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As the title says I don't know what to do with my salamanders skin. I've painted some stuff already and I'm happy with my salamanders thus far, but I've been avoiding the ones without helmets as long as I could. I'm aware that the fluff says "jet black" and that some of the older stuff has them colored with A more natural Brown skin tone. That said, I feel like most of the pictures Ive seen with pure black skin look really awful and to go with a natural brown skin tone seems like a complete cop out as the fluff describes it as completely unnatural looking or almost daemonic.

I guess what I'm picturing Is a natural flesh color base with a greyish black undertone? maybe even a Deep brown but certainly closer to black. By chance has anyone done anything similar to this that can give me some pointers? Where to start? Maybe some pictures of unnaturally darkened flesh with an explanation of how to achieve the color? I am not a tremendously skilled painter and perhaps I'm biting off more than I can chew here, but I do have steady hands, a basic understanding of highlighting and shading, and tons of free time to paint. any advice is appreciated!

Here is a great tutorial for African-American skin on miniatures.

http://pinmanminiaturepainter.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/how-to-paint-black-skin/

Years ago I painted a British colonial army and Zulu army in 25mm. A very convincing job can be done very simply for black skin with two colors. For the Zulus, I painted them black, then dry brushed with a chocolaty brown. When viewed from several feet away, on the table, it looked like black skin. If you can dry brush decently, give it a try.

Go for a natural flesh tone then a couple of heavy washes of nuln oil. I did some a few years back that way and it worked out pretty well.

thanks for the quick responses guys. I'll give all of those a shot and see what I like best

Darker to lighter layer (names are for VMC):

Black Brown
Chocolate Brown
1:1 Chocolate Brown : US Tan Earth
US Tan Earth
1:3 Brown Rose : Cork Brown
Basic Skintone

You may avoid the "lighter" ones to achieve darker skin tone, I'd say skipping the last two

Last line is mine, recipe is from Cmon.

I use this

1:1 Mix Calthan Brown and Undercoat Black
Wash Agrax Earthshade

to achieve this





Its a very dark brown skin colour and another round of black in the mix or a few more Earthshade washes and you should have it nicely.