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So for a good while now I have pretty much just been using the default GW skin combo of Cadian fleshtone, wash with reikland flesh, reapply cadian fleshtone and highlight with kislev flesh and it looks pretty good, but I dont want all my minis to have this look lol... So looking to try some new recipes that people use, if you can provide a pic of the recipe applied to a model even better! I have a pretty big paint collection from most of the more popular manufacturers GW/Vallejo/p3/reaper so chances are i will have anything named. Also can anyone recommend some dirt cheap models with lots of skin exposure to test some new recipes out on?

Something that I tried out was Bugman's glow, wash with Druchii violet, layer with Cadian fleshtone, then highlight with kislev flesh. It's not too dissimilar from what you've tried, but it looks nice.



Not sure if this is the sort of recipes you're looking for, but it's my go-to skin recipe.

I've got several of the Reaper Triads, trios of paint matched as a base with a shade and highlight colour.

I've got normal, pale and dark, and I'll grab the middle eastern set (Olive? I think) sometime.

The nice thing has been, if you set them all in order, you suddenly get a whole bunch of other options e.g., the normal skin comprises tanned skin, tanned shade, and tanned highlight, but tanned highlight also works as a shade for fair shadow, and fair then becomes the highlight.



For relatively little cost (Reaper aren't cheap in the U.K. as there's no big distributor for them, but still only ~£20 for 9 paints from miniature heroes) you get a huge variety of simple flesh tones.

I mix all my skin tones individually, it helps avoid them looking too uniform and lets me get the exact tone I want. Ultimately, it's mostly the same 4-5 paints that get used.

Vallejo Model Air Ivory
VMA Pale Blue Grey
VMA Dark Earth
VMC Royal Purple.
GW Mephiston Red (any strong red will do)
GW Agrax Earthshade

Always start with Red, Earth and Ivory, with more ivory for paler tones, more red for ruddier ones, more brown for a tanned or weathered look. Apply this all over (the mix should be pretty dark, to give good coverage and provide depth to the finished look). Then highlight up by adding in either ivory or pale grey depending on how vibrant or pale you want to go. Keep your final highlights nice and fine.

Then apply some (very thin) washes to add some colour to it. Watered down red will give you a warm look, purple a gaunt and cold tone and Agrax/brown a grimy look. You can also experiment with other colours here, green would give a sickly look, blue a chilled one. The key with these is to keep them really thin, so they don't pool and just tint the desired area.

A few examples, I'm afraid none of the pics are close-ups but you'll get the idea)


Hope that helps!

Skins recipes are easy to find and you have several here... I like P3 for mine because they thin down incredibly for very slight effects.

But I wanted to say, for cheap minis with skin, check out Reaper Bones... there are SOO many and they are super cheap.

Also not as cheap, Raging Heroes Blood Vestals (basically 3rd party Daemonettes) come in a box set for a good value and they are gorgeous models with plenty of skin.