How to Glaze Warhammer 40,000 Miniatures for Smooth Transitions

October 14, 2026

How to glaze Warhammer 40,000 miniatures: glaze medium ratios, loading the brush, how many coats, and using glazes to smooth transitions and shift colour.

Glazing is the quiet fixer of miniature painting. A glaze is paint thinned until it is almost transparent, applied in several controlled coats so the colour builds gradually. It will not cover mistakes the way an opaque layer does, but it can smooth a harsh highlight, warm up a cold red or unify a patchy cloak in a way nothing else quite matches.

The short answer: mix roughly 1 part paint to 4–10 parts glaze medium until it looks like tinted water, wick most of it off the brush onto kitchen roll, and apply thin coats only where you want the colour, letting each dry fully. Expect to need three to six coats before the effect really shows.

What is a glaze in miniature painting?

A glaze is a very thin, transparent layer of colour that tints whatever is underneath rather than covering it. Because the earlier layers still show through, a glaze can change the hue of an area or soften the steps between highlights without losing the work you have already done. It works best over a finished, fully dry base and highlights.

How is a glaze different from a wash?

A wash is designed to flow into recesses and pool in the shadows, while a glaze is applied with an almost-dry brush to a controlled area and should not pool at all. Washes add shading quickly; glazes add colour and smoothness slowly.

Product	How it behaves	Main use	Typical coats
Wash / shade	Flows into recesses	Quick shading	1
Glaze	Transparent tint, stays where placed	Smoothing, colour shifts	3–6
Filter	Very thin overall tint, often enamel or acrylic	Unifying large panels and vehicles	1–2
Ink	Intense, highly pigmented, transparent	Vivid tints, a glaze base when thinned	1–3

What ratio of paint to medium makes a glaze?

Start around 1 part paint to 4 parts glaze medium and go as far as 1 to 10 for a subtle tint. Test it by streaking the mix on white paper or your thumbnail: it should look like coloured water, not paint. Strong, highly pigmented paints and inks need more dilution than pale colours.

Should you use glaze medium or water?

Glaze medium (or a matt medium) is the safer choice. Thinning with water alone breaks down the paint's binder, which can leave chalky patches and hard tide marks where the liquid dries. A medium keeps the pigment suspended and lets the glaze dry evenly.

How do you load the brush for glazing?

Load the brush, then touch it to kitchen roll until it is only just damp; too much liquid is the most common cause of tide marks. Stroke from the area you want darkest or most coloured towards where it should fade out. Work on small sections so you never brush back into a glaze that has started to dry.

How many coats of glaze do you need?

There is no fixed number, but the first coat often looks like it has done nothing. Most painters see a useful effect by the third to sixth coat, letting each dry for several minutes. Building slowly is the point: it gives you control over exactly how strong the effect becomes.

What can you use glazes for?

Glazes smooth the transition between layered highlights, shift colours (a thin orange over a red to warm it, or a blue over black to cool it), deepen shadows with colour instead of plain black, and tint areas lit by glow effects. They are also a neat way to bring a patchy layered area back together.

What are the most common glazing mistakes?

Overloading the brush, glazing over paint that is not fully dry, and going back into a glaze that has started to set are the big three. Each one lifts the layer underneath or leaves a ring at the edge of the brushstroke. If a glaze goes wrong, let it dry and fix it with an opaque layer rather than scrubbing at it.

Is glazing the same as wet blending?

No. Glazing builds a smooth result slowly from many dry, transparent coats, while wet blending mixes two wet paints together on the model in one sitting. Many painters wet blend a rough gradient, then use a glaze or two to tidy it.

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