I have been asked to do a tutorial on how I get my blue glow effect on my Tau figures and through the passed 8 months I have been on a journey, not just writing this blog but also learning new techniques and skills, Airbrushing being one of them. So on that note please remember I am still learning and developing my airbrushing skills and this is my easy 3 step to airbrushing a blue glow effect:-
Step 0 - Your figure/model must be complete including weathering effect, damage and decals, because light will effect everything.
Step 1 - I used watered down Citadel Colour "Ultramarine Blue" but the new "Altdorf Guard blue" will do just the same. I applied the colour using an airbrush, very finely building it up in layers and fading the colour to the outside edge where I wanted the light to effect to stop.
Step 2 - Once completely dry I used watered down Citadel Colour "Ice Blue" but the new "Lothern blue" will do just the same. Application is the same as above just try and keep it smaller so the darker blue can be seen.
Step 3 - This last step doesn't involve the airbrush, I applied watered down Citadel Dry "Etherium Blue" I know it's a strange selection as Citadel Dry is for dry brushing, but once watered down to a milk consistency it worked really well, apply the mix in all the recessed areas and to get a nice vibrant colour you can apply two coats or even a splash of white into the mix, but for me recently I have been avoiding a pure white in the centre of light sources, it just seems to loose the colour and effect.
In the end on my finished Riptide shields I decided to change the blue glow effect around the red part the the Farsight emblem because I thought it looked cleaner painted plain red, but I had already taken all the images for this tutorial, as you will see when I post all four of my Riptides in the coming weeks. Well I hope that this has been a helpful tip for everyone new to airbrushing, good luck and happy airbrushing :)
