Help me with World Eaters colors without an airbrush

[Brother Aiwass]

Hi, as title says. Is not that I'm doing an army of them, but maybe Khârn, because is a nice guy to be around. What I'm looking for is this:

 

 

It is possible to achieve those red and golds without an airbrush? How will you that?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Major_Gilbear]

I am looking at that image, and it seems to be classic Chaos WE/Khorne red and gold... Why do you think you'd normally need an airbrush to paint this scheme?

 

Personally, I'd do the bulk of the model in red (with bold shading across the whole model rather than plate-by-plate), then use a beige to pick out all the trim. The beige would then be over-painted in gold, and given a thin wash to both shade the gold, and to create a "dark line" between the gold and the red - probably a mix of Agrax Earthshade and Riekland Flesh I think.

 

If you want to get the red done faster, you could get two rattlecan sprays; one a darker red, and one a brighter red, and do two passes with the second pass being directly overhead as a zenithal light. Alternatively, you could use a pair of brighter reds and then use a red-crimson wash (maybe half Carroburg Crimson Wash and half Bloodletter Glaze?) to get some shading and definition. Once the reds are done, the rest can be done with a normal brush.

 

Due the the fiddly nature of all the trim, you will most likely find that a simple graduation over the reds is enough; more work than that will be pretty much lost once all the trims are painted in the contrasting gold.

 

I think the main thing here is to keep in mind what you're trying to acheive overall, and maybe try a few test models out first to see what works best - aside from the fairly laborious nature of the trim, the the rest should be pretty fast going.

 

Anyway, hopefully that gives you some help and a starting point, but feel free to ask more questions if you have any. :)

[Brother Aiwass]

Thanks Major :)

 

I've asked because the red, specially in the chestplate and shoulderpads seem to have a metallic vibe, and I was wondering how to achieve that without painting it silver and then adding a clear red coat (which look cool for pre heresy thousand sons). But I'll take note of your always helpful advice.

 

Cheers!

[BadgersinHills]

Thanks Major

I've asked because the red, specially in the chestplate and shoulderpads seem to have a metallic vibe, and I was wondering how to achieve that without painting it silver and then adding a clear red coat (which look cool for pre heresy thousand sons). But I'll take note of your always helpful advice.

Cheers!

The GW red gemstone paint (The name of which eludes me) works fairly well for that. I've used it for my Thousand Sons and it turned out nicely with minimal fuss, It works better over gold than silver, but if you're going for that thin it with medium so you don't get nasty brushstrokes.

[Major_Gilbear]

 

I've asked because the red, specially in the chestplate and shoulderpads seem to have a metallic vibe, and I was wondering how to achieve that without painting it silver and then adding a clear red coat (which look cool for pre heresy thousand sons).

 

Ah, okay, well there's a few easy ways of doing metallic red:

 

- Use an automotive paint, sold in rattlecans in most automotive/DIY stores. Note that you may also need an undercoat of a specific colour first - it'll usually say on the back of the can. Very easy, very quick, and although the gold trim will still be tedious, at least the red will be done super fast.

 

- Similar to above, but spray the whole model gold. Then, using something like Tamiya Clear Red or the Citadel Gem Paint Red, fill in the panel areas. This method has the advantage of leaving the trim gold for you right from the start. Due to the tricky nature of the clear red paints, I would suggest doing the panels in areas at a time and letting them dry as you go to avoid any mishaps.

 

- Prime as normal, and use coloured metallic paints to paint the various areas as you would normally. Vallejo Model Air have a metallic red, ans Scale 75 have two crimsons. These metallic colours are probably best applied over a red undercoat as their coverage isn't great, and you will still need to do a couple of coats to build up a nice solid finish. If you need to intensify the red (or to colour-correct the crimson to red in the case of the Scale 75 paints), you can use a few thin red ink glazes to acheive this.

 

 

Otherwise, once the base colours are down and dry, you can shade the gold trim and paint the other areas as normal.

 

There are other more involved ways of painting metallic reds, but these are the simplest in terms of technique and materials/equipment. :)

[BadgersinHills]

Another way is to take a red pigment like something from the Citadel tint set and mix them with a metallic of your choice. Duncan showed this off with blue armour for the Alpha Legion and that turned out well. 

[Brother Aiwass]

Thanks everyone, even though I asked how to avoid the silver-clear red method :lol:

 

Another way is to take a red pigment like something from the Citadel tint set and mix them with a metallic of your choice. Duncan showed this off with blue armour for the Alpha Legion and that turned out well. 

 

Cannot find the vid in Warhammer TV, do you have a link perhaps? Cheers!

[Major_Gilbear]

Here you go: link.

Unless you already have the tints, you will need to buy the full set just to get the red. You will also need rather a lot of tint to make a pot of paint go fully metallic red, at least judging by the WHTV video.

For ease, cost, and reproducibility, it may not be the best option. However, if you already have the tint set, and you only want to paint one model, it might be good solution.

Edit:

Thanks everyone, even though I asked how to avoid the silver-clear red metho

I posted three different suggestions, only one of which was with clear reds - even then, it was suggested that the clear reds be applied in one coat with a regular brush! ;)

[Brother Aiwass]

Thanks again Major! My search fu was week, I was looking for "Alpha Legion" and couldn't find anything. That's an awesome method to get metallic colors, need to try it. A shame that they don't sell the tints separately tho.

 

Cheers!

[Major_Gilbear]

Well, yes, but then again you could just buy the metallic colours ready-mixed. Examples here.

 

It's one of the things that always puzzled me about the Tints actually; they seemed a bit too DIY for an end result that was already conveniently (and more cheaply) available, and without being forced to buy a whole set in sample-sized pots.

 

I guess that why GW never really rolled them out any further.

[Brother Aiwass]

I may end buying the elven gold and pure copper :lol: but the reds looks too pinky to me. Did you used them?

[Major_Gilbear]

I've not used all the Scale75 metals, but a friend and I went through quite a few different ways of painting metallic red without using an airbrush, all as testers for his 30k Thousand Sons army.

What I did find was that a few coats of red acrylic ink (I used the Vallejo Game Colour ink) are very intense, and can help saturate any close-enough colour pretty easily.

However, to go from a gold or silver to a red with regular brush-applied ink took about 14 coats!

Therefore, starting with a metallic colour that's 75%+ of the way to being red, will cut down on any further inks or such quite significantly.

It's also why (despite your request) I suggested the Gem/Clear paints anyway, as these are much heavier and stronger than regular ink - even with one brush-applied coat.

In the end though, I think that starting with a metallic red spray is the best choice, even doing the gold trim is a pain. It avoids all your issues, and gives you a lovely metallic red of your choice right away. There's actually a great tutorial by Kizzdougs here, in which he starts with a metallic red spray; comparing that to your starting image, it looks pretty much spot-on?

[Brother Aiwass]

Spot on indeed! Thanks very much for guiding me on my quest. Also, that tutorial is amazing ^_^

[Isengrin]

This review is about the copper series of Scale75, which contains ruby and garnet alchemy. It's not much but to me those two colours look decidedly less pink there and could work for your intended purpose. I only have the steel series and a couple gold paints, but the quality of those is exceptional and they are well worth their price.

[Kizzdougs]

I'm not sure if it's any good for you, but I've painted a similar red on a Blood Angel.

 

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/kizzdougs/DSCN3963_zpsjqzqdxyz.jpg

 

Here is a link to the tutorial for how I painted it :)

 

 

Hope that helps :)

[Brother Aiwass]

@isengrin thanks! that's most useful. Definitely have to buy some of those metallics, never been a fan  of the GW ones as they don't look much realistic (and to be honest, I don't want to start messing with lacquers like Alclad, because I'm more comfortable with acrylics) but those look really good and the price is right :D

 

@kizzdougs that BA rocks, going to check the tutorial right now. Very kind of you, much appreciated!