Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've recently started playing Warmachine and have been playing 40k for nearly a decade. With 40k I have always gone with a simple paint scheme as I would class myself as a gamer, not a painter. I like to field fully painted armies but the rank and file troops tend to be basic paint schemes with only characters or special units getting more attention. For Warmachine though, with the model count being low (we're looking at 25point games for the foreseeable future) I want to have a full army that looks like it has had time spent working on the hobby side of wargaming.

Below is my first 'jack, a Khador Juggernaught that I spent about 5 hours painting (usually in this time I can get through 5 Space Marines). There's a couple of things that I need some help with.

First being the axe, the blend didn't work at all and has taken on a more stepped look than I wanted. I have been told that getting hold of some paint retardant will make blending much, much simpler. Is this the case? Would the colours that are currently on the blade (Mordian Blue, Enchanted Blue, Ice Blue, Space Wolves Gray) have all blended together nicer with retardant mixed into the colours?

Next up is the armour, it's Army Painter Dragon Red that was then heavy dry brushed with Blood Red, washed with Ogryn Flesh (Baal Red seems brighter than Blood Red so there's no point washing with it), then highlighted with Blood Red. Should I be taking the highlighting one step further? Maybe mixing up some insertfancynamehere orange with red to take the colour a little higher in the colour palette.

Metals I am pretty happy with the most part. They are Boltgun Metal, Badab Black Wash then the edges picked out with Chainmail. Some of them have discolouration on the added by Ogryn Flesh. The smoke stacks have tin bits added to the top of them to show grime build up. I like the colour but can't get rid of the metallic effect of the paint. Is there another way to get this type of effect without using a metalic paint? Using the variety of browns that I have doesn't seem to work as it just looks like brown paint.

The base, it's pretty much fine, almost sand like gravel with a couple of lager pieces of gravel stuck down. The snow is Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking ), White Paint and PVA glue. Another painter I know says that the Soda will break down over time and degrade the glue to the point where it will just start flaking off. Has anyone experienced this? If it is the case, what do you recommend for the snow instead? The GW stuff looks terrible






More Images (in super crazy high res) at http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-26773-13219_Warmachine.html

For the grime, you can also use Vallejo Smoke. That will darken and dirty up the smoke stacks without being metallic.

Here's how I do snow:
http://kan.org/michael/mkp/base_snow.php



Woodland Scenic snow mixed in with some water and PVA glue. Spoon it into place with a flat brush and use a wet brush to push snow into place.

Can't give much input on the axe. I went with a gunmetal grey washed with Paynes Grey.

I left you a PM with some decent links.

Hope that helps!

I'd take the shading a step further on the red rather than the highlighting. Paint in shadows between the panels with a reasonably thin mix of Blood Red and a warm blue, like Storm Blue if that still exists.

Retardant will definitely help with wet blending. That said you can definitely get better effects then you've had without retardant. It's possible that you're trying to do too many layers at once. Also a small brush isn't necessarily your friend for that sort of work.

For the exhausts you can try stippling on several different thinned browns. Weathering powders would be even better.

I've used that recipe for snow in the past. I still have some of the models I tested it on about six years ago. It doesn't seem to flake but it has yellowed significantly, and that's with little to no exposure to sunlight.

Billinator wrote:I left you a PM with some decent links.

Hope that helps!

Cheers for the links, I'll watch them on my Lunchbreak in work today. Thanks for the rest of the advice, more would be great though!

Wow, that's great Chris! What about your Warcaster? Please put that up.

4 replies