How to: Paint Garrek’s Reavers, Khorne Bloodbound
When I painted up the Stormcast from Shadespire, I hadn’t played it, but had heard good things. Now that I’ve played a few games, I can confirm it’s good. In light of how good it is, I pushed on with painting up some of the miniatures from it.
The Khorne Bloodbound are amazingly dynamic, and have some great details on them, and as well as that, they’re varied in their kit, poses and weapons, which makes them great fun to paint up.
The first thing to do is to undercoat them. I used Halford’s Matt Black Primer, then sprayed the bases (and parts of the models…) with Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey.
For the base coats I used:
Skin – Vallejo Burnt Umber, Vallejo Flesh Base, and somewhat unwisely, Vallejo Basic Skintone. The Basic Skintone chap is the one who looks like he’s made of yellow snow.
Gold – Citadel Retributor Armour
Metallic on blades, chains, etc – Citadel Leadbelcher
Armour plates, mouths and wounds – Citadel Mephiston Red
Black – Vallejo Black
Light Browns (weapon and leg wraps/some boots) – Vallejo Beige Brown
Bones and corpse head – Citadel Rakarth Flesh
Soil – Vallejo Flat Earth
Next came the shades. Despite the variety of colours, there weren’t that many shades used:
Bones, lighter skin, corpse flesh – Citadel Seraphim Sepia
Leadbelcher, grey base, darker skin – Citadel Nuln Oil
Soil, gold, wraps and brown boots – Citadel Agrax Earthshade
Red – Citadel Druchii VIolet
For the skin, each character with the same skin as another was painted in the same way for ease. For the chaps who’d been based in Burnt Umber and shaded with Nuln Oil, I used another layer of Burnt Umber, leaving Nuln Oil visible in the recesses.
I then added a little Beige Brown to the Burnt Umber, and added highlights in the same way as the Stormcast, on the areas which would be more exposed to light – so look directly down on the miniature and highlight the areas you can see.
I added more Beige Brown to the mix, then highlighted these areas again, leaving some of the original mix around the edges.
Finally I added one more Beige Brown highlight. I also added a little Citadel Emperor’s children to the mix, and gently applied that to the scar tissue on both models. I also added a little bit of Citadel Carroburg Crimson to the recesses of the scars to give them that not quite healed look.
Like the guys previous, I used the original base colour, Flesh Base, to apply the first layer of skin tone, leaving some of the Seraphim Sepia visible in the recesses.
I then added some Vallejo White to the Flesh Base, and highlighted the skin in the same way as above.
Adding a little more white to the mix, I added a further highlight.
On the remaining Bloodbound, I used Vallejo Flat Flesh rather than Basic Skintone, because it wasn’t as ghastly pale.
Once the initial Layer was done, I applied two highlights, each with an additional bit of white added to the Flat Flesh.
On the scars and around open wounds, I added Vallejo Red Wash in a large area, to give the look of reddened skin, then used Carroburg Crimson to add an angrier red to the wounds. I applied this to each scar and each wound on all the models.
With the skin completed, I moved onto the Armour. The Gold was only highlighted with another layer of Retributor Armour, lightly brushing it onto the upper most edges. I did the same with the Mephiston Red, reapplying it to the areas most exposed to light from above.
I reapplied Rakarth flesh to the bone, leaving the Sepia in the recesses, and then gently dry-brushed Flat Earth over the soil on the bases.
Finally, I used Vallejo German Grey to highlight the black hair, beards, trousers and boots, and used Mechanicus Standard Grey to dry-brush the stony ground on the bases. Once dry, I highlighted with Vallejo London Grey, then highlighted all the skulls and bone with Citadel Ushabti Bone.
The eyes were painted white with a tiny spot of black in their centre, while teeth were painted with Rakarth Flesh. On the weaponry, I carefully painted along the ridges of the blades using Vallejo Model Air Chrome to give them an incredibly shiny edge.
Finally, they were all painted using my jar of unknown matt varnish, and mouths and open wounds were varnished using the Citadel ‘Ardcoat gloss varnish. I used a little Citadel Blood for the Blood God on the Khorne Icon in the chest of one Bloodbound, and around the neck and mouth of the corps head.
With that completed, the Shadespire Khorne Bloodbound were finished.
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