Tutorial - How to paint: Stormcast Eternals (Lions of Sigmar colors)

Stormcast Eternals is fun to paint, and quite easy as well as you don't need 100 different paints. You paint them up much similar to how you paint Space Marines, focus on the main color of the armor and then paint up the rest of the stuff.

So here's my tutorial on how I painted up my first unit of Liberators. And I painted these in the 'Lions of Sigmar' colors, so purple. Also I'm not a huge fan of golden armor, even though the new Citadel gold colors seem quite nice. So I went more of a bronze look instead, still shiny but more pale.

Colors I used:

Citadel - Base colors; Warplock Bronze, Rakarth Flesh, Screamer Pink, Mephiston Red, Mechanicus Standard Grey, Zandri Dust, Leadbelcher, The Fang. Layer colors; Evil Sunz Scarlet, Xereus Purple, Genestealer Purple, Ushabti Bone, Pallid Wych Flesh, Pink Horror Shade colors; Riekland Fleshshade, Druchii Violet, Agrax Earthshade, Carroburg Crimson Technical colors; Lahmian Medium Dry; Longbeard Grey

Army Painter - Shining Silver, Plate Mail Metal, Matt White, Matt Black, Weapon Bronze, Soft Tone Ink, Dark Tone Ink

Vallejo - Bright Bronze, Airbrush colors etc. Black Primer, Thinner

Step 1 - Armor

First up is the armor, I used an Airbrush (Harder & Steenbeck Evolution) for this, it makes it much quicker. Also I'm doing a method here that keeps some of the shadows, which comes natural as you layer on the first layers of paint.

I primed the models using Black Primer with my airbrush

I then painted them all with Warplock Bronze, also with an Airbrush. I had to dilute the paint with thinner to get the right consistency.

I then did the same thing with Weapons Bronze, and here's where I start to keep some the previous paint to get some natural shadows. I do this holding the airbrush in aprox 45 degree angle so most of the paint hits the top of the model. I also did this but keeping the angle even more with Bright Bronze.

I'm now done with the airbrush. Next step was to wash the models with Riekland Fleshshade.

I then go over the raised up and flat areas with Bright Bronze again, being careful not to get into the recesses or where the 'shadows' are. I do however do some edge highlights in the darkest areas to blend it together.

Step 2 - The rest of the base colors

So with the armor done we now have to paint up the rest to paint up. Thin the paint with sufficient water to keep all details and the surfaces smooth. In most cases it takes two coats of paint to get enough cover. This step is probably the most time consuming but already the miniatures is starting to look really nice. 

All purple parts is painted with Xereus Purple. Hammer head, scale mail, buttons, and bolts on the armor are painted with Leadbelcher. The leather straps, belt, sword cloth beneath the armor is painted with Matt Black. Parchment is painted with Zandri Dust. Haft on hammer and sword is painted with Screamer Pink. The lightningbolts on shoulder pads and shield are painted with Celestra Grey.

The plume on Liberator Prime is painted with Mephiston Red and the stone he stands on (and stones on two others) is painted with Mechanicus Standard Grey. The scroll and inside of the cloth on the Liberator Prime is painted with Rakarth Flesh.

Step 3 - Wash
Now you wash all parts except the armor. Remember to let it dry before going to the next step and be careful not to get to much in the same spot. As the wash runs down the model, you might need flip the model upside down with your hands so the wash gets where it should be, and remove excess paint as needed. When there's large areas like the shield and cloth I thin down the paint with Lahmian Medium and not water to get a smoother result.

All purple, hammer head, scale mail and stones is washed it with Dark Tone Ink (Citadel Nuln Oil works just as good here if you want to stay with GW colors). The red plume is washed with Carrobrug Crimson. The pink parts are washed with Drucchii Voilet. Wash the parchment and the inside of the Prime's cloth with Light Tone Ink (Seraphim Sepia if going with Citadel) and the scroll on the Primes shield with Rakarth Flesh.

Step 4 - First Highlight
After step 3 you really have nice tabletop standard. But to get back some nice contrast and brighter colors again you need to re paint all the washed areas with their original color, leaving the recesses of course.

This step takes a lot of time as well. For the metal parts on the hammer head and scale mail I instead used Plate Mail Metal, but only on the most raised areas. I skipped reapply Xereus Purple on the insides of the shields as you wont see them much anyway. Be extra careful when you reapply Screamer Pink on the hammer and sword hafts as the details here are easy to mess up. 

All the black parts are edge highlighted with The Fang. If to bright or to much just wash it down with Dark Tone Ink or Nuln Oil. 

Step 5 - Second Highlight

Now you do edge highlights on all the colors accept the armor, weapons and lightning bolts which I saved for last. Be careful in this stage not to mess up, you only want highlights on the edges and thin lines.

Genestealer Purple on the purple areas, Pink horror for the hammer and sword hafts (again, be extra careful here). Palid Wych Flesh on parchment, scroll on the shield and inside of the Prime's cloth. The red plume is highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet and the stones are painted with Longbeard Grey.

Step 6 - Final Touch ups
Now I do the final things before the models are completed. I highlight the edges of the armor, and all the metals with Shining Silver, be careful not to overdo this, you don't need to paint all edges. The lightningbolts on the shield and shoulderpads are highlighted with Pallid Wych Flesh.

I based the models and put on transfers, done!

Tutorial: To paint worn and rusted metal (Easy)

Here's an very easy tip on how I make really worn out and rusty objects. I this case we have an barrel/oildrum from the GW Battlefield Accessories Set

It is first primed black and then painted with Warpaints Gun Metal, leave some black in the recesses. 

Then I applied a lot of Kromlech's Orange Rust (KRMA006) Weathering Powder, I applied it together with Citadel Lahmian Medium.  I focused around the recesses and where rust usually are. 

I then dry brush with Citadel Necron Compound. 

Sorry for this last pic, it got to bright for some reason so don't really show how the final result really looks. But the last step is to wash the whole thing with Citadel Typhus Corrosion (A Technical paint that really has progressed into being one of my favorite paints as of late), I wiped some of it off in the middle to get a more uneven look.

That is all, really easy to do and you can do other variants as well with adding more Typhus Corrosion or another kind of wash. You can also do another highlight if you want but I went with this fairly simple method and I hope some of you might find it useful. 

Tutorial: New Dwarf Hammerers

This is my second Dwarf painting tutorial (first is how to paint a Dwarf Warrior and can be found here) and on this new Hammerer model I went with a colour scheme that is a little unusual on Dwarfs, but seen more and more in the latest Army Book for example. And that is coloured armour plates, usually Dwarfs have different kind of metals on their armour, like, steel, bronze, copper, silver, gold etc. On this model that is still there but I also added quite a bit of red armour to give this unit a more special look.

I even came up with an little explanation for it, or fluff even. And that is that this hammerer unit is the royal guard of Belagar Ironhammer and is called the Red Guard. They colour their armour because of all the blood their ancestors have spilt during all the battles and wars fought in Karak Eight Peaks. Or something like that, writing fluff isn't my cup of tea, so if anyone will help me with that feel free to do a comment below. 

Anyway enough of this and on to the actual tutorial.

Step 1: Undercoating

Colours used: Army Painters Gun Metal Primer

I used Army Painters Gun Metal and sprayed it on, really easy and nice result. Be careful though as AP s Spray Primers don't work like GWs for example. Read the instructions closely!

Step 2: Base Colours

Colours used: (All is the new Citadel paints) Balor Brown, Balthasar  Gold, Warplock Bronze, Scorpion Brass, Mephiston Red, Bugmans Glow, Mournfang Brown

Here I paint on all the main colours on the model, I think the picture shows where all the colours go, but I use Warplock Bronze for the scale mail and Balthasar Gold for the details that will be in gold. Bugmans glow is the base colour for the skin parts in the models face and parts of the arms, and Balor Brown is for the beard. Here you can use pretty much any other (that works for beards of course) colour if you want, but I will go for a dark blonde look here (Other colours I often use for beards are Skrag Brown for a reddish brown look, Mechanicus Standard Grey, Rakarth Flesh for a white beard etc.).

A final thing to do in this step before shading is to paint the scale mail with Brass Scorpion, I did this by carefullt drybrush it so I leave a little of Warplock Bronze in some of the recesses. Sorry that I don't show this in the picture above, but you will see the result after shading in the next step.

Step 3: Shading

Colours used: Army Painter (Warpaints) Dark Tone and Strong Tone. 

I first wash all the metal parts with Dark Tone, but not the gold and bronze. When the first ink is dry I wash the hammer handle, beard and red parts of the armour and the bronze parts with Strong Tone. The skin you can leave if you want to or wash with the Strong Tone ink, in this case this was easier. 

Step 4: Repaint base colours and first Highlight

Colours used: Citadel colours; Balor brown, Brass Scorpion, Mephiston Red, Bugmans Glow, Mournfang Brown. Warpaint colours; Plate Mail Metal, Greedy Gold

In this step you re apply the base colours again but you leave the shading where it should be, like in the recesses. There are some exceptions here though, the metal parts is highlighted with a lighter metal colour in this case Plate Mail Metal. The gold is highlighted with WP Greedy Gold

Step 5: Second Highlight

Colours used: Citadel Colours; Balor Brown, Rakarth Flesh, Reikland Fleshshade, Cadian Fleshtone. Warpaint colours; Pure Red

I make one more HL, Pure red on the edges of the red parts as well as the lower quarter of the ruby's. The flesh is highlighted with Cadian fleshtone and the beard are highlighted with Balor Brown with a little Rakarth Flesh mixed in (something like 75/25 mix). I also do the last wash in this step and that is Riekland Fleshshade on the gold areas, this makes it a little more red. When dry you can HL with Gold again before the next step but it isn't necessary (I didn't in this tutorial).

Step 6: Final Highlights and details

Colours used: Citadel colours, Troll Slayer Orange, Ceramite White, Kislev Flesh Warpaint colours; Shining Silver, Matt Black,

Now I do the final Highlights, Orange on the edges of the red armour and in the bottom of the ruby's, in the opposite corner of the ruby I first paint it black and then a white dot on the top of the stone in the black area. On all metal parts, bronze parts and gold I now do a fine edge highlight with Shining Silver. For last I paint the eyes and makes the base and the miniature is completed.

Tutorial: How to paint a Dwarf Warrior

I have got some questions here and there about how I paint my Dwarfs, and they are actually really quite easy to paint up. I painted up twenty of these in under a month and that is really fast for being me, sure they are far from the most good looking miniatures Iv'e ever painted but they are doing their job and as a full unit they look really nice together.

So don't consider this tutorial as an advanced one, but some basics tips and really just showing how I paint mine up fast.

Step 1 'Primer'

Colours used: Black Primer, Citadel Leadbelcher (normally use WP Gun metal instead)

This model was already primed black, I will do the rest in Army Painters Gun Metal spray primer. So on this model I painted all the model in Leadbelcher, but some of the black was showing trough.

Step 2 'Base colours'

Colours used: Citadel Mephiston Red, The Fang, Mournfang Brown, Bugmans Glow, Brass Scorpion (normally use WP Weapon Bronze), WP Oak Brown

In this step I paint all the main colours flat on the model, Mournfang Brown on the beard, Oak Brown on shoes and axe haft, Bugmans Glow on the skin etc. The model does not look that sexy yet but now we have the foundation for the models colours.

Step 3 'Shading'

Colours used: Warpaints Dark Tone, Warpaints Strong Tone

This is a quite fast step, atleast for the applying part, but the most important part here is to let the inks dry before applying a new ink or other paint for that matter. On this model I painted on the Dark Tone ink on the whole model accept the skin and beard. When dry I paint on Strong Tone ink into the face, hands and beard. When all is dry you now have a really dark model, this we will fix in the next step.

Step 4 'Highlighting'

Colours used: Citadel Mephiston Red, The Fang, Mournfang Brown, Bugmans Glow, Brass Scorpion, Rakarth Flesh, Leadbelcher/Wp Shining Silver, WP Oak Brown

So in this step you basically ju re-apply the main colours again, but this time leaving the ink in the recesses. On the metal parts you usually don't need to paint the main colour again but you can go straight to the final HL instead (Shining Silver).

I didn't in this case though and something weird was going on when I painted Leadbelcher on the axe head. I got something into the paint somehow and this messed up the metal paint here. I could scrap the paint of and redo it but I didn't want to in this case, even though I'm not happy with how that particular part ended up. I also was a little bit sloppy with the Shining Silver HL:s and I'n the next step I needed to tone some of these down a little.

About the shield I went with all the same steps as before and the same colours, when repainting the main colours I painted Rakarth Flesh and Mephiston Red, the black parts remained black.

Step 5 'Final Highlights'

Colours used: Citadel Cadian Fleshtone, Kislev Flash, Ceramite White, The Fang, WP Shining Silver, WP Dragon Red. WP Lava Orange

So here's the final step then. For the skin parts I first painted on a heavy HL with Cadian Fleshtone and then a last HL with Kislev flesh on the most upper parts. For the red on both the cloth and shield I first paint on a HL with Dragon Red and then a really fine final HL with Lava Orange. The Ceramite White goes on the insisgnia on the shield and Silver goes as a final HL for the metal and Bronze parts.

Tutorial: How to paint a Tzeentch Chaos Warrior

If you are following my blog you will probably know by now that my Tzeentch Warriors of Chaos is blue, well most of my WoC army is blue but that is because of colour scheme I choose when I started to paint up my Sword/ board warriors of Tzeentch. I have got some questions about how I paint them and well it's pretty damn simple really. But it's always easier to explain when having pictures so here's a little tutorial on how I paint my blue Chaos Warriors, I hope you find it useful even if you aren't doing blue Chaos warriors, just change the blue for something else and you are set.

Here I have put on all the first layers of paint on the model. It was basecoated black, and the blue is the old Citadel colour Enchanted Blue (haven't found a substitute for this one yet). I painted the cloak with Citadel Liche Purple (also a old one) and choose colour for the hilt on the weapon as well. For the metal parts I used Army Painters (AP) Gun Metal and gold parts AP Greedy Gold. For all brown/leather parts I used old Citadel Calthan Brown and for the skulls and fur I used Citadel Rakarth Flesh. For the last colour of the horns on the helmet I used Citadel Zandri Dust. 

When all they layers was painted unto the model I used AP Dark Tone Ink to wash all areas of the model accept the brown parts and the Rakarth Flesh/Zandri dust parts. For those I instead used AP Strong Tone. 

Now I re highlight everything on the model with the same colour as I used for the first layers this is a quite heavy highlight.

Next up is a finer highlight on the absolute edges of the model, I used Citadel Temple Guard Blue for the blue armour and, AP Shining Silver for the metal parts and old Citadel Burnished Gold for the Gold parts. For the purple parts I used old Citadel Warlock Purple which you need to paint two times probably, for the fur I didn't really need another HL as they get lighter when you drybrush them more but if you want to you can mix in a little of white in the Rakarth Flesh and do one more drybrush. For the horns I did this on top of them mixing a little AP Matt White with Zandri Dust. The skulls and the fangs on the cloak I did a final HL with pure White.

And here's the finished result, with the shield added of course. I Really recommend to paint the shield separately from the body as it's much easier to reach all the areas. If you want to know How to free hand paint the shield you can find a Tutorial for that here. Also for the base I used bi carbonate for the snow, some stones and static dead grass, will probably do another Tutorial for this if people are interested.

Also if you aren't totally satisfied with the result of the highlights, use an wash/ink or a glaze to a smoother transition between the highlights and do a final HL again. Normally I don't need to do this but for the shields I sometimes use Citadel Guilliman blue glaze or old Citadell Asurmen Blue to get a better transition.

Hope you find this Tutorial usefull and as I said in the beginning you can just switch the blue for something else and pretty much follow this tutorial for the rest.