Oh hey, I’m actually getting a showcase post done within the first week of a new month. That’s pretty good going I think! With July officially behind us, and the nights drawing in, we’re well into the latter half of this year’s PaintSlam now. But if you’re not yet involved, it’s certainly not too late to join in! Why not join us for the next few months?
I waas very kindly sent a selection of Duncan Rhodes’ new(ish) paint range Two Thin Coats, from UK supplier Exit 23 games. They’re currently running a promotion on these where if you buy any 6 paints from Two Thin Coats or Turbo Dork you get the cheapest paint free, by the way. If you’d like to try them out yourself, please give my affiliate link a follow here! That said, they sent me these for free to try out, so I took to Twitch to give my live reactions to these paints. This isn’t a full range review, these impressions are based purely on my Twitch stream today (go back and watch the VOD if you can!)
Firstly, I received a total of 10 of these 15ml pots – Dragons Gold, and three colour triads: Green (comprising Wyvern Green, Emerald Green, and Ethereal Green), Yellow (Dark Sun Yellow, Skulker Yellow, and Yellow Flame), and Red (Berseker Red, Sanguine Scarlet, and Demon Red).
Whilst having a nice chat with the viewers, my first point was to test the coverage of the “base” versions of each triad on a test model. Above you can see Berserker Red, Dark Sun Yellow, and Wyvern Green. The Red covered excellently in 2 coats and is a deep maroon colour that reminds me of the old Mechrite Red from Citadel’s Foundation line. The yellow is very much like Averland Sunset from the current Citadel line with very similar coverage. This took 3-4 thin coats to get a smooth finish over the grey basecoat. As with all yellow paints, you’re probably best using it over white to get a strong bright finish. The green took 3 thin coats to get a nice even finish. This strongly resembles Caliban Green from Citadel and would be a great base colour for Dark Angels. The red and yellow paints both had a very flat, matte finish. The green has slightly more satin finish to my eyes which you can see from the brighter light reflections.
Overall, these were strong base colours with a subtle saturation rather than being super bright. The Red is certainly closer to Khorne Red than something like Mephiston Red.
Next I started picking out areas on each model with the two lighter tones of each colour. You can see each labelled in the image above. The yellows as expected took a few layers again to get a smooth solid colour, but hold up favourably compared to those in the Citadel line.
The mid red is similar to Mephiston Red, but slightly darker. Demon Red is very similar to Evil Sunz Scarlet, and brings to mind the 90s Blood Angels orange-red armour. I liked this colour a lot.
Emerald Green and Ethereal Green are roughly equivalent to Warpstone Glow and Moot Green from Citadel. The coverage on Ethereal Green did feel slightly better than Moot Green though. I think this would be an excellent triad to replac the citadel trio for Dark Angels if you wanted to change things up.
I used the Dragon’s Gold upon the weapon of the Red warrior, with Retributor Armour from Citadel on the Yellow warrior. These two colours are extremely close – you’d struggle to tell them apart. I do think the Dragons Gold is smoother though, and had a more even colour after a single coat. I think it may well replace Retributor Armour for me just for ease of use.
This is very much still early impressions so I will be integrating these into my paint flow long term to see how I get on with them. Stay tuned to my Twitch streams to keep up to date and see me using them live!
I do however have one nitpick with these paints, despite the colours being excellent, and that’s with the dropper bottles. They do seem to be a little on the leaky side, with some of them having noticable outspillage even upon first use (see the Demon Red on the right of this image). So I’d recommend having a tissue on standby to wipe the caps if you have this particular issue.
On the plus side, each pot contains 15ml which is 3ml more than the usual Citadel paint pot, and it feels/sounds like each also has a mixing ball inside so they are easy and quick to shake and get ready to use.
I had a great time trying these paints out today and certainly would like to pick up some more of the colour triads in the near future. Thanks once again to Exit 23 Games for being absolute legends and providing me with these to try out.
So, after almost 7 months, we’re finally getting settled into our new place and we just got hooked up with that fabled thing known as “The Internet” again!
So, with my hobby space now set up (if still a bit of a WIP), I’m now intending to stream much more regularly once again.
Please drop me a follow (and a sub? *puppy dog eyes*) over at twitch.tv/jewelknightjess and tune in if you ever see me live! So far I have done two streams in the new place, where I started and finished this wonderful “Mummified King” miniature from One Page Rules (Kindly printed for me by the folks over at only-games.co):
He’ll make a fine start to a Tomb Kings army for Warhammer The Old World, I reckon. Or at the very least a great test of a colour scheme idea.
What’s next? Depends! I’ll be streaming my own personal projects plus commission work over the coming weeks and months, so please do tune in and keep me company as I slap colour down on little soldiers! I look forward to seeing you there!
If you’re looking to add some jungle-based death-world defying warriors to an army of the far future, or just some unfortunate blokes in a forest, you could do a lot worse than the Spacenam kit from Wargames Atlantic. These are modern-looking sculpts with tons of options, and I’d been meaning to pick some up for quite a while for a painting project.
In this article I’ll show you how I painted one such model with step-by-step instructions. Apply this guide to your own warriors and you’ll soon be thrashing whatever decided to see you as prey…
I assembled my miniature with a bandana, open jacket and a pose with easy access to all the details for this tutorial, but there are tons of options in the kit and you’ll have dozens of leftover bits. The base got a Barbed Bracken addition. I began the paintjob by spraying the model Death Guard Green. This will give us a solid base for the model’s fatigues.
The skin was painted with Tuskgor Fur from Citadel, then the weapons, kneepads, boots and waist pouches were painted with Vallejo German Grey. This gives us our three main areas of colour blocked out. For a purely “3 color minimum” tournamnet requirement you could probably get away with this if you’re in rush! But let’s continue on…
Next I picked out a few extra details – the bandana and wristband with Game Colour Scarlet Red, the hair with Citadel Hobgrot Hide, and the belt and knee straps with Thondia Brown. I also painted the top of the base Thondia Brown at this point. Then I took Death Guard Green from the pot to go over the fatigues again and clean up any mistakes I could spot. With this, the main base coats are done.
It’s fair to say that “Get Spotted By Hungry Alien” is fairly low down on these guys’ To-Do lists, so it’s time to help them hide a bit in the jungle growth with a bit of camo. I began by applying islands of Citadel’s Krieg Khaki across all the green areas. Try to imagine each one as an irregular island shape, each one different to the ones near it. Apply these so the green areas are roughly 50% Death Guard Green and 50% Krieg Khaki.
For the darker shade, I made a mix of German Grey and Death Guard Green and applied these again in irregular mottled shapes. You want the dark areas to overlap both of the other shades of green – try to make each dark patch connect to both of the other shades. This will help create that ideal forest camoflage.
The black and green areas were all then given a coat of Citadel Nuln Oil to shade the recesses. The black areas were then highlighted by mixing Vallejo Stonewall Grey into German Grey, with edge highlights along the gun, boots, pouches and knee pads.
Next I picked out the teeth with Pro Acryl Ivory, and shaded all the flesh (and hair) with Citadel Targor Rageshade. This is like a slightly reddish Agrax Earthshade-like. While I was at it I also used Citadel Biel-Tan Green on the bracken.
His hair was highlighted by making a mix of Hobgrot Hide and Ivory, painting short stripes with this mix, then using pure Ivory at the front of each strip. Hobgrot Hide was also mixed into the Scarlet Red to create a highlight for the bandana and wrist strap.
The skin was highlighted first on all the raised details with 50:50 Citadel Cadian Fleshtone and the original base colour of Tuskgor Fur. Then a pure highlight of Cadian Fleshtone was painted on the upper areas, avoiding the shadows and undersides of the arms. Lastly again, a little Ivory was mixed into the Cadian Fleshtone to create a final highlight just for the most prominent upper areas, and on the model’s nose.
Gunmetal was painted onto the knife blade and a few of the gun details, and these were given a shade with Nuln Oil.
I returned to Krieg Khaki to highlight some of the various areas on the fatigues a little more, to help make them more readable.
To add a little weathering, I thinned down Citadel Mournfang Brown with lots of water to make a thin wash, then ran this into the recesses of the boots and shoulder pads.
I then mixed a little Vallejo Elfic Blue into the Cadian Flesh skintone and glazed it onto the face to create a stubbled look.
Base texture was applied with Mig Ammo Dark Mud, this is a great wet mud texture paint that has a real nasty glossy wet look to it. Perfect for the jungle! And after painting the base rim Black, and adding a couple of tufts, I called him done.
By following the steps in this guide you can quickly and easily paint your squads of grizzled jungle fighters! Perfect for the present day or the far future! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and please stay tuned for more like this. Is there any kit you’d like to see me tackle next? Let me know in the Discord!
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!
Games Workshop very kindly furnished me with a copy of the Leagues of Votann army set, a (sort of) brand new faction for Warhammer 40k to paint up, with a suggestion to do them in one of the schemes presented in the Codex itself. As you can see above, I managed to paint most of the set in time, I’ve just got 10 more of the Hearthkyn Warriors left to finish up.
You can see my work, and that of other painters from around the Warhammer Community, in the blog post here!
I wanted to give a little advice on how you can paint your Votann the way I did – it’s a little different to the way they do it in the official tutorials on Youtube as I was kind of working by eye from the Codex and obviously putting in my own touches here and there too.
So, let’s take a look at the various areas now!
The biggest and most prominent feature of the models is the striking orange armour. This is what gives the Trans-Hyperian Alliance such a unique look, even amongst the other factions of 40k where orange is rarely featured.
I began over my White Scar primer with the contrast paint Magmadroth Flame. This was then given a shade of Nuln Oil to deepen the darkness in the recesses, as Magmadroth Flame is a very solid, flat orange right out of the bottle unlike many other Contrast colours. You could instead use one coat of Gryph-Hound Orange if you want less steps, but you’ll get a less even orange to work from.
Next I used Fire Dragon Bright in thin layers, building up over the darker orange until it was nice and smooth, but leaving the darker colour in recesses and areas of heavy shadow.
To highlight, I mixed in a little Phalanx Yellow for edge highlighting, before using pure Phalanx Yellow for the very top dot highlights in key areas.
For the dirty greatcoat of the Kahl, I began by painting the whole thing with Black Legion contrast paint. This is a fantastic paint that covers excellently in one layer to give a smooth, consistent black. I then used Mechanicus Standard Grey and Dawnstone for highlighting the edges and raised folds.
To dirty the coat up, I took Steel Legion Drab and used a drybrushing technique over the lower third of the coat, being heaviest towards the very bottom. This builds up into a convincing grimy dirt texture and helps ground the model.
The battle damage was simply dots and scratches with Thondia Brown paint. If you wanted to make it more realistic, you can use the lighter orange/yellow mix to highlight the lower part of every brown scratch to create the illusion of depth, but I was rushing to get as much painted as I could for the article ^_^;;
For all of the golden details, I began with Retributor Armour paint, then applied Agrax Earthshade over the top of this. I then highlighted with Liberator Gold.
For the white stripes, I used Corax White. Thinning the paint so it goes on smooth, paint in the outline of the stripe first, then fill it in. Two or three thin layers will get you a lovely smooth white finish. Then, take Fire Dragon Bright and add dots and scratches to the edges and a few of the flat areas to create a realistic worn-off paint effect.
I painted the trousers and belts with Vallejo German Grey (Corvus Black from GW would likely be much the same), then shaded with Nuln Oil. This was highlighted with layers of thinned Mechanicus Standard Grey and Dawnstone just like the greatcoat.
For the black weapons (also the armour panels of the hoverbikes!) I began with Black Legion contrast paint all over. This was edge highlighted first with Stegadon Scale Green, then a lighter highlight with Thunderhawk Blue. Finally, a few spots were highlighted with Fenrisian Grey.
For the skin, I used Guilliman Flesh contrast paint all over to begin with. I then raised up with highlights of Cadian Fleshtone and Kislev Flesh. To help the skin look more alive, I thinned Volupus Pink contrast paint down a lot with water and applied it to the nose and cheeks to create a reddish tone to the skin.
The power axe was painted with Vallejo Game Colour Turquoise. I created highlights by mixing in a little Game Colour Verdigris a tiny bit at a time to create a gradiated stripe texture on the blade, and a nice edge highlight. These colours were also used on lenses and plasma weapon bits too.
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