Let’s face it, painting red is a pain in the backside. There are some really good thick pigment paints such as P3s Khador Red Base and the Foundation Mechrite Red, but painting them straight over a black undercoat leaves a dull and flat finish (and still takes 2-3 coats!). I don’t claim to have stuck upon a magic formula, but here’s my approach to painting red on my Khadoran models.
Painting Red
Before I get into that I did something very dumb. I needed to paint a Drakhun for a tournament about two years ago, but for the lists I made up I only needed the dismount option. So, despite having the Man-o-War Shocktrooper dismount miniature in a blister, I only assembled and painted the mounted Drakhun and horse. Now, about two years later I’m trying to get all of my Khadror miniatures finished before MkII and the dismount has found it’s way onto my painting list. Thankfully I have painting notes (the virtue of which I’ve talked about before), so at least I know what colours I used on the mounted Drakhun. Here’s that original miniature –

It was a quick paint job, too quick, but the result was decent. I need to reproduce this look in the dismounted version. I’ll focus on the red, but will mention the other colours later.

PAINTING RED

  1. Image 0 Undercoat in black – I sprayed the minaiture with GW Chaos Black and the painted it with a watered down black to get all of the recesses.
  2. Images 1-4 I’m going to suggest something that many painter would baulk at. As red is the most prominent colour I’m going to get it onto the miniature quickly with the biggest brush I can find! To that end I grabbed the Citadel Tank Brush, some watered down Khador Red Base and lashed it onto the miniature in four light coats. This way you get the majority of the miniature painted very quickly. The secret is that the coats should be well watered down, so not to obscure the detail. Don’t worry – the ‘mess’ can be cleaned up later.
  3. Image 5 Next I made a 1:1 mix of Khador Red Base and Khador Red Highlight. With a smaller brush (let’s face it, there are few bigger!) I highlighted the raised surfaces. Be careful not to have too much paint on the brush and draw it slowly along the edges.
  4. Image 6 Up next is a highlight of pure Khador Red Highlight. This highlight is finer. Again, don’t overload the brush.
  5. Image 7 The next two stages are washes. Here’s where I grab the Citadel washes. Baal Red, watered down slightly, is washed over all of the red surfaces.
  6. Image 8 Once dry I then add a small bit of Badab Black to Baal Red and do a deeper wash.

That’s it, the red is now painted, but the miniature does look a mess! I grab a fine brush and clean it up with Chaos Black and then begin painting the remaining colours (Image 9). The steel is Boltgun Metal washed with a 1:1 Badab Black/Devlan Mud wash. The gold is Shining Gold (painted on in 2 watered down coat as it doesn’t go down well over black) washed with Brown Ink. The handle of the pike is painted Bestial Brown and washed with the same wash as the steel areas. Finally the horse emblem on the shoulder was painted Codex Grey and washed with Badab Black.
Image 10
Quick and easy. Basing is all that remains, but I’ll wait until I have a few miniatures to base before I get out the glue, sand and flock.

Owen