How to paint miniatures using the “Jewelling” technique.

These instructions will teach you how to use the “Jewelling” technique to paint cockpits or canopies on your miniatures.

Mad Cat MKII with “Jewelling”

List of Equipment / Materials

• The miniature with a cockpit / canopy you need to paint.
• Detail paintbrush, Size 000.
• Painting pallet
• Black acrylic paint
• White acrylic Paint
• Three shades (Dark, Medium, Light) of the acrylic color you wish to use.
• Water to thin paints and clean brushes.

Jewelling Theory

1. The idea behind “jewelling” is taking an opaque surface and making it look transparent and reflective.
2. Choosing the correct color to “jewel” with is very important. Choose a color with a good contrast to the main color of the miniature. Green or Blue is a good color to use for your first jewelling attempt. Red gets a little more complicated because of the use of orange and yellow rather than three shades of the same color.
3. Jewelling will not work with every miniature. A miniature with large enough canopy to show the shades of paint is required.
4. The area surrounding the canopy has to be a color other than white or black for the “jewelling” to look correct

Painting the Canopy

1. For this example I will be using this Mekton robot miniature. The large canopy (White area on the head) will be a good surface for jewelling. The canopy can be painted at any point during painting process of the miniature, and does not have to be the last thing painted. For contrast I will use Blue as the color to shade the canopy with.

2. Paint the entire canopy with black paint. Be sure to get an even and smooth coat. Clean your brush when finished. Allow time for the paint to dry. During this time select the direction the light coming from. For this example the light will be coming from the left side of the images.

3. With the darkest shade of your color, apply a thin layer of paint from the lower right over the canopy leaving the upper left quarter black. Allow the paint to dry and clean your brush.

4. With the medium shade of your color, apply a thin layer of paint to the lower right 50%. Allow the paint to dry and clean your brush. A red canopy would use orange for this step.

5. With the light shade of your color, apply a thin layer of paint to the lower right quarter. Allow the paint to dry and clean your brush. A red canopy would use yellow for this step.

6. With your white paint, apply a thin layer of paint to the lower right corner. Cover about half of the lightest shade with the white paint. Paint a thin line of white along the edges of the canopy from the white corner to halfway point of your darkest shade.

7. Apply a White dot or two in the center of the black painted area. This gives the appearance of where the light source is reflecting off the canopy.

Comments or questions about this article? Post them at… http://greenhousegames.invisionplus.net/?mforum=greenhousegames&act=ST&f=19&t=31