Paintin the Plague...

So in my last post I constructed one of my brand new shiny Plague Marines... now I have to paint this badboy.

Someone asked me what I use for a base coat, sometimes I use spray paint, more often I use my airbrush, I just mix up a color I like and go for it... but today, since im just painting this single model, im going to do the base coat with a brush, the old fashioned way... the way of our forefathers.

So I use mostly Americana brand paints that I buy at the hobby store.  Now, there is a matter of taste and opinion based around what paints to buy.  Yes, there are other paints out there.  They are probably nicer and fancier and make you coffee and give you a reach around and whatever else... but this is what I use.  They are cheaper, I get more, and I dont care if I use a shit ton of it cause its more affordable.  I dont think this has really had much effect on the quality of my painting really... I also use Citadel paints, and I really think you would be hard pressed to guess what kind of paint I used.  Bottom line, experiement, use what you like, and if people give you shit about it thats their problem.  Moooooooooooooving on...

I mixed up a nice bright green using an off white and bright green.  I add some water onto the brush to make it nice and milky... I simply dip my brush  in my water, and mix it in.  No measuring or droppers or anything... I just go by feel I guess.  Works for me, but if you feel the need to measure things go right ahead.  So I just cover the model with the mixture... let it dry and add another coat just to be sure.  The key here is thinning the paint.  I end up doing a number of layers of paint on the model, and each time I always add some water.  There are different kinds of mediums available to thin paints, but im pretty lo-tech (and very lazy) so I use plain ol water. 



So after two coats I get it nice and even.  Now something to note here, I tend to start off with brighter colors, because I know in the end he will be much darker once he is washed a few times.  I tend to shade down more than highlight up.  I think this is just another preference thing... you got to find what works for you I spose.  This is how I do it, maybe its lazier, Im not really sure.  I just like the way it looks much better than tons of painted on highlights... so I usually start off with a much lighter shade of the color I am going for.... In this case I want this guy to be pretty damn bright, so hes a light minty green color.  Speaking of, mint chocolate chip used to be my favorite ice cream until I had Blue Bell Bannana Pudding ice cream.  Holy fuck, that is the best thing ever.  So after you are done painting go get some.  But I digress...

So like I was rambling on about before, I shade down, as opposed to highlighting up, so in this next step I apply some highlights... I go around the edges of the armor with straight off-white.  I apply highlights to the toesies, his helmet, legs, etc... anywhere on the armor that is raised or an edge of some sort... just paint it on there, it looks crappy now but thats ok it will all be made right soon....



I start painting the armor trim with light brown... I was using a bronze color, but I find that I use way too much fucking bronze on everything, so I wanted to try something different... so brown it is.  I figure Nurgles like brown... who doesnt?

Now that we got the basic shit done, Im going to start washing the armor.  Someone asked me how you do this... well its really simple!  Dip your brush in the wash, and just dab it on... in this case, I want to tint my armor green, so I bust out the Thraka Green... dip your brush in the wash, and dab it all over the model, making sure to get it down in the recesses of the armor... you can achieve different effects depending on how you apply it really... you can use a thinner brush and just get in the edges of the model to get a nice clean shadow, or like Ive done here, use it to drastically change the color of the model.  This first wash starts to bring out the texture of the model:

now I throw on a second wash.. same as before, I use a heavy wash, dabbing my brush over the entire model... this deepens my green and gives him a nice dirty look.  woot.



Now I get to work on the bronze.  Thats right, I said I use too much bronze, but Im using it anyway.  The bolter gets some love with two coats of the bronze stuff, as well as his shoulder ball thingys and some parts of the backpack.  I also mix up some nice pepto bismol looking color for his face tubes and the base.  Ahh, face tubes.  Nurgle does like to face-tube folks.

Now comes the good stuff... the MUD.  Fuckin Devlan Mud, is there anything it cant do?  I apply a heavy wash onto the boltgun, the armor trim, the backpack and the bronze shoulder balls.  Awwww yeah.

Now I throw on some leviathan purple to his face tubes, and pick out the horns and things with more white... a little teeny bit of drybrushing to the edges happens here.  I try not to use too much drybrushing, casue honestly, I used to drybrush waaaaaaaaaay to much, and it left my models looking kinda dusty, so I really watch what im doing these days.  Just some straight white to the very edges of things... the face tubes get a light drybrush of the off white color, and the boltgun gets some mithril silver drybrushed onto the edges... the shoulder balls get some of that sweet action as well... 

I paint some highlights on the skulls on his armor:

I also go along and pick out the details such as the boils all over his shoulders and stomach, these were painted with a slighty darker pink than the face tubes and washed with leviathan purple, I go back over them with pure red... the wound on his stomach gets a bit of off white filled into it, then washed with Baal Red, with a final dot or two of pure red to finish it off...

For the final steps I make sure that I havent missed any little details... I paint the bolts on his armor with the same offwhite color, wash them with sepia then finish off the tips with white.  I paint in the visor of his helmet and add a few dots of white for highlights... the base gets a super wash of leviathan purple... the base edge gets painted with Dark Angel Green...  now he is done, ready to serve Father Nurgle.

Now only 17 more to go... so hide yo wife, hide yo kids, we Nurglin' everybody over here.

-DAN