When I was planning the process for Kairic Acolytes (from the "Silver Tower" project), there was a big question about their skin. It's a large smooth area, which kinda highlights any bad blends and rough transitions. But of course, doing regular brush blending on eight models wasn't an option.

My typical solution would be washing over bright basecoat (or just white undercoat). That would be fine in terms of both quality and speed.

Still, I wanted to invent something new and even more effective. And then I was struck with this weird idea of combining two most powerful speedpainting techniques: washing and airbrushing.

What if I airbrush washes over zenithal undercoat? That basically means coloring a black-and-white miniature. It was totally a "what if" situation, and I didn't knew what would happen.

The result blew me away.

From a hand-length distance, it looked like somebody done a very accurate display-level blending. Over entire skin area. With tinted shadows. And beautiful contrast.

I mean, look at that skin. Back in the day, I couldn't have dreamed about painting such skin. Even less so, painting it in freaking 15 minutes!

Airbrush Directional Glazing means airbrushing different washes over a zenithal undercoat, changing direction with every next color. Washes would tone the black-and-white undercoat, keeping shadows and highlights, but adding color and creating color contrast.

I've already encountered the idea of doing black-and-white sketch first, and then glazing colors using regular paints. But I've only seen it done with regular paints, and with a brush (not an airbrush). Which is not what I'm talking about.

To overcharge that idea, make it a speedpainting technique, and adapt it to mass model painting, we need to do some adjustments:

• Zenithal undercoat instead of black-and-white brush painting. Its very easy to do even without much skill, and takes very little time.
• Glazing with washes instead of glazing with regular paints. Because washes will keep brightness contrast beneath them untouched.
• Airbrushing washes generally, from few different angles. No need to be precise, you can just airbrush from few extremely different angles.

This technique uses two properties of washes, that would be crucial to get incredible result:

• Washes tone any color beneath. Washes are semi-transparent, and they change the hue of any paint beneath them.
• Washes can't increase brightness. If you would airbrush light yellow over black undercoat, you would get light yellow. But if you would airbrush yellow wash, you would get black.

While regular paints would also tone any undercoat (if you use an airbrush), they would eventually destroy any brightness contrast beneath them. That's why using washes is key here.

So, if we would create brightness contrast on the miniature (black-and-white painting), and then glaze it with washes, — the shadows would remain dark, and the highlights would remain bright.

And now, the last important bit.

Why do I call this technique DIRECTIONAL glazing?

Because the last bit about airbrushing from different angles is extremely important. And it's the secret sauce that produces half the effect.

The idea here is to get the miniature off the base, to be able to airbrush from any angle, including directly below. This way we need less accuracy, and again (like in Washing techniques) use the natural shape of the model to help with our painting.

I do it by pinning the legs of a mini, and then using big plastic bottle caps as a home-made miniature holder:

When I need to access the bottom of the mini, I just take it off the holder. Then I can airbrush, paint, and do whatever I want. And then I can instantly put it back onto the cap (or the model's actual base).

It is so crucial and so game-changing, that, after inventing this little trick, I'm doing that with every single miniature I paint.

The first example would obviously be Kairic Acolytes, since they were the point of initial breakthrough.

First of all, I do a zenithal undercoat:

And then I do directional glazing:

(1) Directional glazing — Shadows (from below). I take the model off the holder, turn it upside down, and airbrush GW Druchii Violet from directly below.

As you can see on the photo, this wash tones all shadows, and just slightly tones midtone areas. It changes almost nothing in brightness contrast.

(2) Directional glazing — Highlights (from above). I put the model back on to the holder, and airbrush GW Seraphim Sepia from directly above.

This wash tones all highlights. And while it slightly reduces brightness, my highlights are still bright enough.

(3) Directional glazing — Midtones (from the side). Then I airbrush GW Reikland Fleshshade from the side. This step requires a bit more accuracy, lesser spread and lower pressure. Otherwise you'll get a lot of overspray that would ruin your highlights.

Note the nice reddish tone that appeared on this step

After doing Kairic Acolytes, I've applied the same approach on Tzeench Daemons. Which led me to doing 18 miniatures in one day (an achievement documented in "Silver Tower" Showcase).

The steps are exactly the same (the only change is the last wash color):

(1) Directional glazing — Shadows (from below)
GW Druchii Violet

(2) Directional glazing — Highlights (from above)
GW Seraphim Sepia

(3) Directional glazing — Midtones (from side)
GW Carroburg Crimson

As you can see, the last step (glazing from the side) is much more pronounced here, creating more effect than on Kairic Acolyte. But the process itself is completely the same. I'm just changing the intensity of different steps.

If you want this technique to work, it's crucial that you get correct wash consistency.

My experiments showed that using a wash straight from the pot is not optimal. Both due to wash drying too fast on the needle, and due to it being too opaque and hard to control.

So the formula I came up with is as follows:

5 Wash + 4 Vallejo Airbrush Thinner + 1 Vallejo Flow Improver

I'm not sure exactly what Flow Improver does, but apparently it works somewhat close to a retarder. The wash isn't drying on the needle and flows perfectly.

If you want to save time, I highly recommend do your mixing in advance. It's really easy to do, using an empty bottle and just following the formula, like, 20 drops of wash, 16 drops of thinner and 4 drops of improver:

I'm already a fan of washes anyway, so I'm keeping this mixes ready at all times.

Whenever I paint something for tabletop purposes, I always ask myself whether I can apply directional glazing.

I haven't reached this level of quality per spent time with any other technique (with me not being a stranger to speedpainting). So when you're doing your planning stage next time, definitely add Directional Glazing to your list of speedpainting techniques.

If you're not familiar with PSR Formula (Planning > Speedpainting > Refining) and the difference between speedpainting and refining techniques, please refer to LazyPainter Method PDF:

Daemons of Tzeench was a nice way to push this approach to its limits, leading to 18 models painted in 8 hours, in a single day:

Obviously, this technique won't fit all miniatures equally.

It won't fit so well for minis with lots of different areas and details. You could still pull it off, but it just won't be so effective.

It's perfect for large skin areas or other big surfaces. Something like Acolytes, Daughters of Khaine, Squigs, Daemons, any Nurgle stuff. Regarding sci-fi, probably anything with a lot of armor would fit (Infinity heavy infantry, Warhammer space marines, etc.).

So, give it a go, highly recommend it for your speedpainting.