How To Paint Dark Angels Tactical Squad (Lenses)
Hello and welcome to another post on my continuous series about how to paint a Dark Angels Tactical Squad. You can find the rest of the posts in the drop down menu above.
This week I’m looking at how to paint the eye lenses on the helmets of the tactical squad. There are many ways to paint lenses, but this is a nice and easy method that can also be used for any other lens or scope, etc. on your models.
The first stage is to give the base colour to the eye lens. I’ve gone for red with these Dark Angels as a contrast. For your models you may wish to think which colour gives the best contrast to the main armour colour so that they stand out. I’ve used Citadel Mephiston Red.
The best way to do this is to make sure you have a fine point on your brush and use the shape of the brush to do each side of each lens (it should be a teardrop shape). If you hold the model perpendicular to the table then this will work best and help you avoid getting any over the rest of the helmet.
As always use thinned paint, it’s much easier to build it up than to take any away. It will also give you more control over the paint:
The next stage is a fine line of Citadel Trollslayer Orange. Again keep the model on its side and it may be best to turn over for each eye. Using a fine point, or a smaller brush, you want to paint a line along to bottom of the lens. It’s nice to get some of the curve, but this isn’t necessary. Think of it as an opposite of other highlights as this is showing the light refracting through the glass rather than reflecting from it:
Do the same with a line of Citadel Yriel Yellow, but this one should be even finer, and cover less that the orange from the previous stage. Think of it as a two stage highlight.
If you want you can then paint a dot of Citadel Skull White on the top part of the lense to give the illusion of a light source reflecting from the most prominent point of the ‘glass’:
That’s all for a nice and simple lens effect. Again, you can use any colour you want, and would recommend using lighter shades of your base colour rather than adding white to your base colour, as adding white can make it look chalky.
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