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Im currently painting a BA battle force along with a few IC's and extra squads. I have read a few tutorials on how to paint etc. But im really stumped on the painting the blood red colour. I have sprayed (basecoat) black GW paint, brushed 2 coats of merchite red as a solid basecoat and im having serious problems with the blood red layering. Im finding that blood red doesnt go onto merchite red very well, even when watered down it just wont stick it leaves very washed out uneven coverage. I tried blood red straight on to the black basecoat and this was even worse. After 3 layers of Blood red it still looked washed out.

Im starting to despair and wondering about going for some army painter red base coat spray and using that (after stripping all the paint off)...... It should be this hard to paint red should it?

Red is a hard color to work with particularly over a black primer/undercoat. A lighter primer like a grey or white would work much better. The Army painter primer is another option.

Indeed, it is. I have tried white basecoat too, it was very washed out.

How was the coverage with the mechrite red? Have you tried highlighting directly from this? I do red from a scab red/red gore base coat.

Blood Red is a very difficult colour to get right, especially when going from Black. You've started well with a basecoat of Mechnite, Then hit it with a wash of Devlan mud. Then finally clean it up with Blood Red but it's going to take plenty of layers of Blood Red to achieve a great smooth finish.

Don't forget to thin all your paints down, The blood red should be extremely thin because you'll be apply loads of layers.

I've got a tutorial on my website for painting Blood Angels:

http://www.thewaaaghstudios.com/tutorials/bapaint.html

Honestly though it's just patience and perseverance. Red is a naturally difficult colour to work with so you just need to do lots of thinned even layers to build it up.

AlexHeap wrote:I've got a tutorial on my website for painting Blood Angels:

http://www.thewaaaghstudios.com/tutorials/bapaint.html

Honestly though it's just patience and perseverance. Red is a naturally difficult colour to work with so you just need to do lots of thinned even layers to build it up.

/\ This is where I learnt how to paint them, Really good tutorial and worth checking out.

Well many ways to paint red. all take lots of time.

You can also basecout white or better a light grey. Then paint everything blood red.
Hi light the edges with orange.
Do some more hi lighting with elven flesh..
Then wash with a mixed of water and Bhaal red to connect all the colors and darken it down a bit
Wait till the frist wash drys up and then do some lining with pure bhaal red to get some really dark red parts.
This way the blood red gets really bright but also a bit glossy.

A method i use is fortress grey undercoat, basecoat blood red and then give the marines a devlan mud ink wash, then a baal red ink wash. worked fine for me and its quick and you get a nice looking colour

Thanks for the excellent advise


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I checked the paint jobs this morning. There's evidence of the paint becoming to thick from layers. Cracking, pitting, air bubbles etc. looks like I'm going to be stripping these and restarting from scratch.

hey dude, I have just started a Flesh Eaters army who are BA successors so i've had to learn how to paint red quickly myself! I'll just link you to the start of them on my blog for you to check at your leisure if you want, it's about 3/4 way down the page.

I hope it works out for you! good luck! :-)

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/780/356350.page

Nerdfest09

nerdfest09 wrote:hey dude, I have just started a Flesh Eaters army who are BA successors so i've had to learn how to paint red quickly myself! I'll just link you to the start of them on my blog for you to check at your leisure if you want, it's about 3/4 way down the page.

I hope it works out for you! good luck! :-)

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/780/356350.page

Nerdfest09

Thanks. I have had a read. Looks like my other technique of spray with BA red worked out well!

Arschbombe wrote:Red is a hard color to work with particularly over a black primer/undercoat. A lighter primer like a grey or white would work much better. The Army painter primer is another option.

I used Army painter for most of my BA. A base of Dragon red then a coat of their pure red. I was really happy with the results

I primed mine with Krylon Camo Brown, followed by a basecoat of Mechrite Red then Red Gore.