Tag: Tutorial

  • An excellent way to paint your Gloom Trench 1926 Enforcers!

    An excellent way to paint your Gloom Trench 1926 Enforcers!

    This content was kindly sponsored by Fickle Dice Games, the creators of Gloom Trench 1926.
    You can find them on social media at:
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fickle_dice_games/
    Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gloomtrench

    Gloom Tench 1926 is a game that takes the grim real world setting of WW1 and introduces an alternative history, where human science has resulted in a world overrun by fearsome monsters known as “The Scourge”. The upcoming Kickstarter for the Russians is due to launch at 1pm GMT (8am EST) on the 7th Feb 2023. You can follow this campaign right here!


    In this article I will show you how I painted an Enforcer for two of 3 Russian factions from the game. This painting article uses Citadel Colour paint names, although you can apply the same techniques to your own preferred paint brand.

    The model was attached with Superglue to a piece of slate which I had attached to the 25mm plastic base. We’ll be adding more detail to the base near the end. The model was primed with Mechanicus Standard Grey hobby spray. I then went over the model itself with the same colour from the pot, to ensure an even finish. The paint from the pot is also a slightly warmer tone.

    To bring out the details and highlight all the fur/wool parts of the model, it was given an all-over drybrush with Dawnstone. This was followed by a lighter drybrush with Screaming Skull, this off-white again adds a little warmth into the otherwise cool scheme.

    To fully bring out all the details, I then applied a shade of Nuln Oil over the whole miniature. This settles into the recesses without overly staining the raised areas. I used a little Basilicanum Grey to give a blacklining effect around the edges where fur meets coat trim and gloves to help define these edges.

    The gloves and coat trim were then painted with Thunderhawk Blue, a grey-blue paint perfect for our wintery themed model.

    The blue areas we just painted were given a shade with Gryph-Charger Grey contrast paint. When this was dry, an edge highlight was applied with Fenrisian Grey. I also picked out the knuckles and fingers a little with this colour.

    With the blue areas done, I moved onto the leathers by painting them all with Wyldwood contrast paint. This included the pouches, belts, and sword scabbard. This was highlighted with Steel Legion Drab.

    To finish the leathers, I used Karak Stone to apply smaller highlights to all these areas. It’s ok to be a little rough with this, since you will create a worn leather appearance.

    The face was started by giving it a paint with Tuskgor Fur, a nice reddish fleshtone. Be careful not to get it onto the fur areas!

    The raised parts of the face were painted with Cadian Fleshtone, followed by a smaller highlight with Kislev Flesh on the ends of the nose and cheeks. His moustache was painted with Corax White, implying age and experience on the battlefield.

    The eyes got a little bit of Wyldwood dropped into the pupils, then the whole face including moustache were washed with Targor Rageshade, a reddish-brown shade paint.

    I then picked out the badge on his hat, his shoulder plates, belt buckle and weapon handle with Blood Angels Red contrast paint. This contrasting red colour helps round out the colour scheme of the whole model.

    The red areas were given an edge highlight of Evil Sunz Scarlet, then a few dot highlights with the Cadian Fleshtone we used earlier on the face.

    All the metal areas such as the breastplate, pouch buttons, and pistol were given a coat of Leadbelcher.

    I used Nuln Oil over all the metal areas, then applied a little Basilicanum Grey contrast into any scratches and dings on the metals to add a bit of depth.

    The metallics were then given a highlight with Iron Hands Steel.

    It’s time to return to the base. I used a Vallejo textured paint to add in some battlefield mud over the flat areas and on some of the slate. You can use a Citadel textued paint like Stirland Mud if that’s what you’ve got to hand. Once dry, this was given a wash with Agrax Earthshade, before it got a drybrush of Screaming Skull.

    Finally, I applied snow effects with Citadel Valhallan Blizzard. This texture paint dries to give a realistic snowy-slush effect that really helps ground the model. The rim of the base was given a couple of layers of Abaddon Black to finish the model off and call it ready for battle.

    And that’s it! Our Russian Enforcer is now ready to face the horrors of the grim dark battlefields of 1926 and all the terrifying creatures that lurk on them! As you can see in the picture above, this scheme can be applied just as easily to both the 28mm and 15mm versions of the Gloom Trench 1926 miniatures.

    All that remains is to once again thank Fickle Dice Games for sponsoring this content, do go check them out and get ready for their kickstarter in the first week of February. Have fun painting your own miniatures!

    If you enjoyed this article and want to help support PaintSlam, please consider joining the Patreon! Your support helps me keep the lights on and keep producing content like this!

  • I painted Abhorrent Ghoul King with Crown of Delusion like this

    I painted Abhorrent Ghoul King with Crown of Delusion like this

    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!

    If you enjoyed this article and want to help support PaintSlam, please consider joining the Patreon! Your support helps me keep the lights on and keep producing content like this!

  • How to paint a Fire Brand Kobold!

    How to paint a Fire Brand Kobold!

    The folks at Steamforged Games kindly sent me a bunch of their Epic Encounters D&D Supplements lately, and I am in love with the miniatures in these sets. Each set contains not only miniatures but a full encounter including double sided playmats and books containing enemy stats and attacks, story beats and more. Going forward I am hoping to bring more painting tutorials for these sets to help you get your models painted to a nice gaming level!

    This Kobold is from the Shrine of the Kobold Queen set. In this tutorial I’ll show you how I painted my unit of 4 shield+spear loaded Kobolds to a playable tabletop standard.

    I started with a spray of Grey Seer undercoat. This is a very light grey, which gives colours placed over it a slightly cooler tone which befits the scales of a reptilian kobold (although some Kobolds are mammalian, I think?)

    Over this, I apply Citadel Contrast Blood Angels Red over all the Kobold scales and flesh. Don’t worry about splashing it onto other areas, since we’ll be using darker colours over most of the other areas.

    Next I took Cygor Brown contrast paint, and applied it over horns, claws, the shield, and the staff shaft. I then used Leadbelcher over all the metal areas.

    I used Zandri dust to pick out a few straps on the spear staff, then I applied Agrax Earthshade over everything so far, including the red areas to help deepen the shadows and tie the colours together.

    The horns, shield, and staff got a quick drybrush with Gorthor Brown paint to bring out some of the woodgrain texture, I also gave the edge of a shield a highlight with the same colour. Then I painted a little purple into the eye area, which will help the bright green glowing eyes pop a little more.

    The eyeball was painted first with Corax White paint, then given a plentiful coat of Tesseract Glow technical paint. I put on enough that it flowed into the sharp crevices of the eye and created a glowing effect.

    I used Ushabti Bone and Zandri Dust to highlight the straps on the spear, as well as bring out a few extra highlights upon the shield. The silver areas recieved a highlight with Mythril Silver.

    Evil Sunz Scarlet was then used on the red areas to highlight the more raised areas and brighten up the overall look of the scales and skin. I used Troll Slayer Orange next to create even smaller highlights.

    Lastly, I used Cygor Brown contrast paint once more to paint in pupils into the eyes, although this is a matter of taste and you might prefer the plan glowing style eyes. To finish the model off, the base was painted completely with Abaddon Black. You could also use a texture paint or other basing materials to match your other models, but I do my miniatures for these sets with plain black.

    And with that, the Kobold is ready to take on some brave adventurers and die for his queen. Here’s the completed group of 4 Fire Brand Kobolds…

    I hope you enjoyed this little painting guide, and if you found it useful please let me know in the comments below. Thanks once again to Steamforged Games for hooking me up! Also let me know if you’ve got any of the Epic Encounters stuff yourself, have you played any of the scenarios yet with your friends?

    If you enjoyed this article and want to help support PaintSlam, please consider joining my Patreon! Your support helps me keep the lights on and keep producing content like this!

  • How to Paint: Game Ready Necromunda Underhive Outcasts!

    How to Paint: Game Ready Necromunda Underhive Outcasts!

    In this first guide to painting Necromunda Underhive Outcast gang members, I will run through the steps to paint one of these models in a quick way, from a game-ready standard using mostly Contrast paints, to taking the model further with extra details and highlights. This tutorial is made possible thanks to Games Workshop, who kindly provided a box of the new Necromunda Outcasts gang for me to preview.

    Disclaimer: I’m no ‘Eavy Metal painter, so I won’t pretend that I’ll ever post really high level, clean painting here on the blog. But if you’re someone who enjoys painting and wants to improve with easily achievable results I hope my tutorials will prove useful. This is my first tutorial like this, so I’d love to know if this helps you out at all!

    There’s a whole load of freedom with how to assemble these models, so I picked the head with the small tuft of hair, a las-pistol and chainsword. I also liked the look of this particular body. With my model assembled, I primed it with Wraithbone spray paint.

    To begin with, the skin areas were given a layer of Guilliman flesh. It’s entirely possible you’ll get paint on areas where you don’t want it to, but do not fret! Simply clean up with a little wraithbone from a pot to correct any major mistakes. Any minor mistakes you might not even spot until later, so don’t worry too much for a game-ready standard.

    Next I picked out the tuft of hair with Volupus Pink, and the trousers with Skeleton Horde.

    I picked out all the rest of the armour areas with Plaguebearer Flesh, and the chainsword with Iyanden Yellow. At this point it’s not much to look at, but it’ll come together with the next steps. You might miss a few small areas and not spot them with a light colour like these, so it can help to take a photo of the model to help you spot mistakes. In the picture above I can see a few areas I missed with the green.

    I then picked out any areas which would be metallic with Black Templar, to prepare them for the silver paint that would follow. I also decided to go over the Skeleton Horde trousers with Cygor Brown contrast paint to add further contrast and break up the plaguebearer flesh armour. Again, I used the photo above to look to see if any major mistakes presented themselves.

    For the last steps for this quick Game-Ready level, I used Leadbelcher over metal areas like rivets, the gun, the chainsaw blades and motor and the skull symbol on the ganger’s chest. I also applied leadbelcher over the whole base. All these metal areas were given a coat of Agrax Earthshade wash. I also dropped agrax into the more prominent dings and scratches of the armour. I then picked out his right (our left) knee pad with Iyanden Yellow.

    At this point, you could certainly call this model game ready and have it look respectable for a game of Necromunda. But there’s still work we can do to bring it up a bit! Let’s go ahead and take it further, yes!

    Firstly, I took Cadian Fleshtone and smoothed out the flat areas of skin whilst leaving the deeper colours in the recesses. I then highlighted this up using Kislev Flesh, making the muscles and facial details pop nicely.

    To finish the skin off I used a little Magos Purple around the face and arms to vary the skin tone a little. Then, I mixed in some thunderhawk blue with the cadian fleshtone, and painted this on in thin layers to create a believable stubble effect on the top of the head and for the model’s 5 o’clock shadow.

    Next up, I took Krieg Khaki and Flayed One Flesh to highlight the raised edges of all that green armour.

    Next up to make the armour really pop and change up the tones, I use a little Coelia Greenshade in the recesses and also applied it towards the top of the larger flat armour panels. Then I grabbed Stormhost Silver to highlight all the metal areas, including the shoulder spikes and the skull emblem.

    At this point I remembered to paint the little scrappy “purity seal” on the right boot. To do this I started by painting it Zandri Dust, then shaded over it with Agrax Earthshade. This was then highlighted up with Rakarth Flesh.

    Now it’s time to break out the Black Templar again. This can be applied carefully to the purity seal to add text by using small lines and dots. I also used this to freehand some hazard stripes onto the chainsword. I didn’t measure this or anything, I Just did it by eye. It’s a little rough, but this is the underhive. This was then highlighted along the edges again with Flayed One Flesh, which also was used to pick out some scratches.

    With the chainsword done, we’re getting close to the end. I took some Scrag Brown, and watered it down nice and thin. I then dropped this into recesses of the silver areas, and dotted it onto some of the flatter bits. I did the same again with a bit of Fire Dragon Bright, but in smaller areas than the Scrag Brown.

    Finally, I used Thondia Brown and Baneblade Brown to highlight up the trousers. I also used dots and lines of Thondia Brown to add weathering to the armour to show where paint had chipped away. To add final touches, I used an oxide-earth pigment powder on the base, armour panels and lower legs of the model. I love how this made some of the armour look extremely old and weathered.

    And that’s how the model finished up! I hope you like it, and I hope you found something interesting or useful in this little tutorial! This is the most in-depth painting post i’ve ever made I think, so please let me know if you liked it!

    Finally, here’s a shot of the 4 Outcasts I’ve painted so far (from the box of 12!). The plan is to make each one quite unique from the others, so these 4 are built “out of the box” but I’ll probably raid my bits box for the next ones! I’m looking forward to painting the rest of this gang up, once again a huge thank you to Games Workshop and the Warhammer Community for the models and support.