I do a lot of edge highlighting with a silver Sharpie...

As someone who is an outsider looking in on tabletop games, you're videos are very entertaining. I don't know if it's because your voice, your awesome attitude, the aesthetic, or all the tips you give. If I ever get into tabletop gaming it'll be because of you.

A good friend of mine recommended "Airbrush flow improver" for diluting my regular paints, all my paints, and I've *never* looked back. (Edit: Warning, do *NOT* use it if you're a brush licker, it's very much not good for you)

Can we get a video on the pencil edge highlighting? I'd just can't imagine how it exactly works, would love too see Uncle Atom guide us through it!

Just painted my first 40k model in over 12 years! Drukhari warrior in a nice crimson color. Came out lookn good after the shade wash and highlights. These tips helps since some of GWs paints are a bit different than I remember.

I just want to thank you for reigniting my interest in the hobby. In the past I had an orc WFB army, a troll blood warmahordes army and unpainted (soon to fix that) frostgrave band. Your tips are great, philosophical videos are on point and thank you for turning me towards the current increase in skirmish games. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Vallejo metal color is the way to go. Amazingly thin, perfect color. They're just a bit expensive.

The term you were search for with the air brush color is: "viscosity" - you want a metal color with high viscosity.

Similar to the weathering pencils: I do my pupils with a microfine artist pen. Just purchase the finest pen you can at the fine art store and touch the tip to the sclera of your figure. Stabilize your hands and go in slow but it's easier than brush work.

The fez needs to be worn all the time now! In fact we should all wear them while watching, We should vote on this

Regarding those metallic paints that don't cover well, my tip is... use that to your advantage by laying down a non-metallic base coat close to the colour you want. That way, the base coat does most of the colouring work, while the metallic just adds the shine, as well as a subtle tint. For example, experiment with painting a thin coat of gold over a red or green undercoat, and see how it works out for you... 😉 I originally started doing this back in the day, when I literally had one silver and one gold, and they barely covered at all. So for a bright gold I'd base with a caramel; for a more worn effect, I'd start with a darker brown...

My tip, paint silver and then go over it with contrast paint. They you have colored metals

Uncle Atom with the sudden ASMR with that paint bottle shake. Pretty satisfying.

I just basecoat chaos minis with metallic paint, then paint the panels with a brush

Uncle Atom huffing for the hobby! Love it

Wow, very informative! Never thought of the pencil idea. Thank you!

Vallejo metal color on the way home! Thanks for the tip!

Watching this as I'm prepping to paint my first models in over a decade. Asuryani Killteam! Thanks a ton for your vids!

Absolutely love the recent videos

If you use superglue to get a pose you are happy with, once you're happy, you can then use Tamyia Extra Thin plastic cement in the way it's designed for regular modelling kits, so you take the brush, get some of the glue on it, and run it along the join. Essentially capillary action will pull the glue into the gap between the pieces, and you'll get that strong plastic glue bond.

Good call on the Vallejo Air metallics. Have been using them for the past 3 years or so with a brush. I heavily recommend using their Model Air brown colors. Specifically, Armour Brown. It goes on sort of like a stain and/or a Contrast paint. Depending on how you move your brush, you will get a certain pattern. Draw your brush in a straight pattern, you can get a wood grain effect. I swear by it ;)

Whenever I need to check parts /pose of a model I just used blue tac. I would never use glue before I knew 100% I liked the look.

Thanks for the tips, Uncle Atom! I'm heading over to Twitch to see what you've got going on! Long live the Fez!

I discovered painting VJ metallics by accident. I bought it thinking it was normal paint, got home, was annoyed with myself, and then quickly wasn’t. I actually have airbrush thinner despite not having an airbrush to thin other metallics now.

Painting a CSM army myself right now and yes. Painting trim is such a nightmare. The silver lining though is it really helps your speed and accuracy. Both because you want to be done with this project so much so you wanna get it done faster and you don't want to have to go back and redo parts so your accuracy improves! But yeah I can't wait to move on to a different project that doesn't have so much trim or metallics (painting Iron Warriors).

For another project, I'd bought a can of Rust-Oleum Enamel Spray Paint Stainless Steel, and I was putting a mini together that would be all metallic. Previously I'd use some metallic mithril/ silver paint for some armor panels and such and then colored over it with contrast and it came out well, so I tried it with the Stainless spray paint. Primed the model with it, painted up red/ black contrast and it came out great. So, something to keep in mind when painting giant robots that you want metalic. :)

You can usually just use plastic glue to melt the bond created by the plastic glue to undo it easily.

Use oil paints for edge highlights. No tipdry & you can undone mistakes. I'm surprised no one is doing this.

Uncle Atom Says: "Don't get it in your eye or set it on fire." Words to live by friends... words to live by indeed. :p

100% stand behind model air metallic paints. Especially the silvers, not so much the gold.

Great Vid again. You are the kind of person I would like to see at my gaming table. It is just wonderful how you make me want to try out new techniques. I am not a big twitch fan but will setup an account and join you!

So over the last 6 months I've painted close to 60 Black Legion infantry models. Edge highlighting next to the armor trim doesn't intimidate me much anymore. I'll dogpile in on the Vallejo metal color bandwagon. It covers great, flows well and makes this process way more fun. Having to fight the paint to make it do what it should be doing sucks. A paint like Vallejo Oily Steel (from the regular line, not the specialty metallic line) is a great example of normal metallic paint just being crappy to apply. Same goes for Auric Armor Gold from Citadel. Leave the room to go get a drink and the entire pot has separated. That color acts more like a glaze(useful for other reasons then but not for straight up painting gold).

Awesome tip on metalic colors! Thanks

This bloke is awesome, Friday nights start wiv Atom

I have heard of using pencils, but not watercolour pencils. Something to add to cart!

Geez uncle atom, the airbrush metallic paints must have been one of the best tips I've ever gotten!

Never thought of using pencils. Thanks and great video!

Vallejo metal air colours are amazing to paint with. I only wish there were more copper/gold/brass colours, not only grey/iron/silver/steel ones. And their gold colour is not gold at all :(

We all need a safety fez...

I have never heard of any of these. Thank you uncle Atom.

I used the freezer method to remove a shoulder pad off my Chaos Termies, worked like a charm.

I found (unintentionally) with removing super glue you could also use paint remove and the parts just fall off after hours but will smell for weeks

Wow, a great tip! Thank you very much - I never thought of using airbrush colors! :) Oh, and pencils! Great idea! :D

Recently switched to AK 3rd Edition Colors .. awesome!

All Hail the fez. Nice tips. Done the freezer trick before. Keep telling my friends their are multiple hobby specialists for paints etc. Most of them are GW fan boys Thanks Uncle A.

Fantastic techniques! Thank you!

2:26 Vallejo Air metallics are the absolute BOMB. The pigment concentration, consistency and how it flows so easily off the brush tip allows you to do so much metalwork in one pass. My go-to every time.

thanks for the video, as always. for metallics, you should REALLY REALLY try the vallejo metal color range. again it's sold as an airbrush paint, but it's even better, plus you have a very wide range of silver tones (at least a dozen), from very dark to very bright, from "dirty" to clean

Very cool Uncle Atom ! :)

Yep, we need the Fez on the merch shop!

Thanks for the tips! My sylvaneth dryads are coming in soon and I feel like kitbashing the hell out of them.

I gotta try that watercolor pencil trick. I already got some here :D Thanks for sharing uncle atom

Love me some vallejo chrome.

As always an awesome video. Thanks Brother. Keep up the great work

Excellent tips!

Hey dude! Did the audio change a bit in the past few videos and I missed the memo? Love the fez! Love the content! Look at that big turkey!

I've had exactly the same issues when trying to do edge highlights. So, I started loading a detail brush as if I was going to use it to dry brush, then, using the side of the brush technique, do a few passes down the edge I want to highlight. Essentially I edge drybrush rather than edge highlight. Ymmv, but, speaking as a compulsive drybrusher, I'm finding it easier to get more consistent edge highlights doing this than trying to paint them on like the pros. Also, it makes less of a mess when I, invariably, stab the brush into an area I wasn't trying to highlight.

I generally prefer airbrush paints (not just for metallics) whenever possible - they require less thinning for brush-on use and go on smoother.

The 3rd tip sounds particularly great. I have LOTS of Watercolor Pencils that I've picked up over the years. They are so much easier to use than other watercolor mediums when it comes to things like keeping your paper from buckling.

One thing I found was that the Vallejo air bronze was really transparent and feels too thin. But it was a one off, the other three air metals were fine. So when getting the air line paints, mileage may vary.

I'm a beginner, and your tips are really helpful! Actually I've been afraid to start painting up my admech killteam, because first miniature I've painted using Leadbelcher came up messy. I think I'll try to use airbrush thinner to make GW metallics more liquid.

Great tips, thanks!

I honestly never thought about brushing on airbrush metallics and I've been dreading how to pull off nmm on some of my larger pieces

I couldn't say what exactly makes a pro a pro, but you're at least a very good painter

How durable are these pencil highlights? I guess you have to varnish immediately aftherward if you do not want it to rub away. Luke APS used some metallic permanent markers and I tried it and must say that they are perfect if you aim for a quick Tabletop standard paint job.

Uncle Atom try the Vallejo Metal Color! (Not model color, not game color) Amazing product. Love the watercolor pencil tip.

Just ordered the Vallejo chrome air.

Golden High Flow Medium is boss at thinning metallic paint perfectly.

I'm replacing my hard hat at work with a fez, for safety reasons

Uncle atom huffing polish…. Good episode, don’t tell mom

Reverse wash also is a good way to do first tip!

Where would I find a showcase of a lot of your work? Thanks for all the info. 🥰🥰🥰

Love ya man!

Great tips, thank you!

You can cheap buy superglue and permanent marker (on gloss surfaces) using Acetone - I brought a 500ml bottle of off the shelf bog standard nail polish remover for £1 ($1.20) and use it either n a thin brush or a cotton bud

Best part with working with metal models: Don't like the pose? Dunk it in acetone. Don't like the paint job? Dunk it in acetone. Acetone does wonders.

Top tips indeed. Cheers.

As for beating the gray. I have beaten the gray all my gray is painted. Thank you very much for the challenge I owe you one.

That is a sweet, sweet shirt! Remember the Adepticon that wasn't XVIII!!

Stupidly simple.... fantastic, thank you !!

been using the scale75 metallics and loving them. the viking gold is not my go to gold/bronze

Or you can use metallic sharpies... seriously, they're stupid good! Like those paint pencils but without the stoppages and spills. But it has to be metallic (other colors not so good) and a real Sharpie (haven't found another brand that works).

a little flow improver works wonders

Thoughts on the metallic sharpies for small details? I saw LukesAPS mention it. Wasn’t sure if you have tried it out.

Great video, as usual. Have you considered doing more flames of war content?

Beginner tips .. my ass.... these are golden tips! The only one I knew about before was the freezer trick the rest blew my tiny mind ! Well done !

The Fez is real!

Never heard of water pencils but I have heard of using very fine too pens for edge highlight. I think be that too was dropped by black magic craft

It's not just a fez. It's a safety fez! 😀

You could take the beginners part out of the title. I haven't heard any of these tips before, and will be trying them all out.

He wears a fez now, fezzes are cool.

Useful vid, thanks Uncle Atom. Q; do you seal (with varnish) the 'pencil' highlights?

I want to be safe too. Where can i buy a safety fez?

You look like a wizard.

You really need to look at Vellejo metal color.

I transferred my citadel Metallics for droppers using a little bit of water and it watered them down a bit. I have not tried using them yet.. Is this bad for the citadel Metallics? If so, how are people transferring metallic pots to droppers?

Hey Uncle Atom, have you tried applying an ink wash over those Vallejo Air Metallics? I've tried Vallejo Metal Color in the past and found that the paint comes off if you run an ink wash over it, even after letting it cure overnight. Ruined a whole batch of models that way!

New painter here--is it not recommended to use water or something like lahmian medium to thin down thick metallics? Or are you just offering an alternative to thinning?

Pencils = Mindblown.

I use a regular hammer to get the parts of my mini. Just hit the whole mini very hard and fast next to the part you want to have off. If you do it right only small parts of the mini will remain on the part, which you can easily clean. Of course then you do not have a mini anymore, but we will worry about that tomorrow. ALSO: Plus for cathartic effects!