How to Dry Brush Minis: Tips and Tricks - YouTube

Channel: Tabletop Minions

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in this video I'm going to teach you the
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tips and tricks to my favorite technique
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dry brushing
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in my opinion dry brushing is one of the
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best techniques in tabletop wargame
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hobby painting the ability to make it
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look as if you've gone through and put
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all kinds of extra detail into your
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model and really what you did is just
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sort of scrubbed around a little bit
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with the brush that's something that
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people who don't understand the Hobby
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people who are not in the Hobby they
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look at it and they go I don't know how
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you painted all the little tiny like
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loops of that chainmail hanging off of
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that guy's you know but or whatever and
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and and you can say you know if you want
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to you could be like oh well it took me
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a long time I had to paint every single
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loop with a brush that was only you know
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three pieces of hair or you could just
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be like yeah it's a technique and it's
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actually quite simple so what is dry
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brushing Webster's dictionary defines it
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as I have no idea because I didn't
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actually look it up but basically what
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it is is taking a brush putting a little
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bit of paint on it and then brushing
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most of it off onto a piece of you know
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paper towel or something like that and
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then when there's very very very little
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paint left then you start brushing it
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sometimes back and forth sometimes just
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one direction against your model and the
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reason you do that is because the raised
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parts of the model will then pick up
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that very miniscule piece of or extra a
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little bit of paint that's still left on
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the brush but it won't get hopefully all
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over the model only in the raised parts
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what this can do is it's kind of like
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the reverse of a wash a wash is a fluid
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that you put onto the model that gets
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into the nooks and crannies and makes
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the dark parts though the parts that
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should be dark darker whereas this is
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the opposite this hits just the raised
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areas and it is going to hopefully make
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them look highlighted now the trick is
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is that one is a fluid which is like you
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know wet and then this is the dry brush
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which is dry so you can kind of see how
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that works out
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now don't let anybody tell you that you
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have to use specific dry brush brushes
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to do this technique I do frequently
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still use old grungy brushes that just
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don't come to a point anymore and
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they're all fuzzy-looking and those are
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almost like the perfect ones you don't
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want to start with a good brush dry
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brushing with a good brush that you're
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then gonna try to get into a point again
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and do like you know detail work that's
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not a good plan you
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want to keep the brushes that are
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damaged and messed up and hold on to
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them and then they become your dry
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brushes but on the other hand there's
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plenty of companies out there that make
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specific dry brushes which actually a
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lot of them I do kind of like some of
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them them have like a a chisel tip to
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them some of them have longer bristles
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some of them are even almost like a
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stippling brush where it's round it kind
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of depends on what you're looking for
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but I do generally these days kind of
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play more with the the ones that are
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designed for it but you don't have to
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just hold on to your old brushes when
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they get all furry and nasty and then
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they become your dry brushes so
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generally how do you dry brush that's
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the question well you take your model
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and then you've got one of two ways to
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do it sometimes you want to use a color
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and brush back and forth up and down so
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if you see here if I can get him in the
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shot if I was to go up and down back and
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forth I would hit both sides of the
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raised parts of his little army coat
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here all that kind of stuff and
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sometimes you want that because you're
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trying to make something that's a little
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bit more akin to edge highlighting which
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is a fancy person's version of dry brush
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where you're trying to actually kind of
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catch every last little kind of fold an
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edge manually as opposed to
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automatically when you go up and down
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maybe that's not the right term but
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let's just go with it however sometimes
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you want to only brush one direction and
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the reason you would do that is so that
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you're trying to kind of make it look as
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if the light is hitting the model from
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above I did a video quite some time ago
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about painting light onto your model
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pachow and in that I kind of talked a
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little bit about you know the light
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comes from above in most situations and
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so therefore we kind of paint as if the
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light is hitting the bottom you know if
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you put lighter paints on the top and
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then darker paints underneath and you do
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all that with dry brushing when you're
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only going one direction you're doing
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kind of that same thing but it's not a
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necessity in all situations so which
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paints would you use for dry brushing
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you can use your normal paints and there
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are companies that make special dry
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paints but you don't have to use those
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if a paint is really really really
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really liquid I would probably not try
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to dry brush it right away I would maybe
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let it sit out a little bit so it starts
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to get a little bit drier a little bit
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like tackier stickier and then use it
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I wouldn't necessarily but it's up to
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you I don't generally put my paints that
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I'm going to use for dry brushing into
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my wet palette because the wet palette
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makes them letter which is great for
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normal layering but you don't want that
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for dry brushing so in this situation I
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usually stick it like on a piece of
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plastic like here you can see I've got
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just a piece of garbage plastic that I
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found in literally the garbage and I'm
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using it as a little palette for my
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colors this kind of stuff can letting it
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set up just a little bit if it's really
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fluid is you know not a bad idea if
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you're dipping into a Paint Pot like a
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citadel or p3 from Privateer Press you
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probably don't need to go and transfer
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you can probably go straight from the
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pot and then directly to the paper towel
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the paper towels that actually the
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really important part alright so step
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one we take our dry brush and we dab a
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little bit and get it on there and then
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we take it and we go to town and we try
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to get as much of it off as possible
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kind of back and forth back and forth
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not in focus anywhere maybe here and you
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basically are just trying to get it so
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there's almost barely any left on there
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and then you take your model and then
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you just start going back and forth now
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it's a subtle thing especially in this
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situation since I'm using a gray primed
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model and I'm using a gray you know a
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dry brush but sometimes you want that
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extra layer you want that extra kind of
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just difference in some situations you
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might do a wash first like a dark wash
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over this gray and then decide to go and
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do a little bit after that dries
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completely then start doing your dry
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brush but it depends there's a lot of
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things you can do and you can see I'm
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kind of being fast and loose with it I'm
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just going back and forth scrub a scrub
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and that's pretty much about it that's
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what makes dry brushing a lot of fun and
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a great technique to add more detail a
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little bit more contrast to your models
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so now the question is well what color
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paint should I use for dry brushing in
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most situations you use a lighter color
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than the color you're going over and
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when I mentioned before the whole
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chainmail thing generally you want to
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paint the chainmail
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area black and get as much of the black
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into the little nooks and crannies of
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the chainmail as possible let it
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completely dry and then dry brush
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maybe silver maybe brass depends on what
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you want your metal to look like in this
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situation again I've got this gray army
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guy and I am going to in the last one I
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used grey on the gray was a slightly
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lighter gray over a darker grey so it's
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subtle but sometimes you don't want to
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be subtle sometimes you go and you grab
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some white and then you brush it off and
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get most of it off and then you start
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going to town and then you're gonna
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start to see some definite change to the
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tone you're gonna in some situations you
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can use the dry brush ISM even less than
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just a highlight but more as the color
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in the orcs that I did recently on the
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Hobby progress vlog their armor was
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initially just all prime black and I did
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the silver dry brush to bring up that
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color so it looks like it was painted
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silver and then darkened down but what I
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actually did was I started at black and
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I silvered it up with silver dry
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brushing you do the same type of thing
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with necrons a lot of different types of
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models dry brushing can really help so
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again you're taking a little bit and
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you're brushing it off here on the white
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paper you can't really see that I'm
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getting it off but it's coming off and
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then you just kind of go back and forth
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and you get the detail that you want and
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it might look a little weird but it does
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work out wow this guy's little he has a
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waist and it spins these are dust models
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from back in the dust tactics day I had
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no idea - little whisk their little
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waists would spin that's spectacular
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anyway so again just adding some detail
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and bringing some of that contrast out
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to where you can really find something
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that's gonna help your model I hate to
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say pop but standout pop frankly a
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little bit more on the table and so
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remember using any kind of brushes like
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this whether it's your you know
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purpose-built dry brushes made by say
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army painter that I've got here in some
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Citadel or it's just a brush that you've
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beat the heck and had for a long time
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and now it decides to retire into you
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know being a dry brush or even there are
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brushes out there there are makeup
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brushes that are made by a company
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called elf
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that Terry Latour Co from that Terry
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girl her YouTube channel she swears by
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them for dry brushing and you can get
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them at like Walmart and places like
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that she's a big fan her links are down
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in below but it's it doesn't have to be
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a type of paint brush I like those
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because they frequently have a chisel so
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you can kind of get him into places you
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want but any kind of brush even artstor
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brushes real cheap ones will work great
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for dry brushing dry brushing is also
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super important in terrain pretty much
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if you're gonna do any kind of rocks if
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you're gonna do any kind of bricks if
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you're gonna have any of that kind of
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stuff you're gonna be dry brushing it
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first go with a dark color to paint the
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actual thing prime it or whatever base
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coated and then a lighter color to dry
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brush and that's what makes terrain
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really stand out and work quickly and
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dry rushing with a big brush not
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something this small but a bigger brush
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not a house brush but you know you can
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really get through a lot of terrain very
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quickly with a good wide maybe an inch
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wide brush and really go to town to make
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your terrain look a lot better and make
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it look like you took a lot of time to
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paint all that detail in there so if
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you've never a dry brush before because
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you've just kind of started in this
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hobby definitely get it into your
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Arsenal as soon as you can really start
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to figure out how to do it it's really
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easy you can just test it on some
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whatever kind of models again find some
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army man or whatever not necessarily
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these guys but some sort of army men
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prime them like a dark color and just
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start dry brushing or just jump in and
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start working on your next project and
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start doing some dry brushing or work on
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some terrain you could do that too
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because
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worse comes to worse you just prime it
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again real quick and start over dry
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brushing it's easier to have too little
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paint on the brush than it is to have
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too much so make sure you get as much of
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it off as you possible on your paper
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towel or whatever and get it off of
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there and then start brushing and if it
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doesn't really look like it did much
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well then you can do it again but it's
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kind of hard to go if you back the other
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direction if you didn't brush off enough
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dry brushing is one of the standards I
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do not believe that it is cheating I
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don't believe it is a beginner technique
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that you should get rid of down the road
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especially if you're trying to get stuff
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on the tabletop if you dry brushed your
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entry for the golden demon of the
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crystal brush or something like that no
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okay maybe that's a different store
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because at that point you're probably
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gonna be getting an edge highlighting
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but for stuff that you are trying to get
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on the tabletop dry brushing is why
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