The primer coat that goes on bare plastic, resin or metal before any colour. It gives paint something to grip, and its tone sets the mood of everything above it — a white undercoat keeps colours bright, black keeps them deep and moody, grey sits between the two.
The first coat of actual colour, taken to solid, even coverage. Thin it and build it in two or three passes rather than fighting it on in one — a thick basecoat drowns detail you will want back later.
A coat applied over the basecoat that deliberately leaves the previous colour showing at the recesses and edges. Layers are how you climb from base tone towards your highlights without a hard join between them.
A high-pigment, heavily thinned paint that shades and tints in a single coat, pooling in recesses and staying thin across raised areas. Best over a light undercoat, where it does most of the tonal work for you.
A strong, targeted darkening pushed only into the deepest recesses and panel lines. Used sparingly, it does more for perceived depth than any amount of highlighting.
A thin, free-flowing paint that runs off raised surfaces and gathers in recesses on its own. Fast and forgiving; the risk is tide marks where it dries unevenly, so keep the coat moving and do not flood it.
A broad, deliberately loose first highlight covering a wide area of the upper surfaces. It establishes the light direction; later, finer stages refine it.
A fine line run along a raised edge with the side of the brush. Reads as light catching a hard corner, and does more than anything else to make armour plates look crisp.
The last and lightest pass, restricted to the few points that catch the most light. Keep it thin and mean — over-applied, it flattens everything underneath.
Paint thinned until it is almost transparent, laid over cured work to tint it or to soften the join between two tones. Builds slowly by design — several passes beat one heavy one.
Nearly all the paint wiped from the brush, then dragged across raised detail so pigment catches only the high points. Ideal for texture — fur, rust, stone, rubble — and rough on your brushes, so keep old ones for it.
Paint dabbed on with the brush tip to leave a broken, mottled texture rather than a smooth coat. Good for weathering, corrosion, and transitions you want to look irregular.
