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Any one got any tips on how to do a good flesh tone for Impirial Guardsmen without having to resort to going for them wearing the Hostile environment kit like pics attached.

or this guy who looks like the undead than the living.

Any tips on the cammo, gear or such are welcome too and have more photo's but will hold them back from clogging post unless needed.

Bronzed flesh, drybrush/highlight pallid wych flesh, wash Reikland fleshwash, drybrush/highlight pallid wych flesh.

Screamer pink, kivev Flesh, Wash with Reikland flesh, dry brush kivev flesh to taste.

This is how I paint the faces of white guardsmen: http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-paint-rich-skin-tones-and-their.html
For black guardsmen, I use Reaper Master Series Dark Shadow as base, RMS Dark Skin a highlight, RMS Dark Highlight for a second highlight, and a 1:1 mix of GW Dwarf Flesh and RMS Dark Highlight for an extreme highlight. For the eyes I use VGC Ghost Grey with dark blue, green, or brown for the iris.

That is how I do run-of-the-mill troops. Now I also spice it up a little for command squads or independent characters and go something a little more detailed, usually along these lines: http://thebrushbrothers.blogspot.com/2011/03/painting-face.html

Another thing worth noting - make sure when applying your base layers that you apply THIN, MULTIPLE layers of paint. This will ensure complete coverage and a clean, solid foundation from which you can apply additional highlights without mucking up the detail of the face and plastic.

Thanks everyone, and espechily for the full tutuurial with pics and detailed explanations.

They may with some practice look like living humans and not the undead. :-)

They are pain to do ^^' had to do some bare skin models before and they came out looking dead like x)

But used a cloth like colour and added flesh wash onto it and came out well ( just keep forgetting to add it heavily onto it lol )

 DarkMistro wrote:
They are pain to do ^^' had to do some bare skin models before and they came out looking dead like x)

But used a cloth like colour and added flesh wash onto it and came out well ( just keep forgetting to add it heavily onto it lol )

Also why my marines wear helmets :-)
It saved doing skin tones, as at times I was hopeless at them, still am pretty hopeless lol!

But got good at guard cammo kit recently

I use Model color brown sand for a base, sometimes with the linden grey mixed it to desaturated it, prefer the flesh wash from p3 gor shading.

Brown base, either buy or mix a peach flesh colour.. I use a mix of orange and rotten flesh cos im too tight to buy new paints if i dont need em. Once thats dried, hit it with agrax earthshade wash. Highlight with your flesh mixed with white. I use 2 steadily lighter gradients, then a single pure white line Highlight down the nose, cheeks and eyebrows. Witness abaddon here..

Nice abaddon model, think I've seen that on showcase before. That base is pretty hard to forget.

Plenty of versions to go with, surprised how helpful this forum can be :-)

hanks man. Hes the only guy i got with human flesh tones. The key to flesh tones is the ink for shading and the highlights. You can then alter your colours accordingly. For example, the chaos lord uses a green base coat, with rotten flesh base layer and green ink to shade. And the baron of hell is the equivalent with pink, using a darker brown shade again. Play around with inks to get the effects you want

I painted about 40 guard and was dreading painting the faces as well.

I found a good method was to leave the heads separate and not glue them on until they were fully painted.

This method allowed me to paint and strip if needed rather than painting over the same area over and over or stripping the entire model.

^^ good advice i forgot.. Paint heads seperate!

For white skin

Base with Calthan Brown, layer up Bronzed Flesh, or its current equivilent, then wash with Agrax Earthshade.

For brown skin

Base Calthan Brown, wash Agrax Earthshade

For black skin

Mix Calthan Brown with a tiny bit of black, wash Agrax Earthshade.

Very simple to apply and effective and 1 blob of paint can paint 10 DV cultists, so probably a lot more IG faces. Examples in my gallery.

Wow tons of advice, I'm going to have to start writing all this down, yeah, just line up the heads for painting and do them in bulk then glue them to bodies after touching up things like my black helmets.

And yes I know my helmets/boots are black, n clean, but I liked the whole semi dystopian look of swat like black armour, boots etc.


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And @queen Ann's revenge, you obviously mastered fleshtones, the Barron muscle mass looks good, espechily at the mid point around the ribcage and stomach area.

@rickfactor, yes that will help me from messing up after the complex cammo layers :-)

@deadshot, thanks for different versions, guard will look better in blobs if they are not all tanned and look same.

I would recommend base color + wash, then base color, then layer up highlights with lighter flesh tones. You can also do this by adding bleached bone/buff colored paint to to your base flesh paint. For the very final highlight, such as finger tips, chins, brows, tips of noses, etc. you can use a very watered down bit of buff. I recommend buff/bleached bone/whatever GW calls it this week over a plain white when highlighting skin, as the buff has a much more natural look to it. Solely my opinion of course.

As for other types of skin tones, I am too scared to try them yet. I feel I still need to master caucasian skin before I try anything else.

I actually use a 10 step process for flesh I just vary the colors depending on the ethnicity I'm going for. As I don't use any of the name bands pants I'll list the more generic names of the colors.
Caucasian
1 - prime grey
2 - base coat deep brown - (asphaltum)
3 - dark shade 50/50 heritage brick/asphaltum
4 - 50/50 heritage brick/flesh
5 - 25/75 heritage brick/flesh
6 - 100% flesh
7 - 75/25 flesh/antique white
8 - 50/50 flesh/antique white
9 - 25/75 flesh/antique white
10 - flesh ink
11* - (optional) mix 50/25/25 flesh ink/flesh/asphaltum & paint into recesses/crevices
12* - (optional) highlight very minimally with step 9 again

By using mostly heritage brick, asphaltum, & black I can do a black tone. By using more heritage brick I can do a native tone. It's honestly difficult on such small models to really do a good Mexican/Mediterranean tone. I usually just use a darker ink & omit step 12 for those.

OK lots of versions, on how to do it, though seeing as I'm less experienced I may go with a simpler method to start with as better to start smaller and work upwards.

Especially for hordes of guardsmen, go simple! Honestly a base of Cadian Flesh and a wash of Devlan mud is fine for your rank and file troopers. Remember you will be removing these by the handful when you play.

Bugmans glow, Reikland flesh shade wash, Cadian fleshtone highlight and finally Kislev highlight.

Check my blog for examples if you want

 darkness screamer wrote:
Bugmans glow, Reikland flesh shade wash, Cadian fleshtone highlight and finally Kislev highlight.

Check my blog for examples if you want

Probably the best option for simple face painting.

 Todosi wrote:
Especially for hordes of guardsmen, go simple! Honestly a base of Cadian Flesh and a wash of Devlan mud is fine for your rank and file troopers. Remember you will be removing these by the handful when you play.

Yeah, my long term plan is a auxiliary for marines, artillary, meat sheilds to slow enemy advance, maybe one day as army in own right.


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Got some nice stuff on blog, good cammo painting on tanks too, its not always easy in small scales


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 sing your life wrote:

 darkness screamer wrote:
Bugmans glow, Reikland flesh shade wash, Cadian fleshtone highlight and finally Kislev highlight.

Check my blog for examples if you want

Probably the best option for simple face painting.

That sounds fairly simple, simple but effective to get a good skin tone without too much fuss.


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And sorry ifi may not give everyone a persnol reply, its hard to keep track of all, I'm surprised at the sheer volume of posts lending there tips and versions.

All good people :-)

jhe90 wrote:
OK lots of versions, on how to do it, though seeing as I'm less experienced I may go with a simpler method to start with as better to start smaller and work upwards.

If you want simplicity, follow my method. I honestly say my method will take under 20 minutes to paint 10 guys, maybe 15. It is literally that simple and effective.