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Hello everyone. Im new to the hobby and I just recently got finished putting my models together. I have a Blood Angel Tactical Squad that I have base coated in Mephiston Red. Im using all Citadel Paint. Ive watched a bunch of tutorial videos and they all use different shades. One will use Agrax Earthshade and one will use Carroburg Crimson and another even used Nuln Oil which I thought was used for black like on the guns. Which one is the right one to use or which SHOULD I use?

A fella on this thread posted a pic of Carroburg Crimson used over the Mephiston Red:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/444960.page

Here's the pic but check out the thread to see if there might be some other suggestions.

It depends on the look you're going for, if you want "clean" looking minis I'd suggest a dark red shade, for a dirtier weathered look try sepia or brown. Personally I like the weathered look as I feel it fits the grimdark aesthetic of 40k and I play chaos. Though i feel Loyalists look good clean and new too.

The renegade terminator below was painted using khorne and mephiston red, with my self made sepia wash. Layering khorne red over the wash and adding a little more mephiston red for each coat, final highlights were pure mephiston red

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Ill have to experiment a little and see which looks best. I kinda like the weathered look as well but this is my first painting of mini's so I seriously doubt they are gonna turn out good. LOL

In my opinion, Agrax Earthshade in the crevices (and clean Mephiston on the plates) looks better than Carosburg Crimson. Crimson actually has some purple tones to it, and doesn't darken the crevices very nicely; plus, if you dunk your whole model in it, the shade it turns out is not really Codex-looking anymore.

This is how I did mine:



If you wanted to dunk the whole model (rather than just shade the crevices, I might suggest using Red Sunz Scarlet as a layer after to brighten it and make it look more "blood".

Wow! Thats some great paint work on those mini's! I hope mine can look that good someday!!

agrax is a good all rounder shade for a beginner. when i first started i used it on everything. that way you can work your way up to other shades.

I swear by Agrax, especially for red and gold. A simple 3-step process of Mephiston Red, Agrax everywhere and then a re-highlight of Meph Red on the edges gives a rather nice result, not overly bright but not so dark as to look dull.

It comes out like this:


Which I think is a pretty decent result for such a simple process!

I use Nuln Oil, but I like my Blood Angels super dark.

 Talys wrote:
In my opinion, Agrax Earthshade in the crevices (and clean Mephiston on the plates) looks better than Carosburg Crimson. Crimson actually has some purple tones to it, and doesn't darken the crevices very nicely; plus, if you dunk your whole model in it, the shade it turns out is not really Codex-looking anymore.

Does GW seriously not have an actual red wash anymore? What is this purple nonsense?

Super Newb wrote:

 Talys wrote:
In my opinion, Agrax Earthshade in the crevices (and clean Mephiston on the plates) looks better than Carosburg Crimson. Crimson actually has some purple tones to it, and doesn't darken the crevices very nicely; plus, if you dunk your whole model in it, the shade it turns out is not really Codex-looking anymore.

Does GW seriously not have an actual red wash anymore? What is this purple nonsense?

This is why I make my own. Acrylic medium and drawing or calligraphy inks make great washes. Ive also used watercolour paints to tint the medium

honeybadger33 wrote:Wow! Thats some great paint work on those mini's! I hope mine can look that good someday!!

Thank you!!

Super Newb wrote:

 Talys wrote:
In my opinion, Agrax Earthshade in the crevices (and clean Mephiston on the plates) looks better than Carosburg Crimson. Crimson actually has some purple tones to it, and doesn't darken the crevices very nicely; plus, if you dunk your whole model in it, the shade it turns out is not really Codex-looking anymore.

Does GW seriously not have an actual red wash anymore? What is this purple nonsense?

I suppose you could call it the Bloodletter Glaze. A pure red wash doesn't fall into GW's painting philosophy anymore, because in the GW universe, you use washes strictly to create shadows, and you can't create a shadow using a pure red (or any other bright color). That's why all the washes are dark.

The glazes really work the same way though; you just have to apply enough that it runs. The glaze is very useful if you've drybrushed or layered (or even washed), and just want to soften harsh demarcations a little.

One thing though -- there is zero point in washing a mephiston red basecoat with nothing else on it, with a mephiston red wash. All you'll do is put more paint on the model

Another vote for Agrax from me:

I used to do Curroburg Crimson - didn't find it dark enough.
Then tried a 50/50 mix of the Crimson and Agrax Earth Shade..

Now I just do Agrax then repaint over in Mephiston Red just leaving the recesses... works best IMO

sm3g wrote:

Now I just do Agrax then repaint over in Mephiston Red just leaving the recesses... works best IMO

This is the way I originally did it too (okay, it was Mechrite Red and Devlan Mud seemingly an eternity ago), but I find it more efficient to do the wash using a detail-ish brush (round size 0), which saves me from doing the Mephiston cleanup. On one hand, it's less work because getting it back to a rich red takes more than 1 coat, and on the other, the recesses and the gradients around the recesses come out crisper. I still clean up with Mephiston, but it's really just a little bit here and there.

 Talys wrote:

sm3g wrote:

Now I just do Agrax then repaint over in Mephiston Red just leaving the recesses... works best IMO

This is the way I originally did it too (okay, it was Mechrite Red and Devlan Mud seemingly an eternity ago), but I find it more efficient to do the wash using a detail-ish brush (round size 0), which saves me from doing the Mephiston cleanup. On one hand, it's less work because getting it back to a rich red takes more than 1 coat, and on the other, the recesses and the gradients around the recesses come out crisper. I still clean up with Mephiston, but it's really just a little bit here and there.

Ahh yeah,

Old Mate that does the tutorials on GW Youtube for painting did this exact thing when doing his Tactical Squad!

Just saw this thread, was going to comment, just noticed Talys made every point I was going to.

What I'm saying is listen to the guy, he knows what's up.

That said, Carroburg Crimson still looks good, but it's a lot more subtle. Nothing wrong with that! It's what I've done on the handful of Space Hulk guys I've got done so far.

Sgt. Gideon
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