Dry brush for edge highlights

I'm sure there are lots of reasons to use dry brushing. It's a technique I like to use for highlighting texture on fur and hair and for edge highlighting.

I can remember the first time I successfully used dry brushing. That was for fur, well over 30 years ago. It was on a troop of Ork Wargs. I was so pleased with the results. It is when my painting results changed from "just colour on tin lead" to "these look nice."

I have had good results with metallic colours. Silver dry brushed on to black and copper dry brushed on to brown. I now think I have the technique sorted for edge highlighting with dry brushing.

The edges of the containers and barrels are highlighted

I've written these notes as a reminder to myself.

Edge Highlight Colour

I find that I need to use a lighter brighter colour than I expect.

Edge and curved surface highlighting

Light grey on black, white on light grey, very pale green on dark green etc. If in doubt, regardless of the base colour, I might use light grey or white.

I like my models to have a lived in look. I often use a black or sepia wash and then add highlights. A similar technique to edge highlighting can be used to add a little brightness to curved surfaces such as shoulder pauldrons and the pipes in the above picture.

Brush

I've tried specialist dry brushing brushes, but I find those too large for miniatures and their round shape make them difficult to direct the brush to the specific edge that I want to hit.

What I do use and my favourite is a makeup brush designed for eyeshadow. They have soft flat bristles about 8 to 10mm wide.

These are great for most edge highlighting, from small scatter terrain down to delicate miniatures. Being flat I have two choices of direction. The wider is good for long edges and by dragging the brush with the narrow face forward the brushes can get into fairly small spaces. In that rotated position they have a long enough stoke to deposit sufficient paint.

In tight spots where I need to avoid getting paint on adjacent surfaces, I use a 3mm angled shader brush. Again a flat bristle brush. This gives me lots of control and I can be very specific about which edge is highlighted.

Paint Loading

This I find a bit trial and error every time.

For cleaning I use a sponge with just a finger or two dipped in water to dampen it. I also use this to slightly dampen the bristles before I start loading the paint.

Most of the time I use undiluted paint for dry brushing. I find that if the paint is watered down, it smears rather than it catching the edges.

I like to get paint on all sides of the tip of the brush and then wipe nearly all of it off on a cotton cloth. If I can see paint depositing on the cloth, there's usually still too much paint on the brush. That's not a perfect guide, just a starting point.

My first stoke will be very light to see how easily the paint applies and either add or remove paint, as I feel. It varies by colour. Some paints work with very little effort and others need constant care to get the amount of paint on the brush just right.

Technique

I lightly drag the brush over the edge I want to highlight and can usually see the layer build up as a fine line. As the paint gets used I need to apply a little more pressure on each stroke.

The more I've use the technique, the more control I've gained about where I get the colour.

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Sci-fi scatter terrain

As a diversion from army painting, I've been adding to my scenery collection.

I've designed, printed and painted a few of my own.

In addition, I've downloaded a few that fitted the aesthetic I was looking for.

The crates are my own. The comic unexploded bomb is made of two models both downloaded from Thingiverse. The larger crater by "Terrain4Print" the smaller crater with the missile by "twistedpancreasgames". My thanks to both of those designers.

The junk piles are by "ImperialTerrain", again downloaded from Thingiverse. Many thanks for the models. I scaled them down to the sizes I wanted, printed and painted.

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Modular gothic mission ruins

I was asked to print enough modular building components for a small firefight size game.

This is what I came up with.

There are a few new components and a new download for my modular scenery range.

Downloads:

CC BY-NC-SA

Download That_Modular-Sets 6-9 Gothic mission ruins

These buildings require all of the original downloads in addition to the above.

The following article has the original downloads:

https://blog.discoverthat.co.uk/2026/05/modular-scenery-buildings.html

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Less is more painting miniatures

I did not have enough time to complete any complex models ready for the game today, so I opted to paint a unit of Prime Strikers from Puppetswar Miniatures. As it happens, I ended up using a different army, so they didn't get to the table, but they were ready.

Very Quick Process

The order was significant in making sure there was minimal time wasted.

• Prime with black from a rattle can - this had been done weeks ago
• Airbrush army dull green all over
• Dark grey paint in the folds behind the knees and between the legs
• Black wash all over
• Dry overnight
  
  
• Dry brush in light green to highlight some of the edges - using an 8mm flat makeup brush
• Paint the eye lenses in yellow - using a 00 short bristle sable brush (W&N s7 miniature)
• Tidy up the yellow - edge in black wherever I had gone over with the yellow
• Paint in any details I want, could be; missile caps, belt buckles, sergeant's pauldrons, banners etc.
• Paint all the weapons black
• Dry brush the edges of the weapons in light grey - using a 3mm wide flat angled shader brush
• Base using grass flock which sticks to thickly applied brown paint
• Paint the edge of the base in black
• Dry overnight
  
  
• Clear matt spray varnish

I am very pleased with the finished result even though very few of the details have been painted in. This is a very good example of "less is more."

I don't know exactly how long it took for this unit of 11 troops, but I spent a few hours on each of two days and 15 mins to varnish this morning.

Where a model has well defined edges, I prefer the subtle result from dry brushing rather than my attempts at hand painting edge highlight lines. I will use individually painted edge highlighting where the alternative would not work.

Some models by their design are complicated and time consuming, no matter what paint scheme is selected.

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Matt clear coat reviews

I made a mistake varnishing some miniatures and they ended up a little bit glossy. I put too thick a coat on. Pretty much any matt spray will end up satin if it is applied too thickly. This got me thinking that it is far too easy to go wrong with matt clear coat.

I decided to try a few clear coats to see which gave the best results.

For as long as I can remember I've struggled to find a matt varnish that I'm happy with. I already had a small selection and I bought a few more to test. The one that gets the best reviews by others, Mr Hobby, was not available, so I have not been able to test that.

I used the figures that were glossy to try out the varnishes.

The photo's did not show the variation in surface finish sufficiently to be of any use in comparing the results. I have looked at the models themselves, carefully, side by side. In the following images, the miniature on the right, with the tuft of grass, is my control, which remains as the glossy mistake..

I checked the instructions for everything I was testing and followed them as closely as possible. All the spray cans said roughly the same. Shake well and spray from about 30cm (12") in thin coats. For my tests I did two quick passes to get a fine mist over the surface.

I've included the hairspray because I had it to hand and it's what I've previously used to help hold grass flock in place.

Results

None of them were able to completely reverse the gloss of the starting surfaces. I have done further experiments and the results are much more matt if the starting surface is also matt.

My testing was very limited, so do not take my results as definitive. I have only tested one can or pot of each and only done one test with each. With that in mind, these are my opinions of the finished surfaces.

Wella Silvikrin Hairspray

• Application: Spray can
• Cost: £
• Result: More glossy.

Hycote Matt Lacquer

• Application: Spray can
• Cost: £
• Result: Slightly matt.

The Army Painter Matt Varnish

• Application: Spray can
• Cost: ££
• Result: Acceptable matt finish, joint best of the batch.

Winsor and Newton Professional Matt Varnish

• Application: Spray can
• Cost: £££
• Result: Acceptable matt finish, joint best of the batch.

Rust-Oleum Crystal Clear Matt

• Application: Spray can
• Cost: ££
• Result: Slightly matt.

Vallejo Matt Polyurethane Varnish

• Application: Brush or airbrush. Tested by brush.
• Cost: £
• Result: Slightly matt.

Xtracrylix Flat Varnish by Hannants

• Application: Brush or airbrush. Tested by brush.
• Cost: £
• Result: Barely matt.

Conclusion

Of the two that gave acceptable finishes, The Army Painter Matt Varnish spray is the best value. I will probably use that from now on.

I prefer the spray nozzle of the Winsor and Newton, but at nearly twice the price including delivery, The Army Painter is the clear choice for value for money.

For some finishes a matt that is less matt and more satin may be appropriate. I am likely to use some of the other clear coats specifically for those effects. I'm thinking of steel armour, for one. The Rust-Oleum Crystal Clear Matt is my go to for those surfaces.

In Practice

When using a clear coat to protect model figures, I do two quick passes from the front, the same from the back and usually a single pass from above and either side, if necessary. Depending on the base finish, I often do an extra layer over the base, trying to avoid getting any more on the miniature. This last step is to help hold the basing materials in place.

Another thing to note is that the finished result does depend a lot on the starting surface. All of the clear coats I have tried are more matt if the original surface is already matt. 

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Update: September 2026

I've used both the Winsor and Newton and The Army Painter clear coats for a lot of models and the results are always good. Most importantly where I have done too many coats to get to a difficult area or to hold the flock on the bases, the result is still matt.

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Modular scenery buildings

I have shown these in previous posts. They are for use with tabletop games with miniatures that are nominally 28mm scale. I have finally had time to package up the CAD files for download for others to 3D print.

At the moment, there are parts available to create gothic buildings or an alien fort.

The components snap together using OpenLOCK clips. This makes for easy storage and lots of possibilities for what shapes the buildings will be.

If you wish to print these yourself, you will need to download all of the generic parts and either or both of the Gothic and Alien fort components.

The Painting Rack is optional, but it makes it easier to support the components on end while, you guessed it, you are painting them.

I chose to paint all of the parts the same base wall colour, so that the Alien Fort and the Gothic buildings have interchangeable generic components.

If these parts are oriented appropriately, all of them will print without support. I print them with a 0.2mm layer height and 8% infill with a 0.4mm nozzle.

Downloads:

CC BY-NC-SA

CAD (mainly STEP not STL) zip files

That_Modular-Set 1 Generic floors

That_Modular-Set 2 Generic walls

That_Modular-Set 3 Ruins

That_Modular-Set 4 Gothic walls

That_Modular-Set 5 Alien fort walls

That_Modular-Set A OpenLOCK clips

That_Modular-Set B Painting racks

Please post a comment if you find these useful.

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Token storage

Having played a few games I now know what sort of tokens are most useful for One Page Rules - Grimdark Future.

I've printed a couple of revised and additional tokens and redesigned the storage to hold them, to be more efficient.

One of the things I like are the representations of the single use weapons ("Limited" special rule). I've done one of a missile for the HDF and one bomb for the Saurian Starhost flying creatures. The token can be removed from the table once used.

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