Bloodless Bloodletter Painting How-To

“Tutorial” is a bit strong, so let’s keep it at “How-To.” This thing is really for my own reference than anything else.  Y’all just get to watch the sausage (BLOOD SAUSAGE) be made.


First off, I prime and basecoat.  I prime with Duplicolor Dark Grey Sandable Primer.  Then, I breakout the airbrush and basecoat most of the model with Dheneb Stone.  Now that I think about it, if I were smart, I’d just basecoat the thing white.  (That had never occurred to me before today.)

I wash the whole thing heavily with Ogryn Flesh.

I’ve been convinced to use the drybrush approach, rather than the blocking approach.  I think the blocked approach is better, but the drybrush approach is so very close to being as good and takes a tenth of the time.

So, anyway, I drybrush the bejesus out of the model.

Now, I wash the model with a dark blue wash: 1:1:2 mix of Devlan Mud, Asurmen Blue and water.  It’s at this point that I’ve lost all hope.  The model looks like unsalvageable dogshit.

Highlight time!  I use Dheneb Stone to apply XTREME highlighting around.  Suddenly, the model looks a lot less horrible.

The time-consuming part is now done.  From here out, it’s just a few details and I’m done.  I throw down some Bestial Brown where I’m going to do brass.  Then a do some Red Gore in the eyes and Shadow Grey on the tongue.

The brass areas get Shining Gold and Burnished Gold extreme highlights.  The tongue gets a 1:1 wash of Leviathan Purple and water.  The eyes get Blood Red with dots of White.

The tongue gets a highlight that’s 1:1 Ice Blue and Shadow Grey.  The brass gets a straightup Devlan Mud wash.

Things that should be black get black.  I save this stage until after I’m done with the brass because of the washing involved.  Blade, horns, claws and base.  I do the teeth, too, but forgot to do them before taking the picture.

Finally, the black gets highlighted with Coal Black.  I’ve also gloss-varnished the sides of the base because I’ve run into a lot of problems with chipping there.  I glue washers to my bases (because I like the weight and I transport my minis in magnetic drawers), and the black paint has trouble sticking around..

If I were doing squad markings on this guy (I’m not: he’s taking the place of the Fury of Khorne model in the unmarked squad for when… I don’t need a Fury of Khorne model in the the unmarked squad).  I’d throw down a Scab Red base, followed by Blood Red and highlights with Fiery Orange.  Then wash the area with Baal Red wash.

In summary:

Flesh
– Dheneb Stone base
– Ogryn Flesh wash
– Dheneb Stone drybrush
– 1:1:2 Asurmen Blue / Devlan Mud / water wash
– Dheneb Stone extreme highlights

Tongue
– Shadow Grey
– 1:1 Leviathan Purple / water wash
– 1:1 Shadow Grey / Ice Blue highlight

Brass
– Bestial Brown base
– Shining Gold
– Burnished Gold extreme highlights
– Devlan Mud wash

Eyes
– Red Gore base
– Blood Red
– Morrow White highlights

Black
– Thamar Black base
– Coal Black highlights

Blood
– Scab Red base
– Blood Red highlights
– Fiery Orange highlights
– Baal Red wash

Hair (For Flesh Hounds)
– Thamar Black base
– Shadow Grey drybrush
– Space Wolf Grey drybrush