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So i just started paintig my cultists and i am completely lost. I have never been so stumped when trying figure out how to paint a model. its the most frustrating thing in the world. I don't even have a clue about how to even begin to think of what to paint them and how

Look at other people's painted cultists and find a scheme that you like.

I found them pretty fun to paint. I went for a realistic army version, something I have been wanting to try for a while. They might not fit my Black Legion army perfectly but its chaos, they could have fallen from any planet. I have 6 more about to be finished tomorrow.

what colours did you use?

Pick a theme first, sod the colours. Give them a story and the rest should flow.

Mine are escaped convicts that have killed and looted their guards. So they have orange jumpsuits (trousers / cowls etc) with black over coats and what have you

I'd say chose a few base colors, perhaps 2 - 3. Lets say your army is a Night Lords army, so you want some blue tones on them to synchronize nicely.

Main color: Blue
Second Color: Brown
Third color: Metal

Start out painting stuff like colars, hoods, jackets, robes in your blue color to give it some consistency. After that paint all or most of the pants brown. Lastly paint all the metal in your chosen metal color.
Go from there with your shading and highlighting as you should have a rather consistent theme.

To add additional colors to the models you can chose colors that don't stand out as much as you would like your blue to be very present in the Night Lords army. Stuff like black and brown tones and dull colors works well. Even when highlighted and shaded.

Further to Gravity's suggestion, you could take the main colours of your army but reverse them, so brown jacket and blue trousers etc.

My own personal thought is that cultists aren't or shouldn't be part of a legion / warband, they're what's present on a planet already that's been brought out by the invasion of chaos fleet, so they wouldn't look tied in with the legion colours imo.

it's a personal thing though so hey, whatever

I know its unoriginal, but i chose the Black LEgion, its my first Chaos army and i love their colors and story so any suggestions on that?

Lexicanum lists the legion colours as black gold and silver, cultists are poor fethers so why not say yellow grey and black?

Yellow being your main colour, grey your secondary (trousers / sleeves?) and black for the other bits.

Or yellow main / black secondary and silver for weapons n gak

I try to stick a similar scheme to my main units though removing the amount of bling and adding a third neutral colour(dark grey). Also, I try to use the same painting style so, in the case of the pics below, quick paint, heavy wash, muted colours. So, for my Word Bearer marines who look like this:






My cultists look like this:

 kitch102 wrote:
Pick a theme first, sod the colours. Give them a story and the rest should flow.

Mine are escaped convicts that have killed and looted their guards. So they have orange jumpsuits (trousers / cowls etc) with black over coats and what have you

That sounds.......................... amazing

Lol, cheers! They're in varying degrees of completion, I think I put one or two pictures up on my Alpha Legion (which will soon not be the Alpha Legion) plog if you fancy a gander...

 WingWong wrote:
I try to stick a similar scheme to my main units though removing the amount of bling and adding a third neutral colour(dark grey). Also, I try to use the same painting style so, in the case of the pics below, quick paint, heavy wash, muted colours. So, for my Word Bearer marines who look like this:






My cultists look like this:

Wong whered you get your helmets in the squad with your standard bearer dude.....awesome models and painting btw


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oh what type of varnish do yall reccomend? im gonna attempt to use some for the first time and have no idead what to use or where to get it


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another thing, what are those grid mats i always see when people show their models? Sorry im a born again 40k player and i just graduated college so i feel i can really dedicate time to it, and have been apparently painting all wrong

That is a loyalist chaplain with jetpack that he converted.

The mats are cutting mats you can get them anywhere, they are so you don't slice up your table. Mine is pink due to me asking my wife to pick me up one while she was at walleworld.

 Deathshead420 wrote:
The mats are cutting mats you can get them anywhere, they are so you don't slice up your table. Mine is pink due to me asking my wife to pick me up one while she was at walleworld.

Nice Slaaneshi cutting mat!

As others have said, work on their story a bit before starting to paint. Who will your cultists be fighting with? Which chaos faction? Answering these questions will help guide you with colors.

My Nurgly cultists WIP