Painting guides and tips for Ad Mech

[Aethyran]

Think Im losing the will to live....

Finding it hard to paint my Ad Mech - right now Skitarii- in a fairly decent pace as I go back and forth neatening up the metal and reds.

Anyone know of a guide or have any tips to painting these buggers?

[MoGuy]

I'll be so nonchalant and quote myself:

 

 

 

Little bit of practical knowledge I wanted to share:

 

If you want to paint Vanguard/Rangers in a row I have a specific order of painting them, which seems to work really well.

 

1. Paint the inside of the cloaks. You will get paint on the legs but we will paint those later so it's okay.
2. Paint the cloak (in my case I paint everything in The Fang blue)
3. Now paint all silver metallics (legs, armour, shoulders, hands, backpack, helmets/masks)
4. Basecoat the weapons (in my case I use Vallejo Brown and just drybrush it onto the weapons)
5. Now for the part that takes the longest: Paint the gold parts (tubes on the chest, lines on the weapons, mouthpiece of the breathing-apparatus, incense dispensers etc.)
6. Paint the "special color" of the weapons, backpacks and strings that hang down (e.g. green for the Rad Carabiners of the Vanguard, blue for the Plasma/Arc Rifles etc.)
7. Paint the purity seals (I always forget these) and the lenses (don't forget the one of the camera on the backpack that "looks over the shoulder" of every Skitarius)
8. Highlights and other techniques (in my case I would paint the blend effect on the cloaks)
9. Shade (can be switched with 8. if you want to highlight after the shade. I want a worn-in look so I shade as the last step to make the minis look rusty)
10. Base the mini

Hope you can profit from this. Also: It is quite possible to assemble an base the mini before painting. One can easily paint the inside of the cloak even with the base in the way, as you only have to paint the parts that you can see.

[DeStinyFiSh]

I do the following:

Base them with Dragon Red Spray

Trousers in Ushabti, then Agrax

Then hands, boots, chests, heads, backpacks in Leadbelcher

Nulln oil for the coats and the metal parts

My weapons are Doombull and Brass Scorpion with Agrax

The rest are some smaller metal parts in Brass Scorpion to lighten everything up, the lenses in Whitescar White and blue glaze, belts and the small pockets on the side of the backpacks in Skrag Brown and Agrax and then the Sigils (can’t remember the colors now).

I think they are pretty easy to paint (at least when you are happy with tabletop standard).

I myself am struggling with the Electro Priests veins… they are to hard to see and my color runs down and covers half of the body as well

[Redtoof]

I usually do the metal first for models that have a lot of it, as it is usually the messy bit, with dry brushing and washes all over the shop. (I'm primarily an ork player...)

[Aethyran]

Thanks guys, I tend to have wee accidents when its dry brushing the red of the coat or vice versa the metal bits. So many more Skits to go :s

[Carlson793]

For my first box of Skitarii:

- primer black

- spray a base coat of Krylon Brushed Nickel\

- inside of the cloaks Citadel Screaming Skull (which was a pain with the model attached to the base)

- outside of cloaks whatever red craft paint I had on hand (probably Americana Georgia Clay)

- Reikland Fleshshade inside and out on cloaks; Nuln Oil on metal

- highlights/touchups post wash

- pale blue lenses with a Drankenhof Nightshade wash

- brown and brass for guns

 

Next batch I've got prepped for primer (waiting on free day with low humidity). Differences this time are the legs/torsos will be assembled after base painting (poster tack covering join points); and legs will get black primer with nickel base, while torsos get red primer.

[misterkho]

last night i painted the first part of my first dragoon..i died.. The next dragoons (after the first three) will be painted with the legs unassembled...

any tips on getting the "bone colour" right thy use for the mars scheme?

I've tried the following steps:

1: basing in rakrth flesh, sturdy wash in agrax erathshade and then dry brushing in ushabti bone

2: basing in rakarth flesh, sturdy wash in agrax, dry brushing in ushabti and then highlighting with palid wychflesh.

 

The problem is that i need to do a lot of dry brushing to get a good coverage..but the later isn't smooth anymore.

[MoGuy]

I primed mine with chaos black spray primer and just based the legs with Rakarth Flesh and then washed it with Earthshade. Looks really close to the GW pics. Maybe try a second shade with Seraphim Sepia.

[misterkho]

Did you dry brush or highlight it afterwards?

[MoGuy]

Edge-Highlight

[Chaeron]

Very useful guides - thanks everyone, about to batch paint 60 or so Skitarii. Looking forward to having them all cohesively done - just need to finalise the scheme...

[Akrim]

The digital painting guides by Black Library are quite good if you don't mind dropping a 20 on them, gives you both classic Mars and Metalica schemes.