this was a nice video. I like the idea of using Zenethal highlighting and inks to do armored figures like space marines or Eldar.

It is because of vids like that that I bought a cheap airbrush to try out with my huge compressor. Works great, thanks Vince! If I could only figure out an indoor set up, but I'm intimidated by the boot, extractor fan and all....but with good weather....

Best video I’ve seen on this technique

Thanks for the video. Really useful stuff. I'm about to try this out a silver metallic robot type monster. I'm hoping it will help speed things up

Thanks for this Vince - this is essential watching!

Thank you for the video. Great as always. Quick one. I see you use actual paints for the grey and white. I've been used mixes of the black, grey & white Vallejo primera to do zenithal. Would you recommend using paints instead of primers? Or will I get the same results with primer?

Thanks so much for this! This really helped wrap my head around using my airbrush for highlights. Is this kind of highlighting helpful with large muscles like Bullgors and Ogors? They're large rounded surface, but the surfaces are more "rolling" than the symmetrical armor of Space Marines and Stormcasts.

REALLY helpful. I have a bunch of SM to do and this will help a ton, if I can pull it off . Thanks

So glad I found this channel! I just started back to painting models again after 28 years of down time with life. Is it strange that every time you say Ok or K, I nod my head here and say yeah? No one else is here. I am talking to a YT channel. Ha ha ha ha. Good stuff and very helpful.

From Merriam Webster dictionary: zenithal adjective zE·​nith·​al ˈzē-nə-thəl Canadian also and British usually ˈze-nə-, -ni- 1 : of, relating to, or located at or near the zenith 2 : showing correct directions from the center a zenithal map The "E" is a Long E not a short e as pronounced in 90% of these videos. It is a great technique If you want your figure to look like it is always lit from only one direction, not very lifelike as in the real world, even indoors, the direction of the light changes with the movement of the object.

Hey Vince, can you talk about Blanchitsu ? What is it and would you call this a technique or just a different style of painting a miniature ?

Thanks for a more extended hobby cheating tutorial on zenithal highlighting, it will be very helpful. Watching your last job in the PMP I thought, what about a hobby cheating on how the light reflects over the surfaces of differently textured materials, and the type and amount of highlighting needed?

When I first heard about this technique, I thought it sounded like a lot of work to go through with questionable results but the more I see of it the more convinced I become. I'm seriously considering giving it a try, only I don't want to go with pure black; just personal preference, but I think the shadows are too dark for my liking so I'm thinking of a dark gray, mid-tone gray and white.

This video is amazing.

Thanks for all of your videos Vince! When you make your glaze, do you use glaze medium or airbrush paint thinner (or something else)? There seem to be so many solutions for thinning and I’m not sure how to use them in my new airbrush.

Thank you, this helps me a lot. Question': with this technique you created some cool shadows, but what next? Applying a wash to make details noticeable and get some further localized shadows would not ruin the effect?

Great video one that I have referred to multiple times, and here I am yet again. Really trying to mostly glaze a crew for the first time. Having a hard to wrapping my head around my project since I’m trying to do mostly black suits (tuxedo suits that is, knight Models organize crime) with just a pinch of Color. Cuz fabric hits light differently and I don’t want them to look boring. After doing the “dark” (pine green, a dark blue, grey, and possibly purple or dark red Color) which look a lot brighter than I was first expecting. Lol At first tried the grey maybe which didn’t look great and I’m thinking Gray is not the color for this technique after a zenithal. So re cleaned up the zenithal and tried green maybe that model was just a tad thick. So I’ll try again for that. but with the Colors looking very bright and I want the Black effect Should I try to re glaze with black. Or at that point an Ink/wash. Not really sure how much it’s going to darken it but was thinking a pine gray. Or maybe just use a wash/ink from the start possibly after value sketching some of the Color right over my Highlight. Any thoughts? Typically with blacks have done more of that GW way base coat and Highlight with dark reaper

Vince, thank you very much for this video. I appreciated your comments about the different basecoat colours for reds, oranges, pinks, etc. Question: what role does the colour wheel play in the basecoat/primer colour? If I wanted to paint an orange space marine, would I basecoat with turquoise?

Love the technique. Thanks.

Thank you trying this myself.

Super useful Vince! Thanks for all the hobby cheating series. Question: can you combine the zenithal technique here with a rattle can Retributor armor base coat for the classic Stormcast scheme? Or is the rattle can paint so thick that you'll obliterate the great shading from the zenithal undercoat? Would love to hear how you'd go about it! Cheers!

Getting an airbrush for Christmas...You'll be my Yoda. Subbed.

I tried Zenithal with white primer over gray, and I must have a crappy white because it just covered it with little dots. Awesome vid, really helpful.

Hello Vince, I love your videos! I'm somewhat new to painting and considering getting an air brush. Your tips are very helpful. I have a question about my color scheme though. I'm doing black and orange space marines, which as you mentioned is difficult haha. So far I've been spray can priming all black and then doing the armor panels (elbows, shoulders, knees, backpack bulb vent things, top of helmet, chest) with a brush. I base coat grey over the black, then do my orange. This scheme will also be on vehicles. How should I apply this priming process for those colors? Doing the black prime saves me a ton of time so I don't have to hand paint the black armor parts but if there is another way to approach this that I'm not realizing that would be great. Especially for the vehicles since I don't want to hand paint the orange panels, I'd like to use an airbrush. Sorry for the long comment! Thank you for all your great content.

Hi Vince, Love the videos, they are helping me tremendously. One question, I want to do grey armor for space wolves, can I just use this zenthial technique and its done or should i go back over with another grey glaze? Cheers

Brown undercoating for skin tones.. Thanks! I couldn't figure out how to make it look good!

What airbrush are you using in this video? I am having trouble 'back filling' into my paint cup. I can get paint through it fine but when I try to plug the end... no bubbles in my paint cup. FYI I am using a badger renegade krome

Is it possible to add other colors to the zeniths shades to get a prime with color? Or should one only use the grey-white balance first?

At 11:00 are you applying a uniform coat all over or do you target specific areas and/or aim the brush at a specific angle like the gray you did in the beginning?

Hey Vince, great video (again ^^). I have the same Vallejo surface primer here (black, grey, white). How much do you thinn down the primers when u use it? They seem to be kind of thick xD greetings, have a nice week! :)

Vince, your vids helped me a lot in preparing and deciding to start painting. I hope you can tell me your opinion/advice on the following matter, concerning spray priming+zenithal on very, very detailed minis: My example is creature casters lord of slaughter, or most other minis they make. If i use chaos black, followed by tamiya grey, how much detail is likely to be covered (i guess it's a poorly phrased question, but how will the spraying aftermath look like in your opinion)? Is it better to use vallejo brush on primer, followed by a grey zenithal? Is the grey layer going to be the one that harms the detail (or will it infact help by doing...well, a highlight)? If i mess up with resin minis, is there a safe way to go back? I honestly fear this kind of expensive yet resin miniature.

For the black lining, Would this be a good candidate for oil washing? Am I right in thinking those smooth transitions would then be protected from your brush?

Question. When you talk about priming in a dark brown if you were going for a red basecoat. Would you also still use the grey and white for the zenithal? Or would you use lighter Browns? Thank you!

Your videos are invaluable. Really took my mini painting to the next level. Coming from armor modelling these techniques don't come naturally to me but you do an excellent and concise job of covering the important stuff. Thanks

I'm getting my first airbrush in a week or so, so i've got alot to learn. as far as your process, what would you do to then paint the base after you have airbrushed the mini in this example? It seems like alot of people completely finish their bases separate of the models, but then some people seem to still paint the mini attached to an unfinished base. just curious, thanks for the video.

Thanks as always! What I don't understand is do I want to avoid dark colors like deep blue from scale75 (as a glaze) for this or are they good for zenithal highlighting?

How close of a result would you get with a spray primer zenithal highlight? Thinking about using the same colors and apply in the same angle as you do in the video. Do you think the speckling effect caused by the rattle can will show through a lot later after you applied your basecoats?

Great share my friend

Amazing vid Vince! Probably a silly question but would black armor benefit from zenithal priming in any way and if so how would you personally go about black armor using this technique? Im about to paint the new sister of battle and would like to get an almost black but very dark grey to black in the recesses transition. Would i just skip the white step? Sorry if this is a no brainer question lol

Hi Vince, I am having some trouble with Vallejo primer clocking up my airbrush. How much (if at all) do you thin your primer and have you experienced more/less clocking depending on the psi value?

do I need good ventilatod room to do air brushing? can you describe your setup and your airbrush that you are using and the compressor

Hey Vince! Been struggling with the zenithal. Specifically I’m having issues with the mix or white that I’m using. I’ve put my compressor up to 40 psi because that’s supposed to help reduce speckling. I’ve also tried anywhere between Pro Acryl white mixed with Daler Rowney, to just straight Daler Rowney, to Daler Rowney thinned down with that airbrush thinner/flow mix you’ve talked about before. Even the thinnest one had issues with speckling, and sadly also flowed too heavily into recesses to be a good zenithal. What do you actually use for your white?

did you say something about cleaning your airbrush in 40 seconds!!!!...possibly a important point on my learning curve, i'm always cleaning the bugger...thin thin thinner. thanks vince for your awesome tuts.

Love the zenithal process, it was really a game changer for me. One issue I've been having though is my white highlight is kinda speckled and it's visible under my glazes. I use badger stynylrez thru a haarder steinbeck ultra blowing at 20-25 psi. Any advice?

Right, a few bits I want to try this on, so off to grab my airbrush!

What made you pick panzer grey as your go to primer over black?

like your vid can you do one for more organic units like greenskins. where your dealing with leather metal and flesh. I think hobby cheating to paint fast orcs/orks/goblins/gretchin would be fantastic to see.

Can't believe Vince is still responding to these threads after all these years! A question if glaze medium (or even contrast medium) might be better than thinner in certain scenarios (or why not)? (Perhaps glaze medium wasn't commercially available 6 years ago?!)

I know you've mentioned that lighter colors are trickier. I'm currently trying to do my Death Guard in a bone colored armor scheme. Can I just airbrush a bone color over a zenithal primed model or should I be looking a different colors for my zenithal highlight? Love this series and love your videos - These have really gotten me off my butt to fight the war on grey plastic.

Could you use vallejo surface primer grey and white to act as the Zenithal paints? also, would this work with something like minitare ghost tints where you use metallics?

Hi Vince, I want to speed paint some new Primis marines when they come out soon. I want to do a blood angels theme, but I have a couple of questions first :) 1) Is there a difference in between just using a red triad and hitting up at different angles vs the method you demonstrated here? 2) Also, when I do the undercoats for red doing this method, do I go black > grey > light grey/white > brown (all) > red (all). OR brown > light brown > lighter brown/white > red (all) Thanks again.

Great and precise. I have started using Zenithal. I am wondering if you have used the technique on stone or bone and if a good result is possible. best, andrew

with your straight white, what is your thinning ratio, or are you well shaken and straight from the botte? also, please, what psi are you shooting from? thank you for the great video and for your response

Vince - would you do zenith all highlighting on vehicles? If so, would you do it in the same fashion. Thanks.

Going off your comment about avoid paints with a stronger foundation of white in them, say if I were going for a very pale olive color for a Death Guard model, would I be better off zenthial priming, going for a darker olive and then completing the rest with a brush?

If you're painting a dark blue colour, like Kantor Blue for example, how do you prevent it looking de-saturated, or too light in the lighter areas?

What color primer would you suggest for OD green? I do a lot of military figures thanks in advance!

Looks better than if I spend a couple hours trying to blend with a brush...

Hi Vincent, why do you use German panzer grey instead of black for your undercoat? Thanks Michael

Question for you, Vince. I have some GW Culexis assassins I'd like to use this method on. Is it even worth doing for black? I'd like to keep some subtle high points a very faint grey, but I found I just darkened it back down to black all over.

So doing fleshy bits or lets say a nurgle, would you undercoat black first, then all over coat of purple or just start with purple and then do the grey and white tone ?

Probably a dumb question, but I’m an airbrush newbie. Do you add thinner to your primers and at what PSI do you run when zenithal priming?

So would you not recommend xenithal priming on a model that is going to be primarily wearing white armor?

Regarding a model that is primarily red, you mentioned that you'd go right over the black with something else, right. Are you saying that you'd prime black, then repaint the entire mini with something like Burnt Umber, then do they grey and white zenithal?

I zenith highlighted my chaos space marines, and did a test run on a spare mini. I think the paint may be to thick still or the psi to high. In any case, to reduce risk (since I need more practice), I could use the glazing technique to get the same result, correct? I'm using GW Thousand Sons Blue. I'm noticing that these paints tend to be difficult to thin. That or my airbrush needs replacing lol

Yesterday I tried and mixed several things I learned in your videos. I made some mistakes and the result was horrible, I should have sticked to your rules much more! First, I did zenithal highlight with my airbrush to a pict warrior from Conan boardgame (all skin and a loincloth). This was my firstbtime doing zenithal, up till now I only use airbrush for priming. I remembered what you said about never black under skin so I thought about using a reddish brown. But I wanted more dark so after starting, I put a drop of black and tried to mix like you do, putting a finger in tip or airbrush and blowing air. It did not go well, did not mix well and the result was very black. Lesson learned, better to premix before putting paint in airbrush for now. Grey and white went fairly well, zenithal was achieved almost successfully, apart from the very black shadows... Then, Mixed pale flesh with some glaze medium and airbrush thinner, trying to create a glaze. I applied 8 times over whole flesh parts. Result was... Not good. Very muted color, and black clearly showing under the paint. In the middle I added some dwarf skin (basically orange) to try and cover more... Lets say that did not help create a better skin color, nor help much with the black under. So, many lessons learned... But I dont think even if I had put a brown instead of black as shadow zenithal, that I would habe a got a good vibrant color...

When using a pastel/soft colours in the greens and yellows what would you recommend because black, grey and white doesn't seem to be the best combo for them.

For rattlecan zenithal priming, do you have any video footage of that specifically? Are there any noteworthy technique/theory differences?

Is it better to spray without the base on? I'm worried about wrecking it. How do I make it nice after spraying it up?

thx dude, for granting my request, very helpful! :)

I just tried this for the first time and had a great zenithal highlight!!! Until I covered it completely with my base colour :( I guess I need to dilute it waaaaay more

What would you recommend for priming a Silver base? Looking to paint Grey knights

This is a great video! I'm still so confused as to whether I should be using flow improver or thinner or neither with my Vallejo Surface Primer (yes, very new to it). I'm in a dry climate, and did notice some dry tip occurring. Any help, would be really appreciated!!

So if I have a mainly skin model that I want to be light or tanned would I just zenithal prime different shades of purple to get better transitions of tones?

So the first coat should be a black primer and if I wanted to go white no gray highlights I can use a white acrylic paint. It doesn’t have to be black primer AND white highlighted primer right?

Are the paints you use also a primer or only the black is a primer?

Question do you wait for the primer to dry for a day then add the cold gray then white or is it fine to apply all at once?

Aaaaaaand added to favourites

Do i need to recoat (for red colour scheme) before or after i did the zenithal? It's not quite clear from your explanation.

I know the vid is a bit older but I'm hoping to grab an answer. I unfortunately do not have an airbrush anymore. Had to sell mine ...is there any real way to obtain this effect with just a paint brush? Something akin to a drybrush highlight?

so, if you are going to paint red, the thing would be, brown base, grey 45 degree angle , and white from above?

Are you just thinning the paint, or further thinning airbrush paint? Thanks

any chance you would make video on zenithal highliting without an airbrush and with a brush? Thank you

Can use this for Napoleonic armies?

i just got a bunch of unit from a player, all of them is only have a pure white prime and very done priming too. Is there any way i can do to add some Zenithal without priming them all over again ?

And another question: in this case, model is almost entirely one color so its the easiest example for this technique, but lets imagine a character from conan, mostly skin but with a loincloth, shield, etcetera. You would have to do zenithal with airbrush, but then use glazes with a brush, each part with the color that corresponds, correct?

Hi Vince, hope you still check these old vids. Just wondering which game colour your using for the white. Can’t seem to pick up the specific colour Thanks in advance

Is there an advantage to using the Game Air Cold Gray & White vs Vallejo Primer Gray & Primer White?

I was thinking about the edge highlighting part (since I love how it looks). After the zenith highlights, how about edge highlights in a solid white and then add the main color??

Been using zenithal for ages but often my figures end up dark after priming. I’ve been leaving large portions of say, the torso under the arms (the arms block the grey and white) and legs and often front torso black. 25-30% of the model is black I’d say. How much black do you generally leave?

To be clear, you thin your paint. Is it a 1 part to 1 part paint to thinner ratio?

This is really helpful! Would you still use the same approach for a model that is mostly black, such a black power amour?

Please can you do one on airbrushing osl?

Can you do this with a brush 😅? I have no posebillity to use an airbrush or use a rattle can 😅

Does this work with metallic paints glazed over?

What about yellow Vince? what base should I use? orange or a warm brown?

Thank you

I tried this method on several minis and seem to be getting a speckle pattern the far end of mini from where the airbrush spray pattern ends. Shooting at 25 psi with a badger 105 .5mm needle.

Can you do this with rattle cans?

I would love to see NMM bronze done for steam punk.