Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 6 - Gold

Next step is to add some Shining Gold to the minis.

A coat of Shining Gold is added to the appropriate parts. This can be quite a tricky colour to get a smooth coat with so it may require a few thin coats. Don't be worried if your first coat is quite patchy, this is normal, just wait until it's dry and add another, and repeat until you're happy.

Once the gold is dry I add a wash of Gryphone Sepia. Now a lot of people would use Devlan Mud here, but I prefer the Sepia. It adds a more subtle shading to the recesses, which to me is much more pleasant.

Finally when the wash is completely dry (don't be tempted to do this too early) I add a highlight of Shining Gold with a small touch of Skull White. This gives the paint an almost creamy look, and when applied to the edges of the gold areas dulls them slightly, just like with the other metal areas.

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 5 The Armour

Well it's been a while, but I'm finally back. Computers all working, although the nice guys at the cybercafe have lent me a power lead till payday at the end of the month.

So without further ado here's the next installment of my Step-by-Step guide.

For the armour I first give the selected areas a coat of Boltgun Metal.

Next I painted the areas I want to have a brown leathery feel with Bestial Brown. Yes I know I'm supposed to be doing the armour, but there is a reason for this.

Which is because I now give all the metal and leather areas a coat of Badab Black, this adds some shading to the areas and dulls down some of the shininess on the metal.

Finally I add a higlight to the edges of the metal with a mix of Boltgun Metal and Skull White. This mix further dulls down the shininess of the metal. If you want the metal to have more of a shine to it you can use Mithril Silver. But for Dark Elves I feel the dullness adds to the overall effect.

Downtime

sadly folks i'm having a few problems with my computer, a gremlin in the power supply means i can't charge it, and so i'm actually having to update from my mobile. which for some reason won't let my add capital letters in the text. bah technology. anyhow my good friends at my local cybercafe are working on fixing my laptop, but its going to take a while for the part to arrive from germany. so i won't have any real updates untiil then. but don't worry. i will keep painting and taking photos and hopefully have them up next weekend.

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 4 - Just Face It

On with the painting...

The next layer I add to the flesh is a mix of Elf Flesh and Space Wolves Grey, and again I go over the same areas leaving some of the previous layers showing.

The final layer on the Flesh is pure Space Wolves Grey, I use this as an extreme highlight on the minis, only touching on the most raised areas and using it to define muscles.
To add a little colour to the face I now add some lipstick, you'll notice that I have only added the colour (Mercherite Red) to the lower lip. I've found that if you add the paint onto the top lip it makes the models look like it has clown makeup on.
I the add a highlight of Blood Red to the lip.
And finally I pick out the Hags teeth with a little Skull White.
Next onto the armour...

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 3 - Fleshing Things Out

Welcome to part 3 of my step-by-step guide. Today I'm going to be doing some real painting.

Now before I start on the flesh, I always paint in the eyes of a model. The reason for this is twofold. First, if you try to paint the eyes once the face is done, you will be trying to be really careful you don't mess up the skin, this way it doesn't matter. So you can concentrate on getting your eye right. Secondly if you do make a mistake, all you have to do is give it a once over with some black and you can try again. Believe me and have a go, it is a lot easier to paint around the eyes than to add them afterwards.

Now I keep my eyes very simple, and the Fitzpatrick Dark Elf sculpts have great faces to make this much easier. Just paint a white line across where the eye is. And then add a black line downwards across it to make the pupil.
Once I've done the eyes I start on the flesh, with a base coat of either Dwarf Flesh or Tallarn Flesh. This time I've used Dwarf Flesh. The Base coat adds the colour to the deeper recesses on the mini.

Next I add a layer of Dwarf Flesh and Elf Flesh in a 50/50 mix. I do this by painting onto the more raised areas of the mini, leaving some of the darker paint showing.
Next layer is a coat of pure Elf Flesh, again onto the raised areas, leaving a little of the previous two layers showing.
Tomorrow I'll finish off the flesh and add some more details to the face...

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 2 - More Basics

More basics for you today, but don't worry the real painting is coming...

So I got up today and went to undercoat the Cauldron, well the weather isn't great here so it was just a quick job. In fact chances are more undercoat ended up on the cat, which came to watch than on the Cauldron. Hence you'll notice that there is still some silver showing. Don't worry.

Just give everything a quick going over with some thinned down Chaos Black. Now you will probably have to do this anyways, unless you spend ages spraying. I find it much simpler to do a quick spray, let it dry then give everything a once over to find all the bits that the spray missed.
Now things are ready to start the real painting...

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 1-The Basics

So I've been asked by a friend of mine to give him a hand with his painting by doing an on-line tutorial for him (Hey Owen). So I thought, why not do a step-by-step guide to what I'm painting up next. This just happened to be a Cauldron of Blood (Well another for my ever growing Dark Elves).

So here we are with Part 1-The Basics, and they are at that.

First thing to do is get all the parts of the models together and assemble them, remove the flash (the excess bits left after the casting process) and glue them to the bases. I didn't have a spare chariot base around so I made a one up out of spares I had. A little poly-cement along the sides will stick them together, just make sure you leave them to dry for a good while.

For step 2 I added sand to the bases. Now I don't always do this, I wanted to cover up all the holes from the misfit looking chariot base and adding sand at this stage also means that when you undercoat the sand also gets a coat of it as well. You may notice that I have gotten sand onto the sides of some of the bases. This was actually intentional, I find that having a little bit of texture here and there on the base sides adds that little bit more to the feel of the model. You'll see this later on when things start coming together a bit more.
Step 3, I gave the sand a quick coat of Chaos Black. This will work as a base colour to work from and also helps to keep the sand on the base that little bit more. (Especially after the undercoat)
Well that's the basics done and ready for the spray can. Next I just need a good day to get out in the garden and spray everything black.

Here's another mini for you all to peruse, I'll be using her as leader for my Khainite force 'Matron Malida'. Hope you like her

I've also been thinking about the World Eaters and re-basing them to a snowy theme. Now I do like the lava effect on them, but changing them to snow would allow me to use them with the Daemons and have a close match base wise. What do you guys think?