hey guys jay here welcome to eon's battle so a xenothon highlight is a scam right it's a fancy
looking thing that so-called pro painters use to show off well that's sometimes true i've seen
many many paint jobs where xenothon is basically all covered up by the end of the process i think
there is definitely still some value in seeing a mini like this that you can work out where the
highlights and shadows should go but it's often not necessary because paint is opaque and it'll
cover it up but what if you really want to get the most out of a xenothon well then you need to
take advantage of transparent paints and i'll be demonstrating this with these minis wow jay those
miniatures look incredible what are they where can i get them well let me tell you we are producing
original miniatures monthly availables stls and physical 3d prints this is our june release the
vine nights sculpted by licorice the same artist who did our animated intro it's our second mini
for the miniatures of the month club if you have any ideas for miniatures you'd like to see us
produce please leave your ideas in the comments below but now i'm going to paint up these vine
nights i took my minis and got them ready for painting i glued them down some bases i made by
gluing down decorative rocks these are relatively smooth while having some nice cracks and crevices
then i primed the models black in preparation for the xenothon but instead of spraying from above
in a classic xenothal pattern i spray it from the top left to create a light source
one half the mini is white and the other half is black i always try to get my minis about 50 50
black and white with a xenothon because it gives me a lot of value i see a lot of people overdoing
the white because it's scary when some areas feel too dark but pro tip let them be too dark now to
successfully take advantage of a xenothel it's all about paint choice but not color opacity if
i use standard mini acrylic paints i will lose a lot of what i have just created with my xenothol
even if i thin the colors they'll still create an opaque layer hiding what's underneath
so what i want to do is use transparent colors like contrast and speed paints washes like agrix
earth shade and army paint or strong tone or inks which are the most color saturated of the bunch
i started out with a coat of army painter runic gray on the armor it gives a subtle blue to make
it look clean and shiny paints like this are transparent to change the appearance of what is
underneath without hiding or covering after that i put a green wash over the base and while that was
wet i dripped some speed paint camo cloak into the wash to create some variety and color saturation
the speed paint is thicker with more pigment so it'll allow less light to be reflected off the
white and give the base a more modeled appearance then on the vines i painted them with speed paint
and this paint has a longer drying time than standard acrylics so once i had it all painted
up i went in with a damp brush and wiped away the paint from the raised areas to create some
highlights i do this before the paint is set up and so it all blends out evenly i put a null oil
wash over the rocks to bring out all those natural nooks and crannies and i put a purple wash over
the cloth and while that was wet i painted on just a little speed paint hived well or purple to make
a gradient within the cloth some areas would be lighter than others and so to replicate that
mixing these two products creates areas that cover more and less within the white xenothon
when my rocks were dry i painted army painter speed paint white over top which will turn the
white peeking through into grey that way the true white peeking through on the armor will look more
striking than the gray white on the rocks on the base and i layered more blue on the armor
to create spots of shadow on joints and creases within the armor and putting a little watery green
contrast on the rocks to make it look like moss is growing on them and as you can see i'm taking full
advantage of that xenothol i have not highlighted anything anywhere only using transparent paint
to cover in tint spots finally though i did put some opaque paints on my palette black and white
i used the white to do some edge highlighting in the black to paint the edge of the base black
these processes are basically impossible or just inappropriate to do with transparent paints
but as i looked at the finished mini i thought of one more trick inks i used a magenta ink to
boost the color saturation on the cloth parts this transparent ink goes right on top and will
still show everything underneath it does not have that pool and darken in the recesses power that
the contrast and washes do it tint snot covers and i used indigo ink on all the black areas to
make them a little more blue and then the models are done i am very happy with these minis they are
quick to produce and have some really nice things going on it would have been quite a process if i
had primed them black and then painted them up to where they are now with regular opaque paints
but starting with a model nicely highlighted and strategically covering the mini with tint
washes and shades makes for a really interesting paint job very quickly it's something i forget
about all the time but it's really important opaque versus transparent paint it makes a big
difference they are designed to do different things if you use them the wrong way it can
lead to a lot of frustration and if you use them the right way you can get some amazing results
really quickly the transparent paint lets you see what's underneath so my airbrushed xenothon makes
the minis look smooth but sponging could create a rough interesting texture dry brushing could make
for some harsh highlights and stippling could add highlights right where you want them as opposed to
letting the airbrush make the decisions for you there's a lot of tricks with transparent paint
these minis painted up fast and i could have taken them even further perhaps some free handing decals
or dry brushing having gotten to this stage so fast all i want to do is keep painting
transparent paint for the win and what an excellent model last month i painted
up the squid mage and jim o'connor took up the challenge painting up his copy in stunning fashion
replicating the concept art from licorice perfectly and even sneaking a portrait of
danny devito's face into the tentacles great job and i hope to see many vine nights next month
if you want the stl version of the finite you can find that on our patreon and after the month of
june they'll be available to purchase and if you want to buy a physical copy there are two
links in the description below one for the us and one for the rest of the world thanks for watching