Painting with Simple Washes and Bases

This week we will be tackling the simple base and wash technique. This is really a staple of the model painters repertoire. In this example we are using the zoanthropes from my Hive Fleet Baal. This a simple two tone of pink flesh and walnut boney armour.

  Step one of this technique is pink primer for this I used Liquitex pink (a nice light colour), this way your main colour will show through the washes and effect the final overall tone.



  Step two I recommend waiting for 24 hours before continuing so you have a completely hardened paint/primer to work from. For the next step all you have to do apply your first wash, here I used carroburg crimson applied to the fleshy bits. Make sure you allow for ample drying time between different washes or they will muddy together and look bad.



  Step three I painted all the main areas in the base colour for each. The tail and claws got a black coat with a touch of red. For the boney areas I used snakebite leather, and I mixed a tooth paste green from white and goblin green (this area will get the same treatment as the pink but in green).



  Step four 'the brain'. I mixed up a 70/30 thrakka green ink and badab black ink I then washed all the brain areas( now you can see the reason for the lighter base areas). I also washed the bone areas with my own special mixture of oil paint and paint thinner. I dont recommend this for beginners, you can use a wash of Devlan mud and almost get the same result. At this stage I also painted in the teeth with bleached bone and washed them with devlan mud.



  Step five, I let all the washes dry then painted in a gradient of camo green up to yellow on the higher parts of the brain. Then I added a bit of red to the tips of the claws, and painted highlights on the bone with Dheneb stone. I wanted the models to look more detailed so I always add lots of thin veins to my Tyranids by painting on this lines for veins. To do this all you have to do is paint on very faint lines of different inks with a 0 or smaller brush (in this case purple and blue inks).



  For the final stage I splashed different inks and paints on the fleshy base and painted the rim black. The base a different Article all together.

These simple steps can be used on almost any model you wish to paint and are fast and easy. I hope this helps you get your armies on the table. As per usual if you have any questions dont be afraid to ask.

Have fun and see you soon on the 4x8 arena.