Wargames @ farfaraway.org » Painting Guide

Kommander Strakhov: Video Painting Guide

owen — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:03:06 +0000

Here’s a video painting guide for Kommander Strakhov. Enjoy!

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

Don’t forget to watch the HD version if your internet connection can handle it!

Owen

Widowmaker Marksman: Complete

owen — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:27:17 +0000

Wow! I haven’t painted a Khadoran miniature since November last year, when I finished my Mortar Crew. I primed the Marksman, Strakhov and the Epic Butcher earlier and started painting the Marksman. It took about 1.5hrs to complete. The paint is still drying in the photos below.

I’ll complete the base when I paint the other guys.

As an aside – this miniature was proudly sponsored by Lost Hemisphere Radio – Episode 7!

Owen

Warpwolf, Wolfen, Warpwolf?

owen — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:35:34 +0000

The Confrontation Wolfen miniatures make great proxies for Warpwolves. I’ve never been that interested in starting a Circle Orboros force, but I’ve had these old Confrontation miniatures for years and when I saw the Warpwolf Stalker I thought they’d make perfect proxies. The only Warpwolf miniature I actually like is the Pureblood; the original Warpwolf is in a weird pose and the new Stalker, certainly next to these Wolfen miniatures, is only so-so. These Wolfen will never be tournament legal, but I don’t care. It’s about putting paint on some neglected miniatures. I’ll never play Confrontation, so they may as well be used for something worthwhile!

Anyway, here are a few more of photos of my ‘impostor’ Warpwolves.

Here’s the painting scheme (and more-or-less the order I painted it in) -

Skin: Codex Grey; Fortress Grey; Fortress Grey + Skull White (50:50); Fortress Grey + Skull White (33:66)
Gums: Gore Red
Ears: Elf Flesh (DB)
Armour (Green): Orkhide; Orkhide + Knarloc (50:50)
Leather: Snakebite
Claws: Graveyard + Snakebite (66:33)
Armour (Metal): Brass Balls + Graveyard (50:50)
Sword: Boltgun
Everything: Watered down Magic Wash
Base (Earth): Watered down Graveyard Earth
Base (Stone): Watered down Codex Grey; Fortress Grey (DB); Badab Black (Wash)

I’ve 4-5 more of these guys unpainted in the shed. I wonder which Circle warlock is good with Warpwolves?

Owen

Malifaux – Painting The Executioner (The Guild)

owen — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:57:33 +0000

Here’s a step-by-step video guide to painting the Executioner. I only had two hours to paint him, so I had to rush slightly. I think he’s turned out pretty well and will fit in with the aesthetic of the Lady Justice crew.

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

I have a 30 soul stone game on Tuesday, so I’m looking forward to seeing how this guy performs.

Owen

Flames of War – Irish Guards Sherman Tanks

owen — Thu, 20 May 2010 17:00:48 +0000

I’ve been interested in Operation Market Garden for a long time and the release of Hell’s Highway and A Bridge Too Far gave me a push to paint up some more Sherman tanks to support my US Paratroopers. Saying the tanks are painted as Irish Guards is a bit of an untruth. I’ve not painted on Guards or squadron markings as I’ll probably reuse the tanks in different situations.

Anyway, they’re very easy to paint – I sprayed them with Army Painter Green, base coated them in Vallejo Russian Uniform, highlighted with a small amount of Bleached Bone added, painted the tracks with Boltgun Metal, and then picked out the other details with browns and beiges. I used Army Painters Dark Shade as a paint on dip, applied the decals and then sprayed them with the Army Painter Matt Varnish spray. That sounds like a lot of work, but when you’re painting 6 tanks at once you fly through the steps. Here’s a close up –

I’ll consider weathering them at some stage, but will probably wait until I have a larger force. Between them, my older Shermans and some US Paratroopers I can field a small Irish Guards army. My intention is probably to us a Paratrooper army with Guards support.

I’ve also been adding to my Late War German army. More on that later.

Owen

Dirty Meg: Complete

owen — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:00:10 +0000

I’m trying not to get totally sidetracked by other projects, but in the last while terrain, Malifaux, Epic Armageddon and Flames of War have all distracted my from painting my Privateers. I’ve had a unit of Press Gangers and Dirty Meg on the go for a couple of months, but they kept getting bumped by the other projects. Anyway, excuses, excuses! Here’s Dirty Meg finished -

She’s a pretty easy minature to paint. I started with the flesh – Tallaran Flesh, two watered down Ogryn Flesh washes and then added progressive amounts of Elf Flesh to Tallaran Flesh. Next up I painted the apron and blouse with Khemri Brown. I lightened the apron with Snakebite Leather and then added Bleached Bone for a highlight. The blouse is Bleached Bone over the brown and then highlights with progressive amounts of Skull White added. Her trousers were based Shadow Grey and I added Space Wolves Grey for the highlights. They were washed with Asurmen Blue. Her hair is Snakebite Leather mixed with Khador Red Highlight (an orange colour). They’re all of the main colours. Everything (apart form the trousers) received a 1:1:1 wash of water, Devlan Mud and Badab Black. It makes her look appropriately grimy.

I now have a 35pt force painted. I’d rather not field this many solos at 35pts, but until the Press Gangers are completed this is the only fully painted Talion Charter force I can field at this size.

Captain Phinneus Shae
- Buccaneer
- Commodore Cannon & Crew (Commodore and 3 Crewmen)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Sea Dog Crew (Leader and 9 Grunts)
- Mr. Walls Sea Dog Crew Quartermaster
- 2 Sea Dog Crew Riflemen
Bosun Grogspar
Dirty Meg
- Mariner
Doc Killingsworth
First Mate Hawk
Lord Rockbottom

Owen

Malifaux – Painting Lady Justice’s Crew (The Guild)

owen — Sun, 16 May 2010 16:51:33 +0000

Here’s a video of the completed crew. I need to do a little bit more work on the bases, but otherwise they’re finished.

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

Owen

Malifaux – Painting Lady Justice (The Guild)

owen — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:45:40 +0000

I’m in the middle of writing a battle report from my first game. I hate playing games with unpainted miniatures and the crew was only partially painted for that one. I decided I’d remedy the situation. This video shows Lady Justice painted. The crew are over half finished, so hopefully I’ll get them finished over the next few days.

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

Owen

Undercoating Models using Gesso

owen — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:11:28 +0000

Gesso? What’s that? It’s the stuff that painters often use to prepare a canvas before applying paints to it. It comes in a variety of different colours, well at least white, black and grey, and is itself a water soluble acrylic. So, why would you use this stuff and not a spray? One word – consistency.

I find that sprays are prone to inconsistency due to varying climatic conditions and potentially over-spraying. I do most of my spraying in my shed (workshop) which can get pretty cold and is a dampish place. In winter it is too cold to spray effectively most of the time, so rather than just putting up with grainy or misty spray I decided to look for an alternative. That’s when a friend recommended Gesso. There are several different brands, but Liquitex came recommended, so that’s what I picked up.

(The models above are shiny as they are still drying. Gesso dries matt.)

Using Gesso is not for the faint hearted. It’s a gloopy substance that looks like it should never be put near a finely sculpted miniature. I water it down slightly, but as it goes on it still seems to obscure their details horribly. Here’s where a little faith is needed. As it dries it clings tightly to the detail. It dries in a few hours, but 24 hours is the recommendation. All of the detail is crisp and sharp and I find the process to be more reliable than spraying. The coverage is anywhere you can get a brush and the finish is a tough undercoat that will easily take your paints.

Anyway – that’s a long winded post to say, “Try Gesso, it’s great!”.

Owen

Khador Mortar Crew: Painting Guide

owen — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:00:30 +0000

I bought these miniatures ages ago, but finishing painting them is pretty momentous. I’m am now fully painted before MkII. Okay, there are a couple of caveats – first one, that’s all of my Warmachine stuff painted, I still have some Hordes miniatures to do. Second one is that I’ve bought the miniatures for my MkII project, which I’ll start in January.

I painted these guys to test out the paint scheme for the Winter Guard I’ll pick up to add to my army. I like the look of the Rifle Corps and will probably grab a unit early next year. The colour scheme worked out pretty well. Here are the paints I used -

Skin: Khardic Flesh / Dwarf Flesh (Highlight) / Elf Flesh (Highlight) / Ogryn Flesh Wash
Coat: Great Coat Grey / 1:1:2 Water:Shadow Grey:Greatcoat / Shadow Grey (Highlight) / 1:1 Shadow Grey:Space Wolves Grey (Highlight) / 3:3:1 Water:Asurmen Blue:Badab Black (Wash)
Red Areas: Scab Red (2 watered down coats) / Khador Red Base (2-3 Watered Down Coats) / 1:1 Base:Highlight / Highlight (DB) / Baal Red (Wash)
Caps, Gloves and Armour/Coat Edges: 1:1 Space Wolves Grey:Chaos Black / 2:1 Space Wolves Grey:Chaos Black (Highlight)
Beards/Hair: Bestial Brown (DB)
Fur: Codex Grey (DB)
Leather: 1:1 Scorched Brown:Bestial Brown / Bestial Brown (Hightlight) / 1:1 Snakebite Leather:Bestial Brown (Highlight)
Gun Hilt: Bestial Brown (DB)
Boots: Codex Grey (DB)
Everything Else (apart from Coat, Skin and Red areas): 1:1 Badab Black:Devlan Mud (Wash)

Okay, that’s Khador and Cryx fully painted. Now, I need to get some more Legion assembled – I want to get them done next. I’m looking forward to painting eThagrosh, though assembling him looks like it’ll be unpleasant!

Owen

My Miniature Painting Setup

owen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:53:11 +0000

People often find it hard to know where to begin when staring to paint miniatures. I’ve been painting for a long time now and while I’m no pro, I do have a pretty organised painting setup. First off, I keep everything for my current projects on a tray – this allows me to quickly clear my desk for when I need to work. It has the side benefit of keeping everything exactly as I left it. I own paints from several different ranges, but Citadel (Games Workshop), P3 (Privateer Press) and Vallejo are my main brands. They are all acrylics and mix well together. I also have a selection of inks, washes and dips. I don’t dip, I ‘splash on’, but either way it’s too messy to do at my desk, so the dips are kept in my shed. I have two Army Painter dips out there and I only use them on 15mm soldiers (so far).

I store my paints in an old make-up case that my wife kindly donated to my painting cause. It stores about sixty paints and some brushes – I try to only have the paints on my painting tray that I need for the current projects. Otherwise it gets too cluttered. Another minor organisational thing I do is to write the initials of each paints name on the lid of the paint, i.e. Shadow Grey is SG painted on the lid in that colour. It just makes it easy to find each paint when I’m looking for it. I mix my paints on the mess that is my palette (seen in the foreground) and I only use one water well, but I am careful to always wash it out and refill it after using metallics. I have loads of brushes from different manufacturers, but again I try to only have a few out so I don’t have too much choice!

Above the painting area I have an adjustable lamp with a 100W equivalent energy saving bulb. I usually have the main ceiling light on (another 100W bulb) as well. I’ve toyed with daylight bulbs, but miniatures are rarely seen in daylight as most tournaments and clubs are lit artificially so I paint in artificial light. The only other thing of note is the old paint pot with blue-tac on the top. I use this when I’m painting hero miniatures – it gives a little more control than holding their base!

With the computer in front of my I often have music or podcasts (Iron Agenda and Focus and Fury being staples) playing. Anyway – that’s my painting setup!

Owen

PS Pictured are the Swamp Gobbers, Khador Mortar Crew and Drakhun dismount ready to be based. The latter two are my final Khador miniatures before MkII. I am now fully painted! More on them later.

Seeing Red – Painting Khadorans

owen — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:09:11 +0000

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.

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

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.
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.
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.
Image 6 Up next is a highlight of pure Khador Red Highlight. This highlight is finer. Again, don’t overload the brush.
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.
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.

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

Feralgeist: Assembling and Painting Guide

owen — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:21:27 +0000

The Feralgeist is the easiest and quickest Hordes or Warmachine miniature I’ve ever painted. It took less than an hour in total. Here’s a step-by-step guide to assembling and painting it.

ASSEMBLING

Assembling the Feralgeist is straightforward enough, but you will need to apply a couple of advanced assembly skills – pinning and using green stuff. Don’t fret, this is a good miniature to try these out on. Clean off all of the pieces with a craft knife, file and Dremel. The body comes in two pieces, with the join happening at two narrow points. This is what needs to be pinned. I took out my pin vice to drill starter guide holes. This isn’t so important in the recessed fitting, but is needed for the corresponding raised bump. For these recessed/raised type joints I use my blade to take the top off the raised part (only partially) so I have a small flat surface to drill into. Once the guide holes were drilled I got out the Dremel and drilled holes that were about 3-4mm deep on each side. I use snipped paper clips as my pins and glued the pieces together (with pin in place!) using super glue. I then glued the jawbone in place and then the miniature to it’s base.

The join between the two parts of the body needs some putty (often called green stuff or brown stuff). These are two part puttys that you blend together and then let air dry. I rolled very thin sausages and laid them across the joins, then with a wet sculpting tool I smoothed the putty across the join and removed the excess. Once it is air dried (I usually leave it 24 hours) I grabbed the Dremel again, but this time with a filing attachment and smoothed over the putty work. The miniature is now ready to prime.

PAINTING AND BASING

Priming: As I was going for an ethereal look I primed the miniature using a white spray and then a watered down coat of Skull White.
Blue: I washed the whole of the Feralgeist with a slightly watered down Asurmen Blue wash. I then drybrushed all raised areas with Skull White with a small amount of Asurmen Blue.
Skeleton and Rubble: This whole area was coated with a heavily watered down Graveyard Earth. The skeleton was then drybrushed with Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather, 1:1 Snakebite Leather / Bleached Bone and finally pure Bleached Bone. I then painted the flat skeletal surfaces with a heavily watered down Bleached Bone.
Base: I glued (using watered down PVA glue) Builder’s Sand to the base. Once dry it was painted with a heavily watered down Graveyard Earth. One or two larger stones were dotted with Codex Grey. I applied a small amount of flock using PVA glue and then painted the base edge Chaos Black.

That’s it! It’s such a useful addition to any Hordes force and so easy to paint that there is really no excuse for not fielding one. Thraka Green or Baal Red, or any wash for that matter, could be used in place of Asurmen Blue, so producing a Feralgeist that fits the theme of your army is pretty simple.

Owen

Karchev the Terrible: Painting Guide

owen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:44:14 +0000

Here’s a quick guide for painting some of the details on the mammoth Khadoran ‘caster Karchev the Terrible. The secret to painting a miniature of this size is to get the larger areas painted quickly (and sloppily!) using a large brush and then painting the remainder with as much precision as is needed in order not to mess up the earlier work. It means you get progressively more careful, but thankfully on progressively smaller areas.

The head is the natural focal point of the miniature. I basecoated it with Khadoran Flesh and progressively highlighted with Dwarf Flesh, Dwarf Flesh/Elf Flesh (50:50) and finally with Elf Flesh. It was then washed with Gryphonne Sepia and the scar precisely washed with Baal Red. For the eyes I used Kommando Khaki as a base and dotted the eye with Chaos Black.

The fist was based with Vallejo Hull Red (985), highlighted with Red Gore. I then used a Badab Black/Devlan Mud (50:50) wash. The brass bolts were dotted with a Brass Balls/Graveyard Earth blend. The spikes and large bolt are simply Boltgun Metal (which I always water down quite a bit) washed with Badab Black.

The shoulder pad military markings were painted with the same Brass Balls/Graveyard Earth mix as the bolts and washed with Gryphonne Sepia. The green is Vallejo Russian Uniform (924) highlighted by adding a small amount of Bleached Bone to the base. It was then washed with Thraka Green.

The ‘skirt’ again is pretty straight forward. Based in Scorched Brown, drybrushed with Bestial Brown and then drybrushed with Graveyard Earth. Codex Grey was used for the fur endings. It was finally washed in the Badab Black/Devlan Mud wash.

Sunder was painted with a combination of the techniques described with the exception of the gold on the axe which was painted with the brass base then highlighted by adding some Shining Gold. Here’s the final miniature – nothing too fancy, but it turned out well.

Owen

Painting Cheat Sheet (Legion of Everblight)

owen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:57:57 +0000

Contrary to the title of this post it is not about the details of painting the Legion of Everblight. Rather it is about the importance of keeping painting notes. Below are my notes for painting the Legion -

Nyss Basecoat (Undercoat Black)
a) Codex Grey / Chaos Black 5:1
b) Codex Grey / Kommando Khaki 1:1
c) Kommando Khaki
d) Blue Ink / Black Ink / Glaze Medium / Water 5:1:1:2

Nyss (Blue Armour)
Blue Ink / Glaze Medium / Water 1:1:1
Highlight – Space Wolves Grey / Blue Ink 5:1

Nyss (Flesh)
Space Wolves Grey / Glaze Medium 1:1
Blue Ink / Glaze medium 1:5

Nyss Striders (Cloak)
Greatcoat Grey / Ultramarine Blue / Glaze Medium / Water 2:1:1:1

Beast (Horns and Scales)
Base – Graveyard Earth/ Water 1:1
Wash – Black Ink / Glaze Medium / Water 1:1:1

Beast (Flesh)
Purple Wash (Homagaunt Purple / Glaze Medium 1:10)
Space Wolves Grey DB

Beast (Flyer Flesh)
Space Wolves Grey / Water / Skull White 2:3:1

Beast (Cloth)
Ultramarines / Shadow Grey / Black Ink 1:1:1
Wash – Black Ink / Glaze Medium / Water 1:1:1

Beast (Gums)
Red Gore base
Dark Red Ink

Incubi
Undercoat White
Black out armour, trousers etc.
- Nyss Part

- Beast Part

You’ll notice that I don’t list every type of miniature I’ve painted. Instead I try to capture the main colours and blends used and the areas of a miniature they were applied to. This cheat sheet is important when you progressively add to a faction as is usually the case in Hordes and Warmachine. I don’t strive for every unit to look exactly the same, but I do attempt to have consistency between miniatures in an army. I incrementally add to the list as I paint something that has a different style.

I use Evernote to capture my painting notes as I usually paint in front of my computer, but a pencil and piece of paper (provided you don’t lose the paper!) will do the same job. Anyway – take notes, your army will thank you!

Owen

Space Hulk Blood Angel Terminators: Painting Guide

owen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:11:20 +0000

Larger versions of this photo and the other views are available on flickr.

Ok – I’ve stopped hating these guys enough to write a short painting guide. They are easy to paint, but there is a lot of fine detail that needs to be painted, so they are quite time consuming to complete. I’ll do this area by area as it is more or less how I painted them. The areas are in the order I tackled them -

Armour As red is the predominant colour and the miniatures are already moulded in red plastic I decided not to spray undercoat them. Instead I grab the GW Tank brush (the really big one) and the Foundation Mecrite Red and undercoated them the slow way. I was careful not to put too much paint on the brush as it would be really easy to obscure the detail. Next I drybrushed the miniatures (in downward strokes) with GW Blood Red. This was followed by a lighter drybrush of P3 Khador Red Highlight (an orange colour). I washed the whole miniature in the miracle wash (1:1 Badab Black and Devlan Mud).

Eyes, Purity Seals and Crux The eyes were painted Foundation Knarloc Green using my smallest brush. The purity seals parchment was based in GW Bestial Brown, then painted with GW Kommando Khaki and highlighted with GW Bleached Bone. The seal was painted with GW Gore Red and washed with the miracle wash. The Crux was based in GW Codex Grey, washed in Badab Black and then highlighted (very lightly) with GW Fortress Grey.

Pipes, Sensor Lights and Gems The pipes were painted GW Shadow Grey or GW Fortress Grey. The sensor lights are based in GW Enchanted Blue and dotted with GW Ice Blue. The gems are Foundation Hormagaunt Purple, then dotted with a 1:1 mix of this colour and GW Skull White.

Metals By this point I was well and truly sick of these miniatures. They are gorgeous sculpts, the the superfluous detail is over the top. Anyway, the grey metal is watered down GW Boltgun Metal applied over a GW Chaos Black Base and then washed with the miracle wash. The gold metal is a 1:1 mix of P3 Brass Balls (a light brass colour) and GW Shining Gold. It was then washed with GW Brown Ink.

I painted the shoulder pads ‘half and half’ on some miniatures using GW Chaos Black and GW Skull White. The black areas were highlighted with GW Codex Grey. Finally I painted the base GW Chaos Black. Phew! Six down, seven (including the dead marine) to go.

Owen

PS GW have a good painting article for the Space Hulk miniatures here.

Eiryss (Alternate Sculpt): Painting Guide

owen — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:00:21 +0000

(Larger Version on flickr)

I’ve had this miniature since the No Quarter promotion and just didn’t make time to paint it until now. That’s probably because I’ve been proxying Eiryss with the Ordic Pistolier miniature which I quite like. I didn’t pick up the original Eiryss because I really didn’t like the sculpt. This alternate version is much more subtle and the advancing posture with her weapons at the ready underpins the supreme confidence she has in her skills. Anyway, last night I took out the painting tray and got stuck in. Looking at the image timestamps I can see that the complete paint job took less than two hours and for a character that I use very often I think that is a respectable amount of time to spend.

Photo 1 This is the starting point. Once the miniature was cleaned and assembled I brushed on a watered down Chaos Black undercoat (I’m low on black spray!). I want the final colours to be muted as Eiryss is all about hiding in plain sight, so a black base allows me to achieve a duller finish.

Photo 2 I begin drybrushing in a similar manner to how I tackled Gorman di Wulfe. Scorched Brown was applied in a heavy drybrush using a flat headed brush. I generally try to drybrush from just one direction so the highlight is consistent. In this instance I brushed downwards.

Photo 3 I added Graveyard Earth to the Scorched Brown base in 3 increasingly light drybrushes and then began adding Bleached Bone to this mix for another 3 drybrushes. This give me a good basis for starting on the other colours.

Photo 4 The flesh, eyes and lips were tackled next. I started adding Elf Flesh to the previous mix and drybrushing it (moderately heavily) onto the specific flesh areas. I did this in 3 increasingly light coats and then picked out cheek and eyebrow detail in pure Elf Flesh. don’t forget to paint the fingers as the gloves are fingerless and the flesh shows through. This was washed with a very light Gryphonne Sepia wash. For the eyes I carefully coated them in Kommando Khaki and dotted the pupil with Chaos Black (deliberately giving her a sideways glance). Her lips were drybrushed with Elf Flesh and a dot of Scab Red.

Photo 5a The cloak received a bit more attention at this stage with a drybrush of Snakebite Leather and then two more coats adding Bleached Bone.

Photo 5b This photo shows the back of the cloak.

Photo 6 Now it’s time to get into more detailing. I worked on the bodice and top of the stockings next. This is a 1:1 mix of Vallejo Middlestone and Vallejo Green Grey with Bleached Bone added for highlights. The scarf and arrow feathers were picked out with Bleached Bone.

Photo 7 The boots are next with the main part being drybrushed with Bestial Brown and then washed with a mix of Badab Black and Devlan Mud (my standard ‘miracle’ wash).

Photo 8 The next two steps add the metallic detail of the chainmail and the sword, including buckles, clasps and buttons. I used Boltgun Metal for the grey metals (armour, crossbow blade and sword blade) with the Mithril Silver highlight. This was washed with Badab Black. I also painted the sword leather handle with Bestial Brown.

Photo 9The brass metals (sword hilt, clasps at the top of the cloak, suspender clasps, buckles, crossbow detail, etc.) are P3 Brass Balls with some Graveyard Earth added. In this step I also painted the gloves and boot using Orkhide Shade and highlighted them with Knarloc Green.

Photo 10 This is the final stage. I used Bestial Brown to pick out most of the leather details, including the belts and straps. I used Snakebite Leather to lightly highlight the arrow quiver on her back. The wood on the crossbow was painted with a 1:1 blend of Bestial Brown and Snakebite Leather. The suspenders were painted in a Bleached Bone and Vallejo Green Grey (3:1) mix. Finally, all non flesh areas were washed with the miracle wash and that’s that.

Photo Final (Front)

Photo Final (Back)

All that remains now is to base and varnish her and Eiryss is ready to replace her proxy.

Owen

Gorman di Wulfe: Painting Guide

owen — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 11:45:37 +0000

I recently blitzed some unpainted Cryx models I’d been stockpiling. Cryx is a faction I’ve had for a while, but it’s always been secondary to my Khadorans (and probably in third place if you count my Legion of Everblight). So, I’ve recently started using the faction and decided to start with the Iron Lich Asphyxious to lead them. In the games I’ve had so far he has performed well and I like the way the faction plays. The only problem I have is that on a medium base Asphyxious can occasionally find himself the target of unwanted attention. In steps Gorman di Wulfe and his Smoke Bombs. I wanted to paint him in the same muted tones as the Cryxian force, but also wanted him to stand out a little.

I started by undercoating him with GW Chaos Black and then gave the whole miniature a sequence of increasingly light drybrushes. I started with Scorched Earth, then gradually mixed Graveyard Earth into that for the next 3-4 drybrushes. Finally I added increasing amounts Bleached Bone to this mix for another 2-3 drybrushes. From here I tackled the cloak as it was the most visible area of the miniature. I mixed a 1:1:1 blend of Vallejo Middlestone, Vallejo Green Grey and GW Bleached Bone. I then very, very lightly drybrushed this over the cloak area. This had the effect of tinting the previous layers and left a nice graduated outcome. It is this green hue that is quite different from the other Cryx models and will make him stand out. The highlighting and shading colours are similar though, so he shouldn’t stand out too much. He’s a little similar in colour to my Alten Ashley, who I must photograph.

The gloves were drybrushed with GW Fortress Grey and then again with a small amount of Skull White added. On the shirt I used the same effect with a light drybrush of P3 Greatcoat Grey and then GW Shadow Grey. The edge of the shirt was picked out in Bleached Bone and the face mask was also lightened with another drybrush of Bleached Bone. The gas mask was finished using Snakebite Leather and Boltgun Metal, highlighted with Mithril Silver. The hat was brought up through layers of brown, using Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather and then dulled using Scorched Earth. The vials were painted with Ice Blue and highlighted in 2-3 layers by adding Skull White. The boot straps were picked out using Snakebite Leather. Metals were either Boltgun Metal or a 3:1 mix of Brazen Brass and Mithril Silver.

All areas apart form the shirt and the cloak were washed with a 1:1 mix of Devlan Mud and Badab Black. The base is builder’s sand PVA glued down and then a very wet mix of Graveyard Earth and water (1:4) applied when dry. Select areas were then flocked. This basing scheme is consistent with my Khador and Cryx armies (except the Cryx also have small patches of snow added).

Photographing this miniature was a little challenging with a single light source as the wide-brimmed hat obscures the face when lit from above. I usually place the lamp about 6″ above and slightly to the front of the miniature at the 1 o’clock position. In these shots I had to lie the lamp almost level with the miniature. This casts a long shadow, but I can live with that. I really must set my lightbox up with multiple light sources.

Anyway, a quick spray of matt varnish for protection and Gorman is ready to include in Cryx army, or the Khador army to help protect the Butcher and Karchev for that matter.

Owen

Great Bears of Gallowswood: Painting Guide

owen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:55:30 +0000

The Great Bears are in many ways a very typical Khadoran unit that have several of the traditional colours you might use in painting the Khador army. I painted these guys using pretty straight forward techniques, so hopefully this guide will be easy to follow.

Step 0: Clean, Assemble and Undercoat
I’m not going to detail this step other than to say you should always -

Wash miniatures to remove mould release residue
Use a hobby knife to remove flashing and venting
File back any mould lines
Dry fit the components
Glue (and potentially pin) the components
Apply several light sprays of undercoat (Army Painter’s Black Spray in this instance)
Paint a watered down coat of the undercoat colour (GW’s Chaos Black mixed with water (3:1))

Step 1: Faces and Flesh
I subscribe to the “inside to outside” painting approach where you paint the miniature as though it were getting dressed, i.e. do the flesh first, then the next visible layer of clothing, etc. The flesh was base coated using P3 Khadoran Flesh (in 2-3 slightly watered down light coats), highlighted with GW Dwarf Flesh and then a lightly highlighted with GW Elf Flesh. That was then washed with a watered down Devlan Mud. I wanted these guys to look weather beaten so the deep wash and darker flesh colours makes it look like they’ve bivouacked for many years. The finished effect gives a slightly ruddy look appropriate for severely weathered skin. I wanted their hands to be gloved, so I didn’t paint them in this step. For the hair and beard of Volkov I used GW Bestial Brown as the base, highlighted with Snakebite Leather and washed with a 1:1 blend of Badab Black and Devlan Mud (if you only own one wash it should be this blend – it works on almost any colour). I also painted the neckerchiefs at this time using the same technique as for the cloak (see below).

Step 2: Chainmail and Mesh Armour
The next layer is the chainmail skirt underneath their armour. I used GW Boltgun Metal with a small bit of GW Chaos Black mixed in as the base coat. Base coat isn’t quite the right phrase as it is more of a heavy drybrush to pick out the details. I repeat this with pure GW Boltgun Metal, but with a lighter drybrush, i.e. more of the paint is removed form the brush. For the weapons I used the same colours, but instead of drybrushing I painted on a watered down coat and then highlighted by picking out the edge detail. All of these areas were washed with Badab Black.

Step 3: Cloak
Remember to change your water – otherwise you will have metallic flakes mixed into your non-metallic colours. The cloak was based with P3 Greatcoat Grey and highlighted by adding increasing amounts of GW Fortress Grey in 3-4 highlights. The whole area was washed with Badab Black. The fur edge was drybrushed with Fortress Grey and highlighted by adding a small amount of Skull white.

Step 4: Red Armour
Quite a bit of the miniature is covered in red armour and as red is notoriously hard to paint over a black undercoat a bit of patience is required. I use P3 Khadoran Red as my base coat, but I water it down and plan to apply 2-3 light coats. Patience is needed to not put on a very heavy coat that will dry in a blotchy manner and in ensuring the red doesn’t get on the finished detail (the chainmail is easily touched up, but the cloak isn’t, if you get red on them). Next I highlighted the red areas with a 1:1 Mix of Khadoran Red and Khadoran Red Highlight and then a highlight of pure Khadoran Red. All of these areas were washed with a mix of Badab Black and Baal Red (1:5) being careful not to let it run onto finished detail.

Step 5: Bear Pelt
The Bear Pelt was base coated with Fortress Grey in a very heavy dry brush. I had two highlighting stages – the first was a drybrush with a 1:1 mix of Fortress Grey and Bleached Bone and the second was almost pure Bleached Bone. The eyes and nose were picked out with Chaos Black and the visible leather was base coated with Snakebite Leather. All of the pelt was then washed the miracle wash (1:1 mix of Badab Black and Devlan Mud). I wanted the bears fur to look old and well worn. Polar bears (or whatever the equivalent is in the Iron Kingdoms) are not white, but rather a rich creamy colour. I deliberated washed it with a dark mix to make it look dull.

Step 6: Details
There are different metal areas on each miniature to be detailed -

For the ‘spikes’ I used the same process as for the weapon blades.
For the brass areas I used P3 Brass Balls mixed with GW Graveyard Earth (1:1) and a very light highlight of pure Brass Balls. This was lightly washed with Devlan Mud.
The brass buttons were pure dotted with pure Brass Balls and then washed with Badab Black
The Bottom of the chainmail skirt was painted in Greatcoat Grey and washed with Badab Black
The weapon handle was painted with GW Scorched Brown, Highlighted with Bestial Brown and washed with the miracle wash
For the strap on the weapon I base coated it in Fortress Grey with a bit of Chaos Black, highlighted using pure fortress Grey on the edges and washed with Badab Black

Step 6: Basing and Varnishing
I think that’s it for the miniature painting. The bases aren’t quite finished in the picture above (they are now, but I forgot to retake the photograph). I glued down builders sand, which is nicely textured and coloured, using watered down PVA glue. When dry I used a very wet Graveyard Earth to colour it. Being so wet it lets some of the natural colour of the sand show through. I sometimes will pick out larger stones in a grey colour and wash black. I then flock small areas of the base. The is a very basic basing technique, but it is consistent across my whole Khadoran army. All I need to do now is matt varnish the miniatures and the Great Bears are ready to join the rest of the army.

Here is a larger version of the above image.

Owen

Bane Knights: Complete

owen — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:45:50 +0000

The Bane Knights mark the end of my push to get Cryx miniatures painted. All that remains now is to get all 30 miniatures that I’ve painted over the last two weeks based.

The Knights were painted using a different, but hopefully complimentary, colour scheme. I was torn between painting them as ethereal ghosts (to fit with their Ghostly rule) or as something a little more corporeal. I opted for the latter and decided to do a paint scheme that is quite similar to the ‘official’ colour Scheme.

Once undercoated I drybrushed the armour areas with GW Boltgun Metal and a dab of GW Chaos Black. This was highlighted with GW Mithril Silver. The bronze areas were painted with the GW Graveyard Earth and P3 Brass Balls mix (1:1). The skulls were highlighted from GW Scorched Brown, through Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather, 1:1 Snakebite Leather and Bleached Bone, and finally Bleached Bone. The eyes were dotted with GW Ice Blue. The ethereal ‘skirt was painted Scorched Earth and highlighted through 3-4 drybrushes with an increasing amount of Bleached Bone added. The whole lot was washed in a 1:1 mix of Devlan Mud and Badab Black (which is a great general purpose wash that I keep premixed).

Owen

Panzer Lehr Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers: Painting Guide

owen — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:28:22 +0000

This is a step-by-step guide for painting Flames of War 15mm Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers (armoured German infantry) from the Panzer Lehr Division (1944-1945). It is not intended to be a completely historically accurate guide, rather a quick and simple way to achieve good results in a short amount of time.

Each Panzergrenadier platoon constitutes 6 MG Teams, 3 Tank-hunter Teams, 1 Command MG team and 4 SD Kfz 251/1 half-track transports. That’s about 33 15mm miniatures and 4 vehicles. Here are the steps I followed to move from raw pewter to painted and varnished miniatures -

Infantry
1) Sort the miniatures out. Because these miniatures come from a large box set I need to check what miniatures should be in what platoons, so (by referring to the photos on the box and the web) I sorted the miniatures by platoon.

2) Clean and base. For the Panzer Lehr I have decided to stick the infantry to their bases before undercoating and painting. With the Paras I stuck them to strips of balsa and paint them before basing. So, after cleaning them off with the Dremel, I attached them to their bases, making sure there was a good mix of miniatures on each base, e.g. enough MG carriers and ammo porters spread across the MG Teams

3) Undercoat. With the US Paratroopers I undercoated them white and used watered down base coats to achieve a ‘highlighted’ look. With the Panzer Lehr I decided I’d spray them with Army Painter’s Army Green spray. The pro here is that the bulk of the base coating is done by the spray. The con is that I don’t have an exact colour match for the spray in an acrylic, so if I screw up something I’ll need to fudge the correcting colour. 2 – 3 light spray coats and they are ready to paint.

4) Base Coating. Since the spray did most of the work on the uniforms I just had to worry about the rest. Here are the colours I used -

Flesh (Faces and Hands) in P3 Khardic Flesh
Helmet in Vallejo 882 Middlestone
Canteen and Wood on Gun in GW Bestial Brown
Boots and Webbing (Belts and “Y” Straps) in GW Chaos Black
Gascape Folder and Breadbag in Vallejo 886 Green-Grey
Tentquarter and Ammo Boxes in Vallejo 873 US Field Drab
Bazookas and Rockets in 1:1 GW Kommando Khaki:Vallejo 873 US Field Drab
Metal on Guns, MGs and Ammo Belts in GW Boltgun Metal

5) Dipping. I used the soft tone dip on the US Paratroopers and that worked very well with their lighter uniforms. For the Lehr I used the Dark Tone Army Painter dip. I painted it on, rather than dipping, but used a generous amount. This instantly shades and varnishes the miniatures. It leaves a gloss finish (I’ll deal with that in the final step).

6) Basing. I painted the tab around the bases Skull White. Next I applied poly filler (ready mix) to the bases. This is white(ish) in colour and I lay it down to cover all of the base apart from the bevelled edges. I use my thumb to wipe off the excess and keep the edges clean. When dry I paint it with watered down Graveyard Earth and this leaves a muddy type finish. The edge is painted in the same colour, but with little water added. I finish off the base by adding some flock.

7) Matt Varnishing. The miniatures are well protected with the dip, but I apply a spray of matt varnish to bring down the gloss finish. Again I used an Army Painter product, their matt varnish, but I’m not that happy with it. It’s not as good as Tester’s Dull-Cote (now banned in the EU) and be sure to shake it a long time as I found it misted easily.

Vehicles
1) Sort the miniatures out. The half-tracks come in resin and metal pieces (the newer ones are resin and plastic). The main body is resin and the tracks, front wheels, driver and AA MG are metal. Make sure you have the left and right tracks for each vehicle, other than that there is little sorting to do.

2) Clean and assemble. Resin dust is a hazardous material, so be careful when cleaning it off. Thankfully they are well moulded and need little cleaning. Super-glue is all you need to fix the pieces together. I put the driver in place (operating an ‘Only paint what you can see’ policy!).

3) Undercoat. Again I undercoated these with 2-3 light coats of Army Green.

4) Base Coating. Since the spray did most of the work on the uniforms I just had to worry about the rest. Here are the colours I used -

Body in Vallejo 882 Middlestone
Wheel Hubs and Track Cogs in Vallejo 882 Middlestone Drybrush
Body Edge Highlights in 3:1 Vallejo 882 Middlestone:GW Skull White
Camouflage in Vallejo 924 Russian Uniform and Vallejo 873 US Field Drab (Brush, Vallejo no. 001)
MGs, Tracks and Tool Heads in GW Boltgun Metal
Tyres and Driver Uniform in 3:1 GW Chaos Black:Skull White
Webbing in GW Kommando Khaki, GW Snakebite Leather or 3:1 GW Chaos Black:GW Skull White

5) Dipping. Dark Tone Army Painter dip is generously painted it on.

6) Apply Decals. I applied the iron cross to each side of the vehicle along with the identification number. I also applied the Panzer Lehr ‘L’ to the rear (on the right rear door). I cut the decals from the original sheet using an hobby knife and then used lukewarm water, tweezers and a toothpick to apply them. A small piece of tissue is used to soak up the water once the decal is in place (by touching the edge to get the bulk of the water from under the decal and then gently dabbing it to remove the rest).

7) Matt Varnishing. Again I used the Army Painter matt varnish.

I think the results are pretty good for the amount of time spent on them. I’ve a lot of this army painted now – I’ll organise myself to post more pictures soon.

Owen

Iron Lich Asphyxious: Painting Guide

owen — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:56:05 +0000

I’ve been working on my Cryx over the last week and Iron Lich Asphyxious is the last miniature I’ve completed, so I decided I’d do a step-by-step guide to painting him. I tend to paint character models individually as they deserve a little more time and detailing as they tend to receive more attention on the battlefield (if only because they usually last longer!). The Iron Lich is my third Cryx ‘caster and I wanted to paint him to reflect the thematic colours of the army – muted browns and glowing pale blue.

Preparation and Undercoating
Asphyxious is an easy miniature to assemble. It comes in three parts – the body, head and the vents for the armour. I nearly always use the Dremel and ‘swan neck’ to clean off my miniatures as there is nothing worse than undercoating it only to discover mould lines. Before I work with the Dremel, I wash the miniature to remove any mould release (the white powdery substance on the miniature). Next I use a sharp hobby knife to remove vent flash and an large mould lines from the model and base. I then dry fit everything to ensure I know which parts are which (pretty straight forward in this case). Once all of the components are cleaned I again do a dry fit and check to see if I’ll need to fill any gaps. There were none to fill in this case – most of the Privateer Press smaller models are okay (the ‘jacks and beasts can require a bit of ‘green-stuffing’). Next I tend to drill guide holes for pinning , but again that wasn’t required in this case. I then hash mark the areas to be glued with the knife, apply a drop of glue and then hold the pieces in place until they are dry. I then cut some small pieces of thin plastic to cover the hole in the base on either side of the miniature.

I use the Army Builder Black spray to undercoat the miniature. I don’t think it is as good as GWs Chaos Black spray. It requires a lot more shaking and the nozzle velocity is a little too fast. I usually spray miniatures in 3 sessions – the first with them standing and I do a 360°, once dry I lie them on their front and spray their underneath and finally I do the same with them lying on their back. Before I paint I will wash them with a watered down GW Chaos Black to catch any missing bits.

Painting
I used the following colours -

GW Bleached Bone
GW Blue Ice
GW Boltgun Metal
GW Chaos Black
GW Fortress Grey
GW Graveyard Earth
GW Shadow Grey
GW Shining Gold
GW Snakebite Leather
P3 Brass Balls
Citadel Wash Asurmen Blue
Citadel Wash Badab Black
Citadel Wash Devlan Mud

I subscribe to the idea of painting form the inside out, i.e. start with the lower layers of the miniature and work to the upper so you never have to paint past detail you’ve completed. I also like to complete each colour as much as possible. I started with the ethereal ‘skirt’ and wanted to achieve a dark blue result. This was basecoated in Shadow Grey and then highlighted in 4-5 layers with increasing amounts of Bleached Bone. I use Bleached Bone or Kommando Khaki as the ‘lightening’ colour as it is less harsh than pure white. I then washed this area in a Badab Black / Asurmen Blue mix (a little more Black than Blue). In painting the skirt I got paint on the mesh that overlayed it. I lightly drybrushed this with Chaos Black as I knew I would be leaving some black visible later.

Next up is the blue spectral glow that emanates from within his torso. I painted this Ice Blue and washed it with a very light Asurmen Blue. Again I drybrushed the surrounding area black to cover up sloppy brush work.

The main colour on the torso was going to be a dull brown. I decided that Graveyard Earth was the main colour here, but I wanted to start darker and do about 10 layers. I added Chaos Black to the Graveyard Earth (about 1:2) and did about 4 layers up to pure Graveyard Earth. Next I added Bleached Bone in increasing amounts in 6 layers up to a mix that was about 70% Bleached Bone. This area was then washed with Devlan Mud.

With the main colours done it was time to get into some details. I finished the skull by drybrushing it up to pure Bleached Bone and used a mix of Graveyard Earth and Snakebite Leather to do the leather strap holding the metal eye. The iron metal areas (the weapon, the soul cage chain, some aspects of the arms and the eye) were covered in a watered down Boltgun Metal and was washed with Badab Black.

Okay, nearly there. The main metal effect I wanted was a brass colour. I mixed P3 Brass Balls and GW Shining Gold (1:1) and dry brushed the remaining metal areas (arms, fingers, vents, piping details, soul cages, and the mesh over the ‘skirt’). As it was a lightly layered drybrush I was happy with the effect and didn’t wash these areas. I then painted the gemstone in the weapon Ice Blue and dotted it with an Ice Blue Bleached Bone mix. I highlighted the edges of the weapon’s haft in Fortress Grey.

The final stage is the one I was nervous about. I did a small amount of light source experimentation on the Bane Lord Tartarus miniature and now it is Asphyxious’ turn. I want to show the glow of the blue chest light hitting the surrounding areas and catching the skull. The trick here is to highlight these areas without obliterating their underlying colours. I guess there are two options – try to mix a ‘blued up’ version of those colours and highlight or a very light drybrush of the glowing colour. I opted for the latter as I think achieving consistency across the different colours would be very hard. So I grabbed one of my smallest brushes and loaded it with Ice Blue. I the wiped almost all of the colour off and then proceeded to drybrush in straight lines from the light source. I’m moderately happy with how it turned out. I erred on the side of less is more and I think it’ll do.

I spent about 2.5 hours painting the Iron Lich and he turned out well for this time investment. Here’s a larger photograph, but there are much larger pictures available on flickr.

Finishing
As with the other miniatures I’m working on at the moment I’ll wait until I’ve finished the final unit (the Bane Knights, who are up next for painting) before I base and varnish everything.

Owen

Bane Lord Tartarus: Complete

owen — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:12:40 +0000

In another good day of painting I managed to complete Bane Lord Tartarus. I wanted him to have a similar colour to the Bane Thralls, but to also have the blue hue which is a subtle theme colour in the army.

I painted the brown in much the same way as I did on the Bane Thralls (GW Bestial Brown gradually mixed with GW Bleached Bone and then washed with Devlan Mud). I gave him many more and much lighter drybrushes than the Bane Thralls. This has produced a much smoother and more cohesive finish. The ‘skirt’ was base coated in P3 Greatcoat Grey and then highlighted with increasing amounts of GW Shadow Grey to this base colour. It was then washed with an Asurmen Blue and Badab Black (1:1) wash. I picked out the bright blue emanating from the shadows using GW Ice Blue washed back with pure Asurmen Blue.

The metal on the weapon is GW Boltgun Metal lightly drybrushed with the detail picked out in a 1:1:1 mix of Boltgun Metal, Brazen Brass and Fortress Grey which gives a salmony metallic colour. The remaining metal areas on the aromour were lightly drybrushed in this colour.

I wanted to explore a little light sourcing so I directionally drybrushed the areas surrounding the ‘skirt’ with a very light touch of GW Ice Blue to look like they were being lit by the glow. I highlighted it by adding a small amount of Bleached Bone, but this was a very, very light drybrush. The effect has worked out quite well, but I’m sure a bit more practice will see dramatic improvements.

All told it took about 3 hours to finish Tartarus from bare metal to fully painted (I’ll do the base when I’m basing the current batch of miniatures). Not bad for the time invested.

Owen

Bane Thralls: Complete

owen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:21:11 +0000

In another flurry of painting I managed to finish a unit of six Bane Thralls today. I decided to paint them a little differently to my other unit, so that they look more like the Goreshade paint job. This was in order to use them as his ‘raised’ unit on the feat turn. The overall effect I was going for was muted browns and dulled highlights. I think they’ve turned out pretty good for the 4 hours spent on them.

I painted them using a basic drybrushing and washing technique. The main brown is GW Bestial Brown drybrushed on with increasing amounts of GW Bleached Bone. The ‘skirt’ is GW Scorched Brown with increasing amounts of GW Kommando Khaki. Each of these areas received 4-5 increasingly light drybrushes followed by a wash of Devlan Mud. The chainmail and axe metal is GW Boltgun Metal and a wash of Badab Black. The coppery metal is GW Brazen Brass washed in Badab Black.

The Skulls are highlighted up to pure Bleached Bone with dot of enchanted Blue for the eyes. The wooden part of the weapon handle had the same drybrush as the main brown dulled back with a highlight of Graveyard Earth and a wash of Badab Black. The leather straps, similarly, had a final highlight of Snakebite Leather applied and then a wash of Badab Black.

I picked up Iron Lich Asphyxious, so he and Tartarus are next to be assembled and painted. It’ll be nice to concentrate on a couple of character models after painting 18 troopers models.

Owen

Cryx Mechanithralls and Bile Thralls: Complete

owen — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:34:46 +0000

Yesterday was a big painting day (6 hours!). I managed to finish two (minimum) units of Mechanithralls and Bile Thralls. I have yet to base them, but I’ll wait to do that when the next two units are painted (Bane Thralls and Bane Knights). Here’s one of the Bile Thralls -

The technique was fairly straight forward – I did the flesh, then the bone, next the piping and gloves, then the ‘iron’ metal and then finally the gun. Colours used on the flesh were P3 Greatcoat Grey with P3 Khadoran Flesh (4:1) as the base coat with increasing amounts of GW Kommando Khaki added for highlights. I washed it after all other colours were finished with a 3:1 blend of Citadel Asurmen Blue and Badab Black (this same wash covered the metal on the body). The bone was basecoated in GW Scorched Brown, then drybrushed with GW Snakebite Leather with increasing amounts of GW Bleached Bone up to pure Bleached Bone.

The piping was just basecoated in Shadow Grey (I’d leave it to the wash to add a little depth) and the gloves are GW Scorched Brown with a GW Snakebite Leather highlight. The ‘iron’ was painted with GW Boltgun Metal mixed with GW Chaos Black (3:1) and then highlighted with Boltgun Metal. Finally, the gun was basecoated with P3 Brass Balls, leaving some parts in the black undercoat. It was then highlighted using GW Mithril Silver.

The Mechanithralls were painted in pretty much the same colours (as you can see here blue is a subtle theme in the army) with the addition of GW Gore Red for the … well … red gory bits.

The second unit of Bane Thralls are next. I’ll paint them in more-or-less the same colour as my first unit for consistency.

Owen