I got a chance to paint up the new (2009) sculpt for Skarre a couple of nights ago. It took about 4 hours to paint, but if you painted more areas the same colour or had fewer highlights it could be a lot faster. Here’s a quick step-by-step painting guide.
- Undercoat I used Gesso to undercoat the model as it’s too cold to reliably spray. Cold and humidity can cause misting on miniatures that are sprayed. For any bit that are missed I use a watered down Chaos Black to cover them. I also glued the sand to the base as I was basing another miniature anyway.
- Flesh Next up is the skin and there is quite a bit of it on Skarre! I used a watered down Tallarn Flesh as the base coat and then applied increasing amounts of Elf Flesh to the layered highlights. Then I added Skull White in the next couple of highlights.
For the eyes I used Bleached Bone as the base, trying to leave some black around the edges. Chaos Black was used to dot the eye. I added a tiny bit of Hormagaunt Purple to one of the medium flesh highlights and applied it as eye shadow.
Finally I added a small bit of Mechrite Red to that same flesh highlight to paint the bottom lip.
- Purple Coat The coat was based Hormagaunt Purple. It’s a Citadel Foundation paint and I usually find it best to water these down a good bit. Next up were three highlights, each with an increasing amount of Skull White, the first of which was 1:1. Last up was a wash of Leviathan Purple.
- Cloak The cloak was painted in a similar manner to the coat. The base coat was Greatcoat Grey and Blue Ice (2:1) and there were three/four drybrushed highlights with Skull White added. This was then washed with a 1:1 mix of Asurmen Blue and Badab Black. Ice Blue was used for the glow of the Necrotite.
- Hair, Horns and Leather The hair was based a 1:1 mix of Chaos Black and Codex Grey. It was then painted with Codex Grey by drawing the edge of the brush across the ridges in the hair. Finally the prominent hair detail was highlighted with Fortress Grey.
The Horns and Leather were painted using the same scheme – Khemri Brown as a base, with increasing amounts of Bleached Bone and then a Devlan Mud wash. The Horns received more highlighting.
- Metals The metals are the final step and require the most care. I tend to leave metals to last if I can as I’m very lazy at changing my water and I don’t want metallic flecks contaminating the other colours! There are two metallic colours – Steel and Brass.
For the Steel I based using a watered down Boltgun Metal, I highlighted with Mithril Silver and washed with Devlan Mud and Badab Black.
For the Brass I based with a 1:1 mix of Khemri Brown and Brass Balls. This was highlighted with a 1:1 mix of Brass Balls and Shining Gold. It was then washed with Devlan Mud. I did both of the metal washes after I’d changed water and thoroughly washed the brushes.
I think Skarre’s turned out quite well. I like the cartoony quality of the flesh and how vivid the purple turned out. I considered detailing the trim of her coat in gold, but that seemed like too much effort!
Hope this painting guide proves useful.
Owen
PS I photographed the paints used in each stage too.