Wraithlord... finished!

Well, at last some progress. While painting my Wave Serpents, I made a break and started painting something else, and the Wraithlord happened to be laying around. That's something very usual in my painting schedules: I simply don't respect them too much. Luckily, this time I've managed to finish this model before jumping to a different one. The fact that it has just taken me four days has helped, indeed.

The model had been assembled for over a year (yes, I know, shame on me). I made some minor conversions on it: cutted and replaced the leg to give an illusion of movement (as if it were actually walking or "advancing"), and also modelled some "lightnings" on the wraithsword (a personal signature in several of my models). I was strongly inspired by Jamie's miniature on Coolminiornot, as I stated in a post over a year ago.

For the paintjob I used the very same techniques I had applied on the rest of my army: stippling of different blues with bone as the contrast colour, and details in red (spirit stones). Additionally, I tried something different with the wraithsword (which has no actual effect in gaming terms): I didn't want something too striking as the sword was just a detail and not the focal point of the model, while at the same time I wanted to get something somehow eye-catching. So I decided for a turquoise colour (which is blue-ish after all, as most of the model) and painted some reflections on the blade. I think I've succeeded, and I'm really happy with the result.

It's not completely finished, the base needs a few more washes and a bit of grass, and I want to paint a couple of white stripes somewhere (my usual army markings), but who knows when will I do it...

Ok, enough chatting, it's time for some pics. A little Photoshop et voilà. Hope you like them!

Painting for dummies – easy OSL

While working my eldar vehicles, I had to make a decision when it came to paint the cockpit and the pilot. You know, it is a well detailed part of the model, but it will be rather obscured once its cover has been glued on place. Besides, being that cover made out of plastic (and not true glass, which is more transparent), the painting below won’t be really appreciable, and that is really a pity.

So instead of painting it “normally”, I decided to think of a quick and effective way to bring it out with a minimal effort, and I came with the idea of an easy OSL (Object Source Lighting) effect suppossed to be caused by the glow of the screen in front of the pilot. I painted it in less than five minutes and using only five colours (Chaos Black, Dark Angels Green, Snot Green, Scorpion Green and Skull White).

So here’s the recipe:

• Paint the whole cockpit Chaos Black
• Drybrush it all heavily with Dark Angels Green
• Drybrush it again with Snot Green, not so heavily and concentrating mainly on the areas in which the ligh coming from the screen would fall most (front of the face, chest and inner arms)
• Drybrush it lightly with Scorpion Green in the main focal areas of light impact (front of the face and hands)
• Paint the screen Snot Green
• Paint some lines (references or axis) and dots (objectives or enemies) in the screen with Scorpion Green
• Paint the center of the dots with a mixture of Scorpion Green and Skull White to bring them out

Et voila! The cockpit is done and ready for action. Fear the Serpent, mon-keigh!

Update - Tyranid Prime

Those last weeks I've been busy with lots of things at the same time: exams, job interviews, family... and regarding the hobby, I've been working on lots of projects (all at the same time): imperial guard commissions, my eldars (I have two serpents half-finished already hehe), Space Hulk, my GD project, Blood Bowl... and of course my tyranids.

Even though I'm not pleased with the last changes made to the army, I like my bugs too much to simply put them in the shelves and forget them. I've managed to design a 1.000 point list that will require minimum additions to my current army. This will allow me to keep playing small games with them while I finish the rest of my projects and feel like working more seriously with Tyranids again.

For the list I need:

- Two Hive Guards: great minis indeed, but a real pain to assemble. I will say it again: a real PAIN. The arms and legs didn't fit well in their holes and I had to pin most of them and use loads of greenstuff (greystuff in my case, as I'm using now super sculpey). That took me lots of hours, and even a phonecall to my local GW store just for the sake of complaining. Eventually I got both properly assembled, this afternoon I'll base them and tomorrow they'll be primed.

- One Trygon: no comments on this, simply a great mini with great rules and a relatively low price. Already assembled and primed, I have to paint it - I estimate between 6-8 hours.

- One Tyranid Prime: hah, there is no specific model for this bug. I suppose that GW wants us to get creative for the moment, and although I'm not too fond of self-made conversions - strange for a tyranid player, ins't it? - I picked the glove up and started thinking...

First, I wanted a close combat oriented leader, with a main role of "character killer", so twin boneswords were an obvious choice, and I decided to complement them with a pair of scything talons (because those are cool and came for free). I also decided to give him toxin sacks to maximize the chances of causing a wound (watch out Wraithlords out there!) and nothing else, so I could use it as a dangerous and at the same time cheap model.

Once the main options of the model were chosen, came the period of innovative design. I wanted it to stand out among other warriors, but didn't know very well how to do so if it was going to share most parts (arms, legs, torso...) with them. Then I read an article on the GW webpage and I found the solution. But that meant using lots of pieces and spending a considerable amount of money, unless...

... unless I could take advantage of some models I had laying here and there, and at the same time order some bits from one of those online stores that trade with GW kits (thanks Bits & Kits UK for that), and look for something special on e-bay. So I took my old Death Leaper - got it a couple of years ago, when the model appeared for the first time, and had only primed it - and chopped its arms and head, so I could use its legs and torso (with the plus of a cool looking stinging tail). Then I ordered a couple of scything talons and a head from the Ravener kit, because they are bigger and more vicious-looking than the ones in the Warrior kit, and the head has side mandibles and those look great too. And for extra armor, I gathered a couple of armor plates and toxin sack upgrades from my own bit box (full of different biomorphs after years of collecting nids).

And then I arrived to the most delicate point of my conversion: the boneswords. I had simply no idea of how to do them, and was thinking on doing something similar to this (thanks Bigred from BOLS) when while having a look on e-bay I found a perfect solution: a bet on some old plastic Tyranid Warriors from the Space Hulk set... that I won! I simply cut the hands with boneswords and attached them to the typical deathspitter set, adding to the arm with the weapon the back piece of its counterpart to make them more balanced. And tada! The model was finished!




I'll prime it tomorrow with the Hive Guards so I'll have it ready for painting... hope I'll manage to have it ready for gaming in no more than a couple of weeks!

A new year starts

Well, 2010 already. I’ve neglected my blog for too long, for certain reasons that now have been overcome. Let’s make a short summary of the last year in terms of paintjobs finished, so to see my final score for 2009:

- 10 termagants: 10 points
- 16 warriors of Gondor: 16 points
- 2 Leman Russes (commission work): 20 points
- 1 Chimera (commission work): 10 points
- 4 Sentinels (commission work): 20 points
- 20 Imperial Guards (commission work): 20 points
- 1 space marine chaplain (well painted): 5 points
- 3 gnoblars*: 3 points
- 12 Blood Bowl players (lizardmen): 12 points

Plus the 36 points collected previously, this makes a total of...

152 points!

Well, an excellent number, with only one small problem: half of them are commission jobs... Anyway, it’s already a fact that my brushes and I are in good terms again after a lot of years.

Now, objective for 2010: beat this score!

* Presents for some friends, a little of a funny experiment for me. Nice minis to tell the truth :)

Some Pics

Wow. Three months since my last post. That stands as a record. I should be somehow embarrased, but the truth is I’m not. I’ve come to accept the fact that I neglect to attend my blog properly, and that’s it. Life is though when you are a blog in my hands, I suppose.

Summer is gone, beachtime is over, and my painting progress hasn’t gone too far. I’ve painted another Leman Russ and a Chimera for my usual customer, and currently I’m working on a couple of Sentinels and some imperial guards for him. They should be finished by now, but two weeks ago I was stupid enough to accept an invitation to play soccer, and I broke my thumb during the match. Hell, one year after I broke my fibula and got half-lame for the rest of my life (‘cause it didn’t recover entirely), one year since my last friendly match, and I get another souvenir from this damned sport. I’ve promised myself to practise sports uniquely in the Playstation from now on, although I fear for my fingers...

I only want to post some pics today. The first ones are shots of the tanks mentioned above, the second ones of the fire dragon exarch that won me “Best WH40K individual” prize in my local GW painting contest in June. Thanks to my friend Ergman for taking the pictures, although the tank ones didn’t have the correct exposure level selected and look a little “blue-ish”. Anyway, it’s still possible to get the idea of the paintjob. The exarch ones look great in my opinion.

More news sooner or later (who knows).

New update - really needed

Hi there,

I haven't posted anything in the last weeks, as usual. But that's just been because either I've been busy doing stuff, or I've just felt too lazy to type in my laptop. Now I can't delay this anymore, so there go my news.

First, I've lost my job. That means a big reduction in my monthly income, but on the other hand a great increase in my free time (who says I don't think always positive?). I've taken advantage of this fact for painting a couple of things I entered in a local GW painting contest, winning best entry in WH40K single and placing second overall. a pity I didn't place first and won the trophy, but hey, the winner entered an old school giant that was really gorgeous. But next year I'm commited to win, be sure of that! (evil laugh on the backstage). I'll post some pics of my entries as soon as I recover them from the store, where they're currently on display.

Later, I decided that if I put together less monthly income and increase in free time I should get something like get yourself some kind of job!. Therefore, I asked at the store if there was anybody interested in my painting abilities for commisions. It turned out that one of the staffs knew a guy who wanted to get some IG tanks painted, so we talked a bit and reached an agreement. He asked me for a top-quality painted Leman Russ in urban camouflage, and the rest was up to me.

Reaching this point, I must admit two things: first, this was the first time I painted any GW vehicle, and second, for the last months I've been really interested on learning how to paint armor in historical style. In February I bought some books, DVDs, painting material new to me (such as oils) and eventually an airbrush. But I was a bit afraid to put all this knowledge in a real model, just because I wasn't feeling too confident with all this new stuff. But now I had the opportunity of trying it and get paid, so I dusted my equipment box and got my hands on it.

First thing I did was assembling the model. Man, that took me over two hours, how can there be son many pieces in a simple Leman Russ? It's much easier with my bugs - body, legs, arms, head, symbiont stuff. In the end I decided to add some extras to the model, such as extra supplies, canvas and so on, because I wanted to get a hardened veteran of several campaigns assigned to a regiment who has been through months of war, and thus damaged by the elements and carrying supplies for its crew. I tried some of those extras and placed them in the model with blu-tack to make myself and idea of the final result until I was happy with the result.



Then, the paintjob started. I used the airbrush for the first stages and for adding dust in the lower parts of the tank, and oils for outlining the armor plates and adding dirtyness. A light drybrush was also needed for adding subtle highlights, and then I used the sponge method for the chipping. And I was happy with the result!


The last part of the paintjob were mostly details: the caterpillar tracks, the already mentioned supplies, the heavy weapon sponsons and also the heavy stubber gunner. I limited the colour palette in all the model to greys for the main colours, browns for dirt and leather (straps, bags and the like), silver for the bare metal and red for contrast. In the end, it turned out to be a solid scheme with which I'm very fond of. I've taken some pics of the finished model, there they go.







The customer was very happy with the job, and he's ordered me another Leman Russ and a Chimera in the same scheme of colour. Well, it seems that at least I'm gonna have enough cash to pay my beers for the next weeks...

Games Day '09

Well, it's been (again) a lot of time since my last post. Frankly, I haven't been in the mood for writing lately; I've simply had too many things to do besides the hobby. I've managed to play a few games and finish my participation in the "Emperor's Fist" WH40K campaign, where I haven't classified for the final round but I've achieved four wins, four losses and a draw (not that bad). And I've painted some of those new Gondor warriors I've adquired for the new "War of the Ring" game, hopefully the whole army will be ready in a few months. I've 16 ready, so my painting counter has been properly increased.

Today I'm just bringing you some pictures of the Games Day that took place yesterday. Finally I didn't bring any entry, as I've been very short of time those last months. A pity, but also a good motivation for next year. I want to share with you a few of the pictures I took in the event, some real masterpieces you only find every now and then.

First of them is the Space Wolf brought by Luis, a nice mate and great painter who holds at home about twenty Demons (half of them are golden ones). But again, the Slayer Sword was not awarded to him! I think he has some kind of curse on him with that trophy, something really weird. I'm sure you'll grab that hilt some day dude, you'll only have to surprise us one time more!


This shot is one of the firsts I made, I think those falcons are two of the finalists of the "Best Vehicle" category. I like both a lot!


And the last pic is of an entry that surpasses the rest in originality and finesse. I think that is a job of a French guy (probably monsieur Bonamant) and is simply... amazing. I don't know if it got a trophy, due to that Games Workshop policy of rewarding not only the paintjob but the games universe spirit (and this piece is not what I call "Workshop" style). Anyway, great job indeed.


Next post: local GW painting contest in June. Oh yes, I have a project again.

Miscellaneous

Hi again! It’s been three weeks since last time I posted on my blog. Did you think I was being idle all this time? Not at all! I have a big bunch of news to write here, but not too much time; so I’ll try to be as brief as possible, without skipping any of the things I’ve been doing lately. Hard but...

First of all, painting job. I’ve finished another brood of ten termagaunts, already varnished and ready for battle. This means another ten points for my score, yes! I’ve also started painting two tyranid warriors to complete my five-bug brood; they’ll be ready for next week (and then I’ll add another four points to my score, yes yes yes).

But that’s not all. I’ve been told that there is a painting contest in a hobby shop in my city, and I’m planning to present my squad of dire avengers. For that mean, I have to finish painting the exarch of the squad (another point) and prepare a base to show them in all their glory. I’ve been looking for a circle-shaped one, but can’t find any with the proper size, until this very afternoon I entered a carpentry which was ending business and found some great ones at half price! I’m glad with it, and now I only have to model some terrain with a bit of clay (I’m not scared about that although it’s the first time I model terrain, but any help or advice will be really welcome).


In the picture you can see the base I got, and also two things more: first, a small tool case I’m gonna use to keep the tons of bits I have scattered around my home (that I’ve also bought today – great shopping day indeed); and second, some miniatures that belong to my recently started project... an army of Gondor for the new “War of the Ring” game! I’ve to admit that I never thought of getting some of the LotR minitures, not because of their quality (some of them are quite good indeed) but for the gaming rules used, that I disliked very much. But hey, the new system uses batallions of troops. Batallions! I’m imaging a couple of hundreds of soldiers in the board fighting each other in a somehow “historical” style and... well, can’t stop drooling :) Some of my mates had already started their armies and I simply couldn’t resist... so I picked up an army that was not being used yet, and chose the Gondorians because 1.They seem really easy to paint, and 2.I’ll be able to field lots of beautiful armoured soldiers, that can be led by Gandalf or Aragorn himself! Besides, I’have access to some really special units, like the Army of the Dead, and can include some allies too (although I think I’ll favour a “pure” Gondor army). At the same time, I’ve had an idea about how to make easier their storage, and have decided to magnetize them all to their movement trays, and then I’m planning to magnetize the trays themselves so they can stick to a metal tool case I have yet to buy.


I’ve calculated that I can keep the whole army in a medium sized case. That would be great because I don’t have so much room left at this moment! I’m using some magnets I got from the internet (as opposed to the USA, it’s difficult to buy them where I live). The result is simply terrific; and I’ve started calling it “Lord of the Magnets: the Game”, hehehe.

Wow, it’s late again. I haven’t finished writing all I wanted to, and in fact I’ve left the best part of it! Well, although I’m extremely busy lately, I hope I’ll post the remaining stuff in the following days... I’ve been working on it really hard!

Year 2009: First model finished

Well, this weekend I’ve finally managed to get some time to spend on my minis. At first I had planned to start painting my Wraithlord, but eventually I just added on it some “extras” while I finished the paintjob of my first Vyper with some freehands. After that I gave it a couple of coats of varnish and took a few pictures to post them here, but before I played a bit with Photoshop again … I still have to find a satisfactory way to process my pics, but I feel that this has been a step forwards.



This model also means my first five points awarded for finishing miniatures this year! Wooooooo!! Well, to be sincere this model has actually been mostly painted in late 2008, but I’m gonna give me the points as Admiral Drax does – it doesn’t matter how long it takes, it does when it is done! And I’ve spent no less than three hours this weekend on it, so I think this is perfectly justified.

I guess I’ll start with the Wraithlord this weekend. It’s one of my favourite models of the Eldar army, and I’ve added my “personal touch” on it… more on this in a few days :)

Painting markers

I’ve been very busy lately, and haven’t been able to finish any of my projects during January. Shame on me again, but I’ve made some progress nonetheless. First, I’ve seriously considered including (and mastering a bit if possible) a new painting technique to my already learned ones (more info on this soon). Second, I‘ve directed my main efforts towards painting my bugs, almost finishing a few gaunts. Third, being a bit fed up of painting always the same stuff, I decided to give myself a short break and paint something completely different but nonetheless quite useful: counters and markers. I decided going for those after playing a few games and noticing a real need of a way to control the numbers of wounds caused on a miniature, the leadership tests to be taken by a unit after the shooting phase, pinned units and so on; besides, I wanted to try a bit of freehand just for the sake of it. I’ve already finished modelling a wound counter for my tyranids (again, more info on this soon) and finished some basic markers for my 40K games.

The markers are really simple: I took some spare round bases I had laying in my bitz box and glued some circles of plasticard on top of them (to get a perfectly flat surface). I primed them black, and painted some warning symbols on them. The red ones will serve for serious leadership tests, such as panic, and will identify fleeing units too; while the yellow ones (not finished yet) will quickly identify pinned/to ground units.

I’m quite happy on how they turned out, and although I was looking for a more serious look in them, they have some kind of “comic book” look I like very much. I’m planning to do some more of those for representing objectives, psychic powers and more stuff I may need during a game. Anybody has an idea I could use for their design? I’d thank any contribution :)

Happy 2009!!

New year already! Wow, these last days have passed so fast I've barely have time to spend in the hobby. My last post is from the 16th of December! Oh my, Christmas time is sooo consuming... meeting the family, doing a lot of shopping, calling old friends, fighting the flu... every year the same story for me :)

I've had two weeks of holidays and this is the very first really free day of the agenda. So all my carefully planned painting schedules have been ruined, as always. OK, on Wednesday I'll come back to my working routine, maybe then I'll be able to keep painting at a consistent pace... I really hope so.

Meanwhile, I've taken a pinture of my eldar warhost at its current state. The Vyper is not finished yet, and I challenge you to guess which will be the next addition to the force... c'mon, its easy!


Currently I'm painting some termagaunts (like the one lurking behind the blue guys in the picture), I'd like to have an all painted tyranid army for the inminent inter-store tournament; after that I'll continue with my Alaitoc force. And talking about painting and schedules, I've just read a post from Lone Pilgrim about giving oneself some kind of "score" for painting minis, and I've liked the idea a lot (thanks mate). I'm sure it will encourage me to finish my army sooner, and other minis as well. I've thought of something like this, very similar to his scoring style:

• Infantry miniatures in standard round bases - 1 point
• Heavy infantry (big round bases), bikes and the stuff - 2 points
• Light vehicles, dreadnoughts, monstruous creatures, walkers, etc. AND top grade painted minis (e.g. commanders) - 5 points
• Vehicles - 10 points
• Superheavies - 20 points (although these are not in my list)

Let's go working :)

Advances achieved

The army is growing!!

Well, not exactly a flow of troops, but I've finished painting five basic Dire Avengers. It has taken me ages, due to both the facts of still being under recovery from my broken leg and the damned colour scheme I've picked for them. It seems that I never learn…


I had first planned to paint them using the standard GW scheme, but then I had one of those moments of inspiration and decided to try something completely different. I wanted to give them a really serious looking style, standing out their elite role in the army, something generally obviated in favour of other aspect warriors; and at the same time I wanted to give them a monastic and sober look, in order to point out their courage and stoical attitude in battle. So these guys were going to have a very reduced pallete of colours, and a single contrast colour. And they weren't going to be painted in GW's style, but more in Rackham's, meaning softer highlights and different mixtures of paints.

So I started with a basecoat of Enchanted Blue, washed it with a mixture of Iyanden Darksun and Badab Black (those ink products are priceless for army painters, how have I been able to live before they were released?) and then repainted Enchanted Blue in most of the armor plates and progressively highlighted them with Hawk Turquoise (two highlights were enough for me). I painted the facemask, the crest of hair, the shuriken catapult and some other accesories with Chaos Black, and highlighted them (but the facemask) with Scaly Green, Scaly + Snot Green (50/50), and pure Snot Green. Also painted all the gems and eyes in green colours. Finally, I painted the clothes, ribbons and the two stripes-for-troop-integration in white for contrast. The result was different and good indeed, at least for me, although the miniatures turned out to be a bit too dark, and the highlight work is so subtle that it can only be appreciated at close range and not in the tabletop (a real pity, but hey, that's also something I've learnt with this experiment). Also, my camera seems to have problems to distinguish between blue and turquoise, and the pictures I've taken don't do justice to the paintjob, but that's something I can't change by now.

Finally, I Photoshop-ed the pictures in order to give them a cooler look. Well, at least that was the idea; I'm not an expert on photo edition. But again, I'm happy with the results :) Those Avengers look really menacing! Shake with fright mon-keigh, the true warriors of Asuryan are coming!

Hope you like those guys. Advice and suggestions are always welcome!

Chipped paint tutorial

In my previous post I posted some pics showing an experiment I had made on weathering techniques. Some people have asked me how I did it, and I’ve tried my best to write a SBS with some pictures. Hope this is ok, I’m really a noob with those writing-and-explaining things.

For some time, I’ve been amazed with the weathering effects I’ve seen in recent models. Well, with recent I mean since 2006 or so. It’s obvious that in the painting community there have been some kind of changes, evolving from the omnipresent “old school” style (McVey’s old ‘Eavy Metal style) to more diverse trends and schools, each of them very well defined. We have now the non-metallic metal (NMM) trend, for example, which has become very popular (thanks for example to the painting staff of Rackham miniatures); and opposed to it we have the True Metallics trend, which has redefined the way of painting with metallic paints. Besides, different styles or “schools” have been created, each one with its distinctive characteristics: some use glazing as the main resource, some aim at ultra-realistic painting, some use freehands extensively, and so on.

Of all these styles and schools, the best known and respected for professional painters is undoubtedly the French school. Their style of extreme cleanliness and super-smooth colour transitions, coupled with several new and original colour theories, have placed them at the Olympus of the miniature painters for a long time. This doesn’t mean that the best painters in the world are French, of course there are great painters in all the world, but their style is clearly defined, easily recognized and justly feared in all the Golden Demon contests. Moreover, recent achievements obtained by some other different schools owe to the French school part of their basis, sharing with it several concepts (such as colour theory) although following a different evolution in other fields.

One field the French painters started developing a couple of years ago were new and more realistic weathering techniques, especially focused on rust in metals and damages in paint (chipped paint). I remember being amazed when looking to those superb paintjobs in Coolmini, wondering how in Earth was possible to paint that, and firmly believing that never in my life I’d be able to do something like that.

Until last week.

In recent years, my own style has also evolved. I used to paint in the “old school” style (still my favourite for painting miniatures for gaming), but then I started becoming more interested in the new techniques I was seeing being developed. I was lucky enough to know a couple of high-level painters who were also very friendly, and they taught me different tricks and gave me useful tips for improving my painting. Also, I found in internet almost endless resources on the field of miniature painting. With the passing of the time, I have gathered a lot of resources in different webpages, hand-written notes in my notebook, and also a couple of books I’ve procured. And it was about time to put them to work.

Ok, sorry for this long introduction. Now let’s go to business: the Star Vagabonds’ chipped paint tutorial (or how to spoil nicely flat surfaces with rust). And to make it easy (and short) I’ll make it simple, using as example a plastic rod from any plastic kit (see brush for size reference).

I didn’t prime the rod to save time, and directly painted it with Shadow Grey. Then I gave it a few glazes of Chaos Black and Space Wolves Grey to give it some volume, although this effect is barely recognisable on the pictures, due to poor lighting (it is possible to see it better in the yellow painted – orange glazed rod of my previous post).

Then I took a small piece of sponge (or foam, well I don’t know how to say it in English; any help over there?). The size of its “grain” is important, as it must be very small. I used the material GW supplies with its blisters, the very same material where the rod is laying on the pictures.

I made a mix of Dark Flesh and Bestial Brown, dipped a little bit the sponge in it and carefully but quickly “hit” with it the places of the rod where I wanted to have rust. In this step it is very important to have a colour that is really rust-looking (Dark Flesh mixes are perfect), and also to place this rust in natural places for it, such as sharp edges and broken parts of the material (the edge of the rod, for example). And also, it is essential to remember that less is more, and overdoing with the sponge will ruin the general effect. Be gentle with it, and it will reward you. This is the result I obtained.

Last, you can add a few more details, such as different tones of rust (I used Vermin Brown for it) or even bare metal showing itself under the rust. But remember that those are just details, don’t overdo them. Less is more!

The final step to give real volume to the chips of paint would be underlining the rust areas with a thin line of a colour lighter than the base. That would be Space Wolves Grey in our case, but I was feeling too lazy to do it in a plastic rod. Instead, I’ll post a picture of the Warmachine Deathripper I’ve painted this weekend to show this effect (sorry for the poor quality of the picture).

This effect can be used in a lot of surfaces, but excels in flat surfaces, such as those found on vehicles or certain miniatures (space marines, for example). But the possibilities are infinite, and yours to play with them.