Warhammer Community has been celebrating 40 years of Warhammer all week. We’ve looked at people’s favourite miniatures from across the business in two separate articles, dived through 40 years of Warhammer boxed games, and taken a stroll through a gallery of awe-inspiring art.
Now it’s time to look at another fundamental aspect of Warhammer – painting. For as long as miniatures have been made, people have been painting them. In that time frame, however, there have been quite a few approaches to painting.
Back in the days of the first editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Rogue Trader, there was no such thing as Battle Ready or Parade Ready, and very few resources to learn the dark secrets of miniature painting from. It wasn’t uncommon to hear people talk about using enamels, oils, gouache paint, and all sorts of other techniques that are quite uncommon now.
During this time period, John Blanche pioneered the sepia-tinged, gothic, and grimdark style everyone now knows as Blanchitsu, a tradition that’s survived to this day.
Colour schemes were also much less uniform as armies were not as expansive. Artists came up with some truly bizarre schemes, including some patterns we suspect were designed to baffle enemies, quite literally.
Fancy painting your own swirly-armoured Salamander from the Badab War? The Warhammer Painting Team has got just the video for you.
The next, and perhaps most fondly remembered period of painting Citadel Miniatures is the legendary “red era”.* Back when miniatures were photographed on soft blue backgrounds or green flock battlefields, and with goblin green bases to match. Citadel Miniatures painters leaned heavily on primary colours, and veteran gamers will remember this as the time when Ultramarines were retina-searing blue with bright yellow trim to match.
Red was the chief accent colour of choice, and everything from bolters, blades, bows, spear shafts and gurning ork shields got a lick of heavy pigmented paint. The Warhammer Painting Team have adapted this classic style to a brand new Ironjawz Ardboyz, for your painting pleasure. Why not give it a go?
The next era is less easy to define, but the launch of the third edition of Warhammer 40,000 returned somewhat to the grimdark feel of early Warhammer 40,000, and painting followed suit. Colours started to trend darker, though goblin green bases held on for quite a while. It was during this time the Ultramarines had their trims changed to a desaturated gold, in keeping with the more grim-dark approach
The ’Eavy Metal team continued to produce gorgeous box art for practically every miniature released for Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and techniques got passed down through painting sections in the rule books, dedicated painting books and articles in White Dwarf.
As the internet has become more ubiquitous, the proliferation of painting techniques has seen the global painting standard increase with hundreds of painters creating high-quality pieces each week, and we’re able to share awesome miniature painting from the broader community with you much easier right here on Warhammer Community.
The ’Eavy Metal team have also been including more textural elements which help further root the miniatures in the various Warhammer settings. They achieve this through clever use of painting techniques and methodologies.
The Warhammer Painting Team also shares regular video tutorials helping people of all levels get their miniatures looking great for the tabletop, while Citadel Colour Masterclass on Warhammer+ tackles high-level techniques in an accessible manner.
* Fondly remembered at least by people of a particular vintage, many of whom work behind the scenes at Warhammer Community…