Warhammer Painting

[kongurous]

In this thread, we will talk about painting techniques, showing off photos or just talking about model painting in general for both Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000.

To start off, I present to thee the Cadian 512th. I don't have any pictures because I don't want to dig out my camera, but I can pretty well describe what they look like and how I painted them. And no, they aren't the army you see in the Imperial Guard Codex.

First off, I gave the entire unit except the Aquila markings an undercoat of Skull White and made some mental notes as to how I wanted it to look upon completion. I painted the belt, pouches and flak armor in Bleached Bone and used a putty knife to add scaring into the flesh that doubled as how I wanted that particular area to look.

Then, I used Boltgun Metal to coat the lasguns, belt buckles, and various other metal bits. I used Tanned Flesh on the recessed areas of the soldier's face and hands and generally just lightly darkened the skin on the face and upper part of the hands.

After that, I used a watered down combination of Skull White and Bleached Bone and went over the entire uniform and used some thought to make convincing highlights. I edged the lasgun and armor in Catachan Green and I mixed some Chaos Black and Codex Grey and went over the Aquila markings, belt edges, and boots.

Lastly, I gave the Aquila markings a faint bit of Burnished Gold, colored the nub under the lasgun's barrel Blood Red, and painted a watered down Ice Blue camouflage.

Any comments? Complaints? Desires for attention?

[Ragnarox]

I was wondering kong, do you use varnish on any of your models? Because I was considering it but somebody told me it's not worth the effort because it is unlikely the paint will chip off as long as the model is primed.

As for painting on my models, since I have two fairly different armies; Blood Angels Space Marines and Tau, I have two completely different painting techniques although the shades are generally similar.

I'm a big fan of red paint, almost every kind of red paint. So it's natural that I would pick the Blood Angel's army, but when most people see magazine articles of Tau they look more like they have a desert camouflage tint to them.

For my Blood Angels 3rd Company, I used black primer because I wanted the Blood Red paint to be a little darker than it is in the container. I paint most of the armor Blood Red with the exception of the rims of the shoulder pads, the chest eagle, the belt, the rear of the joints so on a so forth. I started the chest eagle by painting it Fiery Orange, then Golden Yellow then a touch of Florescent Yellow. Any exposed metal parts I painted Chaos Black, then dry brushed with Boltgun Metal. Same goes for most parts of the Boltguns. The pistol holsters and containers of the utility belt I painted Bestial Brown. The Power Pack backpack I painted mostly red except the skull and the exhaust ports. These I painted Chaos Black then dry brushed Boltgun Metal. The eyes I painted Chaos Black then diluted some Dark Angels Green and painted over the black. Any other parts not painted Blood Red, Boltgun Metal, Dark Angels Green or Florescent Yellow I painted Chaos Black. After all that, I gave the model an ink wash of Flesh Wash.

The Tau Kre' Na Hunter Cadre models were quite a bit more complex. Specifically for the Fire Warrior Teams, I used white primer. I started with a base coat of Bubonic Brown, then Rotting Flesh then a few dabs here and there of Red Gore. The insides of the arms and any other place without armor I painted Chaos Black, then coated in diluted Dark Angels Green. The Pulse Rifle I painted Rotting Flesh with Chaos Black on the linings. The targeting matrix on the Pulse Rifle I painted Warlock Purple. The helmets I mostly painted Scab Red with Warlock Purple sights. The back pack I painted Chaos Black with some Blood Red and Warlock Purple here and there. The feet I painted Blood Red. I applied Flesh Wash afterwards.

[Pisces]

Painting skeletons is both extremely easy and extremely difficult, extremely easy because there isn't too much detail like belts and such, extremely difficult because no matter how you paint them, when you stick a bunch together they tend to look dull and a bit crap even when you painted them really well. So I painted every skeleton in my army using a different technique, all started off being sprayed white for obvious reasons, following that some would have their joints coloured in a dark colour (chaos black or black ink for some, snakebite leather for others, goblin green, etc.), following that I would use a bone colour, skull white, or bleached bone, some were left like that but most had an additional coat, dry brushed skull white or flesh wash, black ink (in joints), chestnut ink, again some were left like that but some had another coat of bone colour.
Starting from a white skeleton again, some were painted completely with either goblin green, snakebite leather, black ink, flesh wash or chestnut ink, 1 each of the fleshwash/chestnut ink ones were left alone but the rest were then dry brushed in a bone colour, which gives the bone a ting of the first coat and overall makes the skeleton look freshly raised, some were painted further using above techniques.

Also I forgot to mention I dipped some models in wood stain then removed the excess off the model with lots of shaking about, this looks similiar to flesh wash but it gives a much smoother finish, making the bone look like it has gone yellow over time rather than exposure to dirt (which is how flesh wash looks), when I use stain it is usually the last coat because it is hard to paint over and sort of defeats the purpose if you do.

My 2 favourite skeletons are one fully painted goblin green, then dry brushed skull white, then flesh washed, then drybrushed skull white again and the other had its joints painted chaos black then painted skull white (excluding the joints/gaps obviously, they remained black) then fleshwashed.

I have painted about 40 skeletons each differently and I have only done a tiny portion of possible techniques, I absolutely love painting skeletons, I have painted demons, chaos space marines, cultists, harlequiens, tanks, dreadnaughts, vampires, siege weapons, the black coach and nothing is as fun.
My zombies are also each painted differently, the technique for painting zombies is a bit different but they aren't as fun to paint (though more fun to craft) so I won't go into them.

Any comments? Complaints? Desires for attention?

I have many many complaints but they are just desires for attention.

[kongurous]

I was wondering kong, do you use varnish on any of your models? Because I was considering it but somebody told me it's not worth the effort because it is unlikely the paint will chip off as long as the model is primed.

If you want added security, then go ahead but I'm not very worried about it.

[Darmago]

When you get around to uploading piccies, then I'll critique you.

[Giantfish]

Is it really hard to paint actual camo on? I think it would go well on Tau vehicles...

[kongurous]

Painting camo isn't as hard as it is annoying, really.

[Ragnarox]

It's also quite time consuming to paint camouflage especially on vehicles. I would recommend just giving the vehicle a base coat of the shade of paint which is closest to what you want the camouflage to be and then just glue a whole bunch of...stuff, natural stuff, on it.