Glazing

What is glazing?
For those unfamiliar with glazing it works like thin transparent layers added on top of an area which has already been finished with shading and highlights. The glaze slightly changes the hue of the underlying colour depending on the colour you glaze the area with. In most cases glazing is used to enrich the underlying colour, but it might also help to get a more smooth transition between the highlights. When glazing I usually add a drop of washing up liquid (also called dish soap) to the paint as this gives a more even coverage.

Using Tamiya Clear Colours for glazing
I use Tamiya clear Colours primarily for glazing and in some washes as well. I mostly thin them with water and washing up liquid, but sometimes - for instance if I want a really rich and glowing gold - I add some clear orange straight from the bottle on top of the already shaded and highlighted area.

Tamiya Clear Colours have a strange consistency which will affect other colours if they are mixed together. This can be used to ones advantage for instance by mixing a glaze of a few drops of a matt black (Chaos Black) and mixing with Tamiya Clear Colour and water. Thus the gloss character of the Tamiya will become semi-matt but the glaze will still have the strange and wonderful consistency of the Tamiya.

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