Vaporwave Painting Tutorial Additional Content
In my most recent video, I made a tutorial on my updated process for COLOUR GRADIENT STYLE MODELS sometimes known as VAPORWAVE or SYNTHWAVE style models.
To help you out, I’m making this blog post that lists out all the paints needed and the order of the application if you want to replicate this process yourself!
To start out I primed all the models in BADGER STYNYL-REZ MATTE BLACK PRIMER, followed up by a heavy spray from above, in BADGER STYNYL-REZ WHITE PRIMER.
I typically start with the lightest, warmest colour, and then apply more intense colours on top of that as i go, so in this example, I sprayed the eldar models with LIQUITEX CADMIUM YELLOW INK on their top halves, and left the bottom halves of the models still white.
FOR A SECOND EXAMPLE, heres how i painted my space marines.
I started with the same initial steps, up to and including the yellow gradient on the top of the models, but in this case i used an even more subtle application of the yellow for reasons you will soon see.
I then used CITADEL CONTRAST ADMINISTRATUM GREY to panel line all of the figures trying my best to get the paint just in the recesses of the figure.
After the contrast paint is dry, I then drybrush on some basic VALLEJO MODEL COLOR FOUNDATION WHITE to clean up and highlight any areas where the panel lining was too messy, and i even use a normal brush to do some highlighting with white paint at this step as well. After this is done, we can go back to our airbrush, and apply any sort of gradient that we want.
I then used a DALER ROWNEY FLOURESCENT MAGENTA INK on the bottom half of the model, in a way that overlaps with the yellow ink, so as to create a nice colour gradient between the magenta and the yellow.
I then applied LIQUITEX CERULEAN BLUE INK slowly, lightly, and carefully over the entire model. In this case i applied a much more generous amount of blue to the bottom of the model, and a much lighter amount to the top of the model, almost entirely covering up the yellow. You can see how when the blue is layered on top of the yellow we get a nice seafoam green colour, which i quite like.
BUT i wasnt quite satisfied with this gradient yet, so i applied just a bit of DALER ROWNEY FLOURESCENT MAGENTA INK to the bottom parts of the space marine, just little touches of magenta, and you can see wherever the magenta hits, it turns into a nice purple colour, giving just a bit more colour variety to our gradient.
When im painting this style of models I typically like to add a single accent colour after the gradient is finished, to help the gradients really POP and look even better.
but i also wanted these two sets of models to look cohesive as a SET of game pieces.
So I used the seafoam green from the marines to add some accents to the eldar, and the bubblegum pink from the eldar to add some ‘ details and elements to the space marines, but before I applied any seafoam green to the eldar.
i first laid down a basecoat of VALLEJO MODEL COLOR PALE SAND wherever I wanted these green accent colours to eventually be, as well as to any parts of the model that I thought could used more highlights in general.
After giving this paint a bit of time to dry, I applied a single thick coat of CITADEL CONTRAST AETHERMATIC BLUE to anywhere that I wanted to be that seafoam highlight colour.
I did this instead of using just a plain acrylic cyan paint so that the accent coloured parts would give off a bit of a glow effect.
At this point I found that i wanted a bit more of an orange tone to the gradient, a bit more pastel, and i also wanted to do a bit of cleanup on the more grainy parts of the model, so I used VALLEJO MODEL COLOR SALMON ROSE to do some cleanup on the armor, helping to make it look a lot cleaner, smoother, and to just help the transition between yellow and magenta look even more how i wanted it to.
I also found that i wanted a bit more of a STRONGER, darker accent colour in some areas, so i mixed up a more opaque form of seafoam green to add to a few of the areas.
This mixture is a roughly equal mix of one part VALLEJO MODEL COLOR BLUE GREEN
one part VALLEJO MODEL COLOR LIME GREEN
and one part VALLEJO MODEL COLOR PALE SAND.
I applied this to any of the parts I wanted to be a bit darker in tone, and followed this up with a VALLEJO MODEL COLOR PALE SAND edge highlight on these areas.
You might also notice that Ive left some areas on the model, such as the spikes on the gun as a plain pale sand colour.
This might look a bit strange now but i have a special treatment planned for these areas in a future video.
For the space marines, I wanted the main accent colour to be pink, but in order to save time I went ahead and added a bit of preshading to any of the parts of the model that I wanted to be pink by using some CITADEL SHADES DRUCHII VIOLET.
I also used this opportunity to colour any of the areas of the model that I wanted to be a darker purple, such as the undersuit of the armor, some of the more recessed bits, or really just anywhere that I wanted to have a bit more intense shading.
Once this wash was dry, I carefully applied VALLEJO MODEL COLOR SALMON ROSE to any of the parts on the model that I wanted to be pink. You can now easily see why I first applied the druchii violet wash, as it serves as a great shadow colour to help outline the pink areas.
For the basing on these figures, I wanted them both to match, and I wanted them to look extremely 90’s, so I went with a clean, white tile floor look for both armies.
To achieve this I used some pre-textured plasticard, and glued it down to the bases with PLASTIC CEMENT.
Once this was done I added some VALLEJO MODEL COLOR PALE SAND to a few of the areas that I thought just needed some colour variety. I wasnt using any metallics in this colour scheme i pretty much used pale sand to paint any areas on the marine that would typically be metallic.
Next up, I wanted the pink to feel a bit more saturated, so I tried out “TITILATING PINK” from the Nostalgia 88’ line that Warcolors recently sent me in the mail to test out. I applied this colour just in the middle parts of the pink areas, so as not to totally erase the salmon rose colour, but just to add a bit of variety an richness to the pinks.
Finally, I did some cleanup on any of the seafoam green areas that needed it, using the same mixture I still had on my palette from the eldar, but added a bit more pale sand when necessary to make it a bit lighter to match the initial gradient colour.
At the same time I also did just a bit of edge highlighting all over the figure with pale sand and with that, the space marines are done!
Once the glue was fully dry, I trimmed off the excess with my clippers and a hobby knife, rimmed the bases in BADGER STYNYL-REZ MATTE BLACK PRIMER, panel lined the bases with this same primer, and then scraped off the excess with a my hobby knife.
I then glued the figues back onto the bases and they are done!