I painted Abhorrent Ghoul King with Crown of Delusion like this

HOW I PAINTED MY GHOUL KING

Games Workshop kindly sent me the special boxing day miniature, the Abhorrent Ghoul King with Crown of Delusion (henceforth to be simply refered to as Ghoul King!) for free, and I painted it up as my first miniature of the year! This is a beastly ruler of the Flesh-Eater Courts, depraved creatures that skulk in the night believing themselves to be noble knights and chivalrous heroes.

So, here’s how I went about painting it!

Firstly I primed the model with White Scar spray – you could also use Grey Seer for this, or Wraithbone for a warmer finish. When this was dry I shaded the whole model with Nuln Oil. This helped me identify areas of detail and define the key shapes. From here, I moved onto individual elements.

The Throne
For the Throne I began with covering the whole thing with Basilicanum Grey contrast paint.

I followed this with recess shades of Poxwalker where moss would gather, and also ran this around the bottom of the throne to indicate climbing moss.

I used Mantis Warriors Green contrast paint in smaller areas within the poxwalker areas to indicate denser moss.

I then drybrushed the whole throne with Grey Seer paint from the pot, before re applying a little of the greens to re-establish them. This gave the whole throne a nice weathered and overgrown appearance.

The Flesh
This distinctive orange flesh colour was achieved by using Gryph-Hound Orange contrast paint all over.

I then highlighted this with Jokaero Orange, Cadian Fleshtone and finally some small highlights of Pallid Wych Flesh.

To add variance to the skin tone I thinned down Volupus Pink contrast and applied it to the face, hands, knees etc to get a reddish tint.

Bone Areas
Bone areas such as the ones hanging on the throne and his piercings were first painted Corax White, then given a coat of Skeleton Horde contrast paint.

I built up Skeleton Horde in thin layers here and there to increase saturation and achieve a rough gradient effect.

A few highlights of Screaming Skull on the key edges finished this off.

The ropes binding the bones were painted with Gore-Grunta Fur.

Black Cloth
I painted all the cloth with Corvus Black, which is a deep grey rather than a pure black.

I washed it with Nuln Oil to deepen the recessed areas.

I then highlighted up with Mechanicus Standard Grey and Dawnstone.

A little Poxwalker was stippled onto some of the areas to imply the cloth was old and mossy itself too.

The Metallics
All the metal areas were painted with Leadbelcher to start with.

To turn some of the areas gold such as the crown and sword hilt I applied a few thin layers of Skeleton Horde over the top rather than use a gold paint, this dulls the gold down nicely.

I washed the silver areas with Nuln Oil, and the Gold areas with Poxwalker to add a greenish hint to the worn, aged gold.

Final highlights were done with Iron Hands Steel on all the metallics.

Rust was stippled on using Jokaero Orange.

The Base
After applying a grey base texture paint, I washed it with Nuln Oil, then drybrushed Dawnstone.

Finally I used Mantis Warriors Green contrast again to add mossy areas to the ground.

The model was finished off by painting the rim with Corvus Black.

And that’s pretty much it! If you’ve painted one of these yourself, why not show it off on our discord, or use the #PaintSlam23 hashtag on social media!

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