one can achieve! nice tip...

[@chrish2879]

Interesting watching Andy's technique when applying the base coat. I've always been told that it's bad to use a pulsating technique as it causes paint splatter (and you can see paint splattered on the black paper at the end of the demo). Maybe it's different for mini painting (as opposed to more traditional airbrush art) but the technique I was taught is to keep the trigger depressed at all times and just rock back and forth to start and stop the paint flow. When you do let go of the trigger, start the airflow again pointing away from the mini so as not to splatter the mini with the paint on the end of the needle. This is the technique taught on the excellent Airbrush Asylum channel. In my personal experience, I've found the latter technique to be better, although much harder to get the hang of. It seems to be natural to want to lift your finger off the trigger if not applying paint. Maybe it doesn't matter much when blasting on a base coat, but for detailed work, you want to avoid splatter.

[@harderairbrush]

Andy's trigger technique is interesting - yes it's true that he comes on and off the air a lot, but we have studied this to understand it well, and true to good technique, he does actually start and finish each pulse with air - he is not just releasing the trigger without control. Angel Giraldez uses a similar technique, but again, he starts and finishes each stroke with air. So although it sounds different, he is using the same technique that you describe. Hope that helps!

[@chrish2879]

@@harderairbrush Yes, I imagine Andy knows very well what he is doing! Good to know, thanks.

[@darkseas3846]

Yes you’d be right every single airbrush professional do tell you not to use that technique and not to start it off directly on the thing you are painting to prevent splatters at least in every video I have watched but I have seen in the warhammer world people put it on any old way

[@pent84]

I'me quite sure looking and listening to the video that he Is not beginning and finishing with air, anyway...I find his technique more intuitive

[@Xn3v3rX]

As the Harder people have stated I stared mimicking Angel a long time ago seeing his technique. I was at first told never to do this and it took some learning but the short sweeps are excellent for painting like this.

[@alienbraincookies]

Handy with airbrush, has somehow managed never to hear anyone say Macragge before. 11/10

[@harderairbrush]

Ma craggé, s'il vous plaît.

[@Baptist85]

Is he deliberately pronouncing that completely wrong? 😂 it's cracking me up lol

[@gavinctate]

I came here to say exactly this hahaha, love it!

[@mikeseaton1920]

Ultramarines are french, Mak-ruh-jayy is their ancestral homeworld...

[@commmarine9547]

Ultramarines can't be French. Ultramarines held on to their weapons.

[@alexthehopeless3778]

Mac-rajay 😭

[@mikee9464]

Macrashe? Lmfao bro I died laughing. I hope to God that's deliberate.

[@harderairbrush]

Ma Craggé, c'est bon.

[@hootie_o]

what a fantastic video. my master airbrush is a great workhorse but I def cant get such accurate / small highlights on my minis. definitely will need to treat myself to a graduation gift with an h&s this year, they look* incredible

[@harderairbrush]

Ah thanks so much for deciding to join us! And congratulations in advance for graduation!

[@DJRockford83]

I see what you did there 😜 it's working lol

[@necalovescake]

🤣🤣🤣 love the video. although im fairly sure nick bayton has now put a hit out on andy.

[@seanmcgrath2049]

I'm sorry E X C U S E Y O U Andy, "macrazhey"? I... I just... how- I don't... WAT XD

[@harderairbrush]

C'est bon.

[@huseyindilek4115]

Harder Steenbeck excellent quality

[@harderairbrush]

Thank you!

[@andreasacerdoti7881]

One important info missing from this is: what's the psi? I tried thinning down to a similar degree, yet I keep getting spider webbing even at 10-12 psi. Is that supposed to be the case?

[@harderairbrush]

Hey buddy - the psi is pretty normal throughout the video - something around 20-25... However, if you're getting spiderwebbing, this is because you're over applying... it's a trigger control thing... actually, dropping pressure when using a very thin mix, especially when glazing, is a mistake. Using more air helps to dry that paint as it travels to the surface, as the atomisation is that much finer. So the particles dry a lot faster due to their high surface area to volume ratio. Just less trigger, and more patient paint build. The point of using higher thinned colour for glazing is the high degree of control that it gives you over the shade that you develop, along with great atomisation. Dropping the pressure massively works against you, for those goals.

[@highrise9559]

Great video. Thanks. Do you recommend a different PSI setting for glazing?

[@franciscopina2899]

Since the glaze is a lot more liquid, I guess lowering the pressure might be a good idea, especially to avoid spiderwebbing. I haven't tried this myself yet, so I'm just wild guessing here 🙂

[@harderairbrush]

Nooooo! Avoiding spiderwebbing is all about making sure that you have enough air and a slow enough application. If you drop air pressure, you'll have less atomisation energy available, and therefore potentially slightly larger droplets. If the droplet size is larger, they are proportionally wetter as their surface area to volume ratio drops off with size and they are therefore less able to dry on their way to the piece, so they arrive wetter, and you'll have an increased problem of too much wetness. It can seem confusing because dropping the pressure also drops the delivery rate so it can APPPEAR to be effective for the problem that you describe. However, it's the wrong way to achieve a solution. The best way, is to maintain a very small droplet size which can dry well on the way to the piece, and just ensure that you apply the paint more slowly with a much more modest trigger opening. Bear in mind that thinner paint flows more easily, so the size of the trigger pull is even less again. Hope that helps to answer the question! Keep the pressure, but make the trigger movements very small, and the build very slow!

[@necalovescake]

@@harderairbrush very interesting, i think im starting to understand the mechanics of how and when to use the pressure, air flow and paint flow, information like this is really great. ive had an airbrush for about 18 months but im only just beginning to really 'get it' beyond throwing down some underpainting and ending up with a lot of clogs, that i now know are tip drying because im stopping my airflow too much between paint blasts. ive actually been able to use the airbrush extensively on my recent army projects and vids/comments like this are making me feel a lot more confident about being more adventurous with how i use it.

[@harderairbrush]

That's great news! Happy to hear that. Have you watched our Need to Know Basics series? There's a lot of information in there about how to avoid common pitfalls... hopefully it can help you at your stage :-)

[@danielkaras90]

@@harderairbrushSorry if it was already answered elsewhere in your other videos, but I've been watching so many different tutorials from various sources, sometimes with conflicting information and I lost track what was said and where. Your post above, about setting higher pressure for glazing piqued my interest and I have a question loosely related to the topic. What kind of approach would you recommend for painting very small details? Like highlighting or shading a single fold of cloth on a 30mm scale miniature. Let's assume painting from about 1 finger away with 0.2mm nozzle+needle setup. Would you still use 20-25psi for that? What about approximate dilution ratio for typical acrylic hobby paint for this use case? Common advice for this case is to lower the pressure and increase the dilution of paint to make it actually flow at lower PSIs. I've tried both extremes and they both seem to have their own issues - at lower pressure (12-15PSI) I tend to get clogs very quickly and it seems like paint struggles to come out, even when diluted ~3:1 (thinner:paint) plus it's tricky to see what I am actually doing because the paint is so transparent. At higher pressures it's extremely easy to get spidering and the gradients are less smooth, the transitions are much more abrupt. Could you please share any tips for this particular use case?

[@musoseven8218]

Good stuff👍✌️😊 Could we have one on the application of acrylic true matt clear coats - I find them a real hit and miss chore in acrylics🤔🤔🙄💔

[@harderairbrush]

Buddy the absolute main thing with these is that you must not rely on the clear itself to delivery the matte. With matte clears, they will deliver a true matte with no sheen only as long as you apply them in a way that they never go on wet enough to develop a gloss, even when wet. Just put them on super fine, super thin and super dry! Normal air pressure, but very small trigger movements, and lots of passes.

[@dredfxcustompaint]

👍

[@marcel-andrehille7064]

Awesome vid! Would you be willing to let us know what psi you’re working on and what compressor you’re using? Can you recommend the sil air? Thanks a bunch. Another vid on face on 32mm scale would be nice, if you’re even using the airbrush for faces on such small models . Best

[@harderairbrush]

Sil Air is a great brand of compressor - you can't go wrong with that. Psi is generally around 25-28 for most things. The compressor in use for this video is actually from Sparmax - the TC610HPlus.

[@marcel-andrehille7064]

@@harderairbrush nice! Thanks a bunch for all the details. Rly appreciate it. May I ask what nozzle size Andy is working with? :) Best

[@harderairbrush]

Andy typically works with the 0.4mm Fineline set-up.

[@1574john]

Sorry but you didn’t show a close up of the model ? I cant see the result

[@harderairbrush]

Thanks for the comment John - actually we agree, and have already resolved that we will improve our format in future videos by including some more detailed shots at the end of each video.

[@123scopee]

Take my hat off to you bud, I can't seem to get the push down and pull back at the same time right, awesome vid m8. Iv got a bit of foam on the trigger ( sausage fingers ) do you think it would be worth cutting a slant so as I press down, it's down and back ish ?

[@harderairbrush]

Hey buddy - it's not necessary to blip the trigger as Andy does. If you want to simplify, just press it down and keep it there whilst you move it back and forth to control the paint. In order to initiate the pull back a little easier, try settling your finger on the trigger slightly more to the rear of the pad, rather than the front.

[@123scopee]

@@harderairbrush awesome thanks for the advice, as you can imagine I get constant tip drying as I press and hold the air then do paint motion lol.

[@gregharker1600]

I may try this with the uniforms of my 1/35 scale figures.

[@harderairbrush]

Greg it's also actually a very good way of executing desaturation typically needed to increase the realism of small figures.

[@gregharker1600]

@@harderairbrush I am always open to new techniques.

[@danny3tricks377]

Are we just going to glaze over how he says Macragge?

[@harderairbrush]

That's glacé over how he says it, actually :-)

[@Bunyip_Studios]

Andy, sorry, had to stop at 1:58, I was trying to ignore it, but I just couldn't it was eating at my inside's!!! It's pronounced "Ma Crag" that's it, nothing fancy, just "Ma Crag"!

[@harderairbrush]

But is it though...

[@Bunyip_Studios]

lol

[@Maximussb]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nmnTXp58h9iZZ5Isi=UAfS6hDrzmO5TQyh Is white like this achievable for a beginner?

[@harderairbrush]

With practice, yes, without practice, no!

[@bernie2k6]

Instead of just using airbrush thinner, wouldn't it be better to use some matt medium first, to reduce the pigment concentration without losing the concistency? And then add the airbrush thinner to make it flow better? 🤔

[@harderairbrush]

Hey Bernie... I see where you're going with this, and technically you could be correct. But you're thinking like a brush painter. With the airbrush, we have this rather excellent feature where we can spray in a way that the paint mix is drying along the way to the model, so we can afford to over-thin for transparency with a thinner, and as long as we don't spray too fast, it will flash off on the way to the piece. You don't have the option with the brush, hence you correctly saying that IF you want to maintain consistency, you'd need to add medium first. But, with the airbrush, we just adjust how we build the layer to compensate - faster, easier and actually more in control. Also, water based thinners aren't really thinners - they are a diluted base formulation. It's a different concept to the thinner in a solvent system. Hope that makes sense.

[@bernie2k6]

@@harderairbrush thanks for the answer. And yeah, I might think like a brush painter, but when I try to paint fine details with the airbrush on my models I often get problems with spider webbing, especially when there are sharp edges. This might be because of lack of skill :D so I'm looking for work arounds to compensate this :) I will give it a shot next time I will paint with the airbrush!

[@b100draven]

So you just use thinner you dont use flow improver?

[@harderairbrush]

Generally I don't tend to bother, no. Feels a bit too much like hard work - you've practically made a casserole by the time you've mixed up all those components! I've never really noticed a giant difference, tbh. W

[@jc7997aj]

Why are you constantly mashing the trigger ? I was taught to have the air flow on constantly and just move the trigger for the proper amount and allow it to continue for a few seconds after ending the paint flow before stopping the air. 🤔 unless you're using a single action.

[@harderairbrush]

I have studied Andy's technique and he does do exactly as you say, but at a higher frequency. He is in fact painting always with air on first and off last, with the pull happening in between the two air movements. It's just a personal thing - I believe that it maintains his connection with the trigger from a feeling standpoint in that every stroke is started from zero.

[@jc7997aj]

@@harderairbrush 😳 sonova... to see a master at work eh ? Lol. Strange question. The end pieces that go on Gabriel's airbrush (the distance marker I guess you could call it) are those able to be sold separately? I've look can't find them sold individually. Would they fit on Squidmars airbrush? I'll eventually add Gabriel's to my tool chest but for now Suidmars is my detail brush and and have been rocking my patriot 105 as the base and large area brush (don't be mad I didn't know about you guys when I bought that sucker a decade or so ago 🤣)

[@harderairbrush]

Hey buddy - yes - the sketching caps will be made separately, and we will be sure to let everyone know when they're available!

[@jc7997aj]

@@harderairbrush thank you. That is awesome news. Will they be compatible with Squidmars original limited edition air brush ?

[@harderairbrush]

absolutely :-)@@jc7997aj

[@darkseas3846]

I have just always known this technique to be shading first time I’ve ever heard of someone calling it glazing with an airbrush

[@harderairbrush]

Potatoes! :-)