Ah, another HTPE where I’m paired with someone who is a much better painter than me. And Joey has done the same model in the same scheme and even used the same head and pose. Fantastic. If I like to paint dead wood I alternate between Steel Legion Drab (lighter version) and Gortor Brown/Dryad Bark (darker). Again starting with the base color, washing it with Agrax Earthshade and then applying lighter and lighter Highlights on the edges using the base color and Ushabti Bone. I’ll note that I think I went too far on the robes. I either needed to leave them alone, or add more blue to larger areas. Alas, such is the learning experience. If I was doing it again I’d only light his face, arm, and chest. P3 Paints did not really match very closely with the old GW range, but a detailed explanation of each paint can be found here: http://www.brushthralls.com/pre-painting-prep/color-theory-10p3.html That’s all nice and easy! The challenging bit comes after that – the armour. There are a lot of edges to Mk 10 power armour, never mind Gravis, so this takes a fair amount of time. My first layer of highlighting comes from hitting all the edges with Altdorf Guard Blue, and then following up with a thinner highlight of Calgar Blue. This takes forever, but it also makes the edges really sharp.

GW's new range matches with the old range are the matches claimed by GW. However, many of the paints do not match very closely at all and some mixing will be required to get close to the original colours. If you are trying to match old GW with new GW, you'd be better just getting Vallejo game color or coat d'arms for the closest match ) Now move up to 3 parts Tanned Flesh to 1 part Doombull brown and, you guessed it, cover almost everything. The Tau armor is the most iconic color, as it is in no other faction in 40k. Ochre as it’s known is a mix of brown, beige and orange. It’s worth noting that because of this, you can alter the color to your liking, from more orange to more sand. I start by brushing on Citadel Khorne Red. If there’s any browns left I try to leave these showing in the recesses.On the Eradicators, I wanted to do something a little different with their melta rifles. The barrels are painted Brass Scorpion, then Sycorax Bronze, washed Seraphim Sepia, and then some Brass Scorpion re-layered at the business end of the barrel. This is a lazy way to simulate the heat-staining effect you can see on the studio models. I did a similar thing on the engines for the Outrider’s bikes. Necrons: The Necrons are a faction in the Warhammer 40K universe known for their metallic, ancient-looking armor and machinery. Doombull Brown paint would be perfect for creating a sense of age and patina on their metallic surfaces, as well as for highlighting details on their weapons and vehicles. It really depends on how dark or light you want to color wood. The base color is in my opinion more or less the most important part as it creates the base setup of how it should look in the end. The rest works, atleast for me, pretty much always the same. The next step is the real secret sauce. I created a reasonably dilute wash with a mix of Golden High Flow Acrylics Sepia (pretty much a more concentrated Agrax Earthshade), Golden High Flow Acrylics Dioxazine Purple, and the product formerly known as Future Floor Polish (Now Pledge Floor Care Finish, unless they’ve changed it again.) I wash the entire model in this color, removing excess where it pools too much. If you are working with Games Workshop paints, a mix of Druchii Violet, Agrax Earthshade and water/lahmian medium will work just fine. You will, however, be spending a lot more money to wash an entire army of Custodes using this method. At this point the gold is complete. It’s simple, but has a nice rich depth and purplish warmth to it.

I airbrush Citadel Mephiston Red as a highlight. You can do this with a brush but this is why you buy an airbrush because it’s so much simpler with one. Coat D'Arms match the OLD citadel colours (pre-1992) so there might be some difference. Shining gold has the most noticeable difference, As you can see, the chapter icon is missing. I’m gonna use self-printed transfer for them, more about that in a future post. How to paint Sector Imperialis basesOne of the keys of good OSL is that the area under the glow needs to be brighter than the surrounding areas. To capture this I first drybrushed the same Transparent White I used on the armor onto his face, chest, and the edgers of his robe. All of my strokes were horizontal, parallel to the saber, and I concentrated the brush on the areas closest to the saber. Using transparent white helped prevent blowing out the underlying paint I’d already done and worked like a white glaze.