Most effective way to consistently paint passable eye lenses

[hd3]

I've been having real trouble getting my eye lenses to come out consistently nice. Problems I've noticed have been: stopping the paint flowing too far out of the crevice and keeping the colour of the lens bright enough, and applying contrasting spots of paint at the edges of the lens (i can't keep it to just a nice tiny dot no matter how much or how little i thin the paint). Does anyone have any advice on brush or technique or even just a good guide to follow?

[Firedrake Cordova]

One approach would be to base coat the eye lens first, and then base coat the surrounding helmet, so you don't have to be as neat when painting the lens itself (yes, it is kind of cheating), but that doesn't really help with the highlighting part of it.

 

Otherwise, it's just having a decently pointy brush, correctly thinned paint (not so thick it doesn't want to come off the brush, not so thin it runs everywhere like a brush overloaded with wash), and taking your time. I would seriously recommend considering using magnification (reading glasses, magnifying visor, etc).

 

Duncan has several videos on painting Space Marines - I don't know if any of them are helpful? (the one below should skip to the right bit)

 

Infernal Brush over on YouTube is a former 'Eavy Metal painter - I'm not sure it's overly helpful, but you can how they paint the lenses.

[jaxom]

I'm a big fan of helmet sockets based with metallics and contrast paint over it (applied like a glaze). The contrast paint flows into the the crevice. It's fast and relatively reliable.

 

 

[crimsondave]

I paint them with some white and then contrast paint (usually Blood Angels red) over top.  The white doesn’t have to be anywhere close to perfectly covered to get a good effect.  It’s pretty forgiving.

[Tichinde]

yup, paint white then contrast or glaze of choice (I usually go for green). you can even get away with just painting a little part of it white and leaving the edge darker:

 

 

Edited August 26 by Tichinde

[Grotsmasha]

You can use Nuln Oil to re-establish the border between the lenses and surrounding helm. Nuln Oils current consistency means it won't stain the lenses itself like the old recipe would.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

I have been using an OSL technique since 2022. So far I have models with green, blue and red eye lenses:

 

Green eye lenses (IH_40K_Tac_Squad):

https://ibb.co/album/KzMmH4

 

Blue eye lenses (IH_30K_Tac_Squad):

https://ibb.co/album/PZPNPX

 

Red eye lenses (IE_Army_Raging_Heroes):

https://ibb.co/album/M927YV

 

If you like the effect I can type down the recipe here.