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Hey there everyone I have seen a lot of different heresy era Thousand Sons scheme's but they always just look another hue of red marines. The attached photo then came out in the Forge World newsletter and I would be very grateful if anyone could enlighten me as to how to go about painting my thousand sons in this scheme, am hoping some of the amazing painters that reside here can help as I emailed ForgeWorld and they haven't replied which surprises me.

I'm no expert. but the FW team have historically airbrushed clear paints over a silver metallic basecoat, the Alpha Legion being a prime example. I'd imagine, what with these having been released quite some time after Forgeworld's own air brush paint line that it'd be their own clear red airbrushed over a darkish silver zenithal highlighted with a lighter one.

well, I emailed forge world, and the man who emailed me back gave me 2 schemes (the darker "shiney" one on the web site (the gloss coated group) and the metalics scheme) here ya go!

Thanks for your email. Here you go!

Metallic Scheme:

It is black undercoat, airbrush with Iron hands FW paint leaving the lower parts of the armour plates black, airbrush upper parts of the armour plates with runefang steel as a highlight.

Then a few thinned layers of clear red are airbrushed all over, waiting for the previous layer to dry before applying the next (so it would be useful to paint large batches of marines at the same time).

Shade the recesses with nuln oil and then weather the edges with runefang steel.

The gold is retributor gold, shaded with seraphim sepia and highlighted with runefang steel.

The brass is runelord brass, shaded with seraphim sepia.

The eyes are painted black, single line in the centre with white and then washed with FW clear green paint.

The white on the bolters and legion icon is celestra grey, ulthuan grey and then white highlights. The hollow tactical arrow is from the Iron Warriors transfer sheet.


Matt Scheme:

RED ARMOUR
base coat: Khorne red.
Shade: Carrobourg Crimson
layering: of Mephiston Red 1:1 Lahmian Medium (this was done with 2 to 3 thin layers.)
Edge highlight : Evil Sunz Scarlet

GOLD PLATES
Base: Balthasar Gold
Shade : Nun Oil
Layer : Gehenna's Gold followed by Auric Armour Gold
Highlighted by RuneFang Steal.

SLIVER
Base: Leadbelcher
Shade : Nun Oil
Highlight : Runefang Steal

WHITE
Base : White Scar
Shade: Nun Oil
Layer : White Scar

EYE LENS’
Base: Caliban Green
Shade: Nun Oil
layer: Warpstone Glow followed by Elysian Green
Edge highlighted, krieg khaki

jay170788 wrote:
Hey there everyone I have seen a lot of different heresy era Thousand Sons scheme's but they always just look another hue of red marines. The attached photo then came out in the Forge World newsletter and I would be very grateful if anyone could enlighten me as to how to go about painting my thousand sons in this scheme, am hoping some of the amazing painters that reside here can help as I emailed ForgeWorld and they haven't replied which surprises me.

Is there a way to duplicate this without an airbrush? I was trying to figure out something like this for a custom I was considering, where I needed a gun that looked like red metal, rather than metal with a red paint job, and if it is something I can do with brushes, I might try to get some clear red paint, but if it needs the airbrush (for whatever reason), I might just be out of luck. Does GW make this "clear red paint"? Is it a wash, paint, or what? I haven't bought paint from GW in over two years (mine are in a good place, and so haven't died on me, yet.)

Thanks for anything.

 venkelos wrote:

jay170788 wrote:
Hey there everyone I have seen a lot of different heresy era Thousand Sons scheme's but they always just look another hue of red marines. The attached photo then came out in the Forge World newsletter and I would be very grateful if anyone could enlighten me as to how to go about painting my thousand sons in this scheme, am hoping some of the amazing painters that reside here can help as I emailed ForgeWorld and they haven't replied which surprises me.

Is there a way to duplicate this without an airbrush? I was trying to figure out something like this for a custom I was considering, where I needed a gun that looked like red metal, rather than metal with a red paint job, and if it is something I can do with brushes, I might try to get some clear red paint, but if it needs the airbrush (for whatever reason), I might just be out of luck. Does GW make this "clear red paint"? Is it a wash, paint, or what? I haven't bought paint from GW in over two years (mine are in a good place, and so haven't died on me, yet.)

Thanks for anything.

The clear red paint can be bought from Forge World. And yeah, you can do this without an airbrush I'd imagine. Just need to be patient. Look up the Painting Buddha Ultramarine videos, I assume a similar technique would work.

Edit:
Although if anyone knows an easy way to get a similar effect to the clear FW paints without going through the hassle of buying the actual paint, I'd like to know.

Reaper, Vallejo and Tamiya also do clear paints.

The airbrush is used simply for the convenience of doing multiple models at the same time and making it easier to get a consistent effect, I'd imagine.

A lot of the FW Horus Heresy recipes use/used Tamiya clear paints, especially their Alpha Legion. Now that they've developed their own range it's unclear whether they may be using their line exclusively.

I don't have much experience with them, but as I understand it Tamiya's paints aren't your bogstandard acrylics and require a bit more work to use (seem to recall thinning with alcohol rather than water or thinner medium).

 sockwithaticket wrote:
Reaper, Vallejo and Tamiya also do clear paints.

The airbrush is used simply for the convenience of doing multiple models at the same time and making it easier to get a consistent effect, I'd imagine.

A lot of the FW Horus Heresy recipes use/used Tamiya clear paints, especially their Alpha Legion. Now that they've developed their own range it's unclear whether they may be using their line exclusively.

I don't have much experience with them, but as I understand it Tamiya's paints aren't your bogstandard acrylics and require a bit more work to use (seem to recall thinning with alcohol rather than water or thinner medium).

I've heard that Tamiya (as well as other Asian brands) generally have finer pigment than Vallejo or Citadel paints, so running them through a fine nozzle is easier. I've yet to test it for myself, but once I get my airbrushing setup I probably will as there's a retailer carrying Tamiya paints just down the street. Hopefully they'll have the clear paints in stock, prefer buying locally if I can, much less hassle.

Tamiya paints airbrush beautifully. They lay down a perfect coat at almost any PSI and thinned by almost any ratio. I always use their thinners. Personally all of my airbrushed steels are done with their enamel range.

Try basecoating a burnished gold then using red calligraphy ink over it. I use something similar for my world eaters.

Ah, I don't do this as much as I might like, so I wasn't up to date on the various alternative paint brands, and such; always only had the GW paint. What are the best bets for if I want to use GW/FW materials, as I know where to go buy those (after chiseling some coins out of the gold, downstairs?)