Fluorescent Panel Lining (TRON) - HC 408 

Also… Vince please say ‘giant robots’ again 😂

God, the capillary action of the pink pigment and alcohol brush dipped in the recesses felt so satisfying to watch, amazing chemistry mixtures.

I was just pondering a "glowing recesses" effect for some Infinity models and searched youtube with very low expectations. This video is great, and the technique is so accessible I could see it being used for all kinds of models in the future. Keep up the great work!

Love video's where you compare different methods. Love the problem solving part of our hobby.

As a chemist in a past life, I really enjoyed this more scientific/experimental approach where you detailed your thought process and hypotheses. Keep up the great educational content Vince!

For slowing down the alcohol evaporation, there are other alcohols than the iso-propyl one. I would suggest iso-butanol, or more common iso-pentanol (also called iso amyl alcohol). The will have the same effect on the surface tension but as they have higher boiling point, they will evaporate slower. These should be available in very good decoration center as they are use to thin some paints and varnishes.

I’m going to try this with a neon green to fill in the grouves of my seraphon weapons. Glowing cosmic Celestite weapons.

As the kids say, this is lit AF. It'd be really interesting to see an approach like this on something like a primarch to show some inner light radiating out.

I like the last one, too. The colors seem punchier, and the process seemed easy. I don't like oils because the clean up is nasty and smelly, and it takes forever to dry. Acrylics are water based and non-toxic, so being able to get the benefit of oil without the drawbacks is great. Thanks for this! :)

I already typed a comment going like ''well if ink and alcohol dries too fast try oils'' but of course, Vince was a step ahead of me and it came up in the video.

Some cyberpunk terrain would really look nice like this 👏

I got myself a long thin brush for panel lining at a local art shop. I was able to panel line with acrylic ink and flow improver without the dots with it easly enough.

Was very glad to see you go for alch and pigment. Had a feeling it would be the final choice too. The result seems more vivid, so the process and result seem better!

This was so cool! I can't wait for more of the Tron themed Tau. It's difficult to find simple ways to paint cyberpunk themes and I feel like this is a great step forward. Hope when it comes to the tau infantry you'll have some cool techniques to show

Just in time for my cyberpunk crew for Stargrave and Majestic 13!

Hmm perfect timing as I do some fluorescent trim and panel lines on my chaos knights

Another great tutorial I didn't know I needed. Love the look of the bright panel lines.

Thanks for showing 3 different options. Very nice comparison.

This was so cool! Thank you for helping us cheat!

AK Interactive has a new line of enamel washes for wargames and I think there’s some fluorescent colors in there. Would be worth a shot.

Love it! Saving this for the future.

Vincey V bringing the gems as always!!! I can see so many other applications to apply this to!

These are all amazing! Great look! A whole army would be stunning on the game board

Glad to see some one else had the same idea! Tron is one of my favorites and I'm talking about the classic tron! All the energy on my tau does the same thing! I love this all the way great job vince!

So happy to have this video. I've had an extremely similar idea for some Battletech Mechs but zero idea how to do it. This is going to help so much.

Thank you Vince, I've been trying to do this effect on my Eldar, and this is just what I needed!

I'll use this for glowing runes and such. Thanks for trying different methods!

this video needs to let me give it more than 1 like. What an amazing discovery! Thanks for sharing and explaining!

Was planning to try this on some Infinity minis, glad to see it really works!

Good stuff Vince!!

This is such a great Idea. I will definetly try it when painting runes on Leviathan's librarian

Man, you can really tell the difference in the vibrancy with number 3. Great video as always Vince

Awesome tips and tricks, thanks for sharing👍🏻😁

looking good vince! them minis look sharp too

Awesome as usual, Vince! Gonna have to try this on some plasma weapons.

YEEESSS absolute banger!

That was awesome!! Makes me wonder where else it could be useful to make a good, bright recess. Would certainly be something fun to play with!

Cool seeing multiple methods. I just started this same style on my Arc Troopers for SW Legion using the oil method. I used pure white to give it a bit more punch and then came in with AP speed paints. Got some cool effects. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Awesome video, Vince! Really loved the effect of the alcohol+pigment, can't wait to give it a try myself!

This video gives me a lot of ideas to try on upcoming projects…..thanks for demonstrating the three different approaches - I think I like your third approach best and will give it a whirl! Thanks again for your tutorials and time and effort - all appreciated greatly!

This is wonderful. I love it when people create these kinds of fun, unusual color combinations. I'm a kinesthetic/visual learner, and watching your videos to simply learn about painting is both helpful and fun - it takes me back to my childhood, watching my art professor Grandpa and my equally talented Nana paint and draw.

mention of my favorite movie and my favoite 40k faction in the same title? how could I not click on that video?? excellent work, and cool idea...will have to give that a try!

Very cool, only wish this had come out a month or two earlier as I'm working through my own Tau army right now. Been using ink + a heavy dose of flow improver with decent results so far, looks like I'll try adding some alcohol to the mix for my next batch!

Welcome to the Tau family buddy! Learning how to make recesses bright, is super tough, thank you for the tutorial!

There's a RU-vidr Barbatosrex who has a neon panel liner range that might be worth a test as well. I have only seen him demonstrate it on white plastic.

Love me some robits too, great work Vince

THANK YOU for making this video. i was having some issues with the Librarian from the Leviathan box and #3 did the trick!

The Barbaros Rex channel does tons of paint testing for model cars and Gundam kits. He has made a line of florescent panel liner paints under the Mecha Empire brand. He made them for Gundam kits, but it works perfectly for this application as well. That's how I made my brother's Kill Team Tau.

Wow, what a coincidence, I was just struggling with the same problem and I'm even also using pink! Granted, it's on a very different miniature, but still... This really helps, thanks!

Vince, I’ve had a blast experimenting with this technique. I had to get brave to try something new, but your video gave me the confidence to try it. My skill and ability as a painter have increased a ton as a result. After using this technique to fill in the runes on Trugg with fluorescent pigment, I made a little slurry of the pigment, airbrush thinner, and a very small amount of white primer to add some easy (and beautiful) glow to Trugg. I tagged you on IG on my WIP shot, but I wanted to comment separately to thank you for your amazing advice and encouragement!

Massive agree on the Golden High Flow Florescent Pink. Using it on my synthwave Tau.

Once you showed the comparison, the 3rd version stuck out the most and was vivid. This was the perfect video for a question I was asking myself. Thanks for the information, and the last version it shall be for me.

I've been working on just this sort of thing! I have found that "inner glow" effects do great if you use extremely bright recesses, and then shading in backwards from what one would normally do. (light to dark as opposed to darks to highlights). As always, thanks Vince! You're a wonderful teacher, and I love watching science happen :3

yess ive been waiting for this one (I also have tron tau but orange/black)

I just finished some Tau! This is just in time

Great stuff friend 👏 👍

I use white oils often on my Tau. I don't have a tron style, but it's very nice for things like shield generators glow and on shield drones/etc. Then I'll use either regular acrylic, flou, or both. Mix in some airbrush with white ink, and you can get a great glow. Even though I've developed a steady enough hand. Id much rather have more wait time than cleanup time. I can just use that wait time for another project.

Learned something again.

Thank you for sharing your secrets. I did try the AK titanium white ink with lots of flow improver and airbrush thinner and I did have the capilary effect. Maybe I've been lucky and the kind of reccesses was good for it.

I haven’t watched a vid in a while. You’re looking very healthy at the start!

Good one mate

Thanks, Vince. Very helpful and timely video! I’ll try option 3, I think. I’m lucky enough to have a Rotring pen, so I’ll try that for drawing in the lines, rather than a brush, though.

I’ve been using SMS fluro green lacquer paint on necrons and I’m loving it but was struggling with getting the white down so this is perfect

Awesome. I've been trying to work through something similiar, so it's exactly what I needed :) My wife makes resin tumblers, so I'm going to raid her supplies for Fluo pigments and alcohol inks :p

I would have been tempted by using a white oil wash instead of the iso plus white ink mix. Would be a really easy cleanup. White oil paint tends to dry even slower than most other oil paints though, so that would be an downside. Edit: I jumped the gun, since you compared your first method with oils later... Also good to note is that the oil paint you used dries faster than most artist brands.

I think this method would be great for my Leviathan Terminator Librarian. Thanks Vince

I've never been a first comment.....is this how it feels? Great video Vince as always!

I’ve done something similar with Necrons. Tamiya actually offers a white panel liner

I've been considering a similar scheme for my necrons, just in a florescent blue. The gauss rifle glow is a real pain to paint, and this may be just the trick I need for that. Thanks!

Really love this video. Would like to use this on T'au stealth suits.

Enjoyable video! A .05 or .005 rapidograph pen with white ink will also do the trick. If you use one that can be filled/refilled, you can also use it for the pink. Knew a fellow 35+ years ago that used to blackline EVERYTHING! Ancients, Renaissance, Thirty Years War, English Civil War, Napoleonic, Colonials, all the artillery, wagons and draft animals- EVERYTHING - all in 25mm - thousands of miniatures! As well as 1/1200th Age of Sail and WW2 Naval - all with a refillable rapidograph pen with permanent India ink.

I have been using alcohol as part of my painting process for years. But, never thought of adding it to inks, paints and pigments. Usually I self administer if 12 oz at a time.

Cool. I'm planning a Tau army soon. Probably not this scheme (wanting a very RoboTech inspired force), but can see others things to try this with.

Very cool! Maybe need to revisit some Tau

I let my Necrons sit unpainted for 5 years until someone pointed out that you could panel line with white oil paint. What's funny is that I used black oil paint to panel line on some of the same models that would have benefited from doing the same for the energy glow effects lol. I just did not make the connection because my sense of what oil paints could be used for on miniatures was very narrow.

I got good results in getting capillary action from white ink, by first painting on water, mopping that up, then painting on Liquitex Airbrush Medium, then mopping that up, then applying the white ink. Followed by colouring with Contrast paints is how I did the energy lines on my Necrons.

Since this video I started using Airbrush thinner to do panel-lining (because I believe it has alcohol in it) and it works very well! better than contrast medium I think.

Great video and awesome to watch, I can imagine a few younger viewers asking what's Tron? Lol

Very neat! GSW Pigments are a pain and a half to get, so I'm thinking I'm going to try laying down some high-flow fluo over an oil paint pinwash and see how that turns out. It might come out a little brighter with a snow white oil paint. Still plenty of room to experiment in this space. Still, I wonder if the effect of #3 would work with gold metal pigments. You could maybe get a bit of that 'porcelain broken and repaired with gold' look going on.

A new way to blackline!

Mecha empire, he makes colored panel liners, and he got fluo once. And they are acrylic. He also has a RU-vid channel, its Barbatos Rex and he got links for the vendors in the videos

Would be very curious to test out method number 3 using Vallejo Gloss Primer🤔 just to conserve time for a whole army.

Who doesn't love giant robuts?

4:15 Golden High Flow Fluorescents have been my favorite until Arnau Lazaro put me on Amsterdam Fluorescent inks during one of his workshops. I directly compared the two for opacity, brightness, tone etc and I have to give the nod to the Amsterdam inks. The Golden paints could very well be easier available in the US, but here in the Netherlands, it's the other way around (Royal Talens that makes the Amsterdam inks being a Dutch company).

Nicely done

Liked and subbed. I've been working on my first tau army (first 40k army) and was also going with Tron style... only my method is taking me forever. I prime in black, base coat a layer of aquamarine, then manually paint each panel black twice over. The effect is clean but it takes so stinking long. I'm going to try this with my crisis suits.

If this would be "guess the technique before watching the video", I'd wager a guess, that it's white oil paints to establish a crisp canvas in the panel line, then going over that with some artist's inks + flow improver. 😊

What a fantastic video!:) I think I'd personally go for white oil panel lining for ease of application/clean up and then the pigment and alcohol mix for the fluorescent step. I've seen a few artists like Juan Sanz use an airbrush with white oil washes very effectively to achieve a similar effect with more 'glow'. As an aside, I wonder if not using a pure white contributed to the less vibrant end result? Also, I wonder if it would pop even further with the selective addition of some more white at the end, maybe as a more thinned wash?

Uber cool results! Loved the last one. Did you apply any varnish to seal the pigment?

1) that is the correct and morally right way to pronounce robot 2) you say Tron, but those look like Bret Hart Tau

Brilliant. What did you use to edge highlight in the final pic? Incubi Darkness from citadel?

I will have other uses for this since I don't do 40k, so thanks. Plus Tron Tau look awesome!!! I will say that Golden flouresent green and yellow over Monument Hobbies Titanium White has unlocked Magic flame for me so thankyou again for recommending Golden!!! Did you say giant robits?

cool man, I just got some Tau to paint as well. I'm sticking with the style of scheme on the current boxes though, some weathered up, white plates. I have an idea for like a nightworld forest, themed base to contrast against the white of the armour, but then the black sections will be closer in tone for some unity, then with some luminous flora (kind of like pandora from avatar, at night, but just not quite as crazy as don't want to over power the minis) I do feel like this kind of base is gonna work though, and I might even start from a black basecoat, so everything is really dark, and then maybe try and do some OSL effects from the flora, so it really does look like it's a plan et with little to no sunlight. I did also think that it could be inside of a giant cave system, so it's more like it's just cut off from the majority of sunlight, but you can still explain highlights without having to get totally crazy with the paint scheme. I think if you really did a darkworld, that was only lit from the luminescant wildlife, the light sources on your mini and environment would be totally different to how you'd typically approach painting a mini. I think trying to tackle this would be a great project, but maybe a bit too advanced for me. I haven't done OSL before, so just want to start with something small. having some glow coming off my blue bushes will be a cool way to tie the minis into the base. not sure if it'll work, but gotta try it (I could just have the glow effecting the base as well though, it doesn't have to shine on the armour as well.

Love it! I'll have to try out your method some time! Out of curiosity, if you wanted extra capillary action, why not gloss varnish the mini first and satin varnish when you're done painting?

Perfect timing, I'm just getting started with my Boarding Patrol! Question regarding the third/your favorite method: Will the pigment 'stick' after being applied with just alcohol? Does it need to be 'finished' in any way? (also I hope I'll be able to say hi at Nova - you've been an inspiration!)

Hey Vince, I've been searching RU-vid for awhile trying to find a video about painting glows in recesses. If you ever find the time, could you do one for eyes? Ex: painting a red glow affect in the eyes of a chainrasp for AoS. Since they don't have the "ball" of the eye, I haven't been able to do it with other eye glow tutorials.

This is awesome, I tried oils before on a fire spray model for just this effect but it didn't really give me the hit I wanted, now I know why. If you wanted to take it up to display level is there somewhere neon panel lining can go? E.g white dots at sections across the recesses etc?

Really nice! Don't you think a quill/plume could be more precise and higher load than the brush? Regarding the oil method, would it be possible to take advantage of the longer drying time to make a gradation (for example from pink to turquoise)? Thanks!

Nice experiment; the 3rd method definetely looked the best. Just wondering if the fluorescent pigment's intensity would get knocked back down by a matt varnish or not.

If I want to get into oil paints is there a certain medium you would recommend I use to dilute them for washes? Thanks!!