The beauty of Warhammer – or at least, one of the many beauties – is that you can paint your models however you want. So while the ‘Eavy Metal team slave away to conceive and produce immaculate “official” paint schemes for the box art and rulebooks, you’re not obliged by any means to follow what they suggest.
It can be a tricky task to hit upon quality alternatives to an iconic look, so the Warhammer Painting Team have come up with a few cool ideas to get your creative juices* floating. Take it away, Adam and Emma.
Adam: Adeptus Custodes Shield-Captain
I went for a tarnished, green-tinted gold scheme on my Shield-Captain, inspired by the cover art on Chris Wraight’s The Emperor’s Legion. I wanted to capture the idea that they are in mourning for their perceived failure during the Horus Heresy, so their armour has lost some of its typical grandeur.
I darkened Retributor Armour with a little Iron Warriors and used this mix as a base for the armour, before washing the entire armour with Agrax Earthshade. After that I used Karandras Green, which I thinned to a 1:1 ratio with Contrast Medium, and applied it into the recesses and any areas that I thought would be shaded, to represent the oxidation. Then I layered over with Auric Armour Gold to bring some shine back to the armour, before using a fine edge highlight of a 1:1 mix of Stormhost Silver and Liberator Gold to pick out the very edges and highest points.
Adam: Von Ryan’s Leaper
For my Von Ryan’s Leaper I wanted to add a twist to the box art colours of Hive Fleet Leviathan by incorporating some green into the scheme. I know that Tyranids are existential intergalactic horrors of a vast and hungering intelligence… but I felt that adding some green to the wet and sticky fleshy bits between their joints would just look cool.
To achieve this bright and acidic green I used a mix of Gutrippa Flesh and Dorn Yellow. Once the first layer had dried, I then added more Dorn Yellow to the mix to layer up the surfaces. I tried to avoid sharp highlight lines as much as I could, in order to make the highlights look more organic for the skin.
Adam: Morgok’s Krushas
When painting my Ironjawz , I wanted to capture the idea that these Orruk Brutes are scavengers who have little time to dedicate towards boring tasks such as armour maintenance, or painting their gear a fancy bright yellow.
I started with an Iron Warriors base for the armour, then thinned Doombull Brown to a glaze consistency – with many dollops of water – and applied it all over the armour, just making sure not to let it pool too thickly. Once this had dried, I did the same with Skrag Brown, but controlled it to be concentrated in specific areas – making sure I could still see parts of the previous layer. With this completed, I thinned Trollslayer Orange to a glaze consistency and applied it in even more specific areas, once again making sure not to overwhelm the brown. This helped to create texture and a gradient for the rust.
Once that was dry I then used Runefang Steel to add bright chipping here and there, to represent where the rust has flaked off.
Adam: Space Wolves Intercessor
I absolutely love the Horus Heresy-era Space Wolves Legion colour scheme. When I made my Space Wolves Intercession Squad for Kill Team, I saw a great opportunity to adapt this scheme to my Kill Pack, instead of using the typical 41st Millennium palette.
I’ve used Mechanicus Standard Grey as my base, recess-shaded with Corvus Black thinned to a shade consistency. After that I edge-highlighted the armour with Dawnstone for my first layer, followed by Ulthuan Grey for the fine edge highlight and finally White Scar for the spot highlight. The resulting armour was nice and dark, so I wanted to contrast that with a lighter base – appropriately enough, that meant an icy theme.
Emma: Sons of Velmorn
I wanted this Warhammer Underworlds warband to have a look that really reflected the Death faction in the Mortal Realms – rich dark purples and contrasting, ghostly green hues definitely felt very Shyishan, fitting a realm constantly shrouded in amethyst magics. It gave the warband an unnerving undead style, especially compared to their normal royal blue heraldry.
For the undead purple, I started with a base coat of Naggaroth Night, building up through to Phoenican Purple and finally Kakophoni Purple for the very brightest points, which gave it a slightly pastel tone to add that pallid finish.
For the ghostly green, I blended Lupercal Green through to Kabalite Green, with a touch of Moot Green into the mix. Then I added Sybarite Green as a final highlight, to emphasise the ghostly chill on the cloth. The other major detail I loved painting on these models was the ancient gold, as I wanted something worn without being over-oxidised. So I mixed Retributor Armour and Canoptek Alloy in a 60:40 ratio. Mortarion Grime was perfect for adding a slightly green tone to match the cloth, and a soft highlight of Stormhost Silver gave the gold a worn effect.
Emma: Avatar of Khaine
I really wanted an Avatar that shouted ‘I’m so hot inside, I could melt metal with a thought’, and the idea of having molten copper running in the cracks of the skin was instantly seared into my brain. He’s even got metallic copper flames!
I originally painted this at the same time as my Ynnari force, so I used the same red armour mix of 50% Word Bearers Red and 50% Mephiston Red, highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet. The stone skin was all dry brushed with various grey tones (Skavenblight Dinge, Dawnstone, Administratum Grey), as I didn’t want it to overwhelm the copper hidden underneath.
Fulgurite Copper was the basecoat for the molten insides, as well as the flames. I shaded it with thinned Fyreslayer Flesh, and drybrushed the raised flames with a mix of 50% Fulgurite Copper and 50% Stormhost Silver.
The spear and green details were painted using the same colours as my Sons of Velmorn cloth – it just works for so many details and textures, giving them a slightly unnatural stone. Perfect for a god-like creature like the Avatar of Khaine.
Thanks, you two – that’s some stellar work! If you have any questions on how to pull off a particular alternative colour scheme, why not get in touch on Twitter or Facebook and we’ll see if we can’t pass the query on.
* This is how they refer to paint, for some reason…