Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Between 1996 and 2002, I painted about 2000 points of Blood Angels in simple block color scheme of mostly blood red, yellow and black. No shading, washes or highlighting. Luckily I was fairly neat with it.

I'd like to update the paint to a reasonable modern tabletop quality, ideally with as little work as possible. With a less bright paint scheme and less flat surfaces, I'd just dip them with Minwax Polyshades, but something better is needed here.

I've looked at the options on the Citadel paint app, but all of them assume you're starting with a darker base. I have figures that were primed white and then given a couple layers of what was then called Blood Red. The nearest equivalent in the correct range is probably Wild Rider Red.

I'd love to hear suggestions for a 2-3 step process working with what I've already done to get these looking tabletop good. Doesn't have to be award winning, just good. Maybe a wash and then highlight?

I will also be adding basing to the figures (goodbye goblin green bases!) but I've already got a good quick recipe for that.

Maybe an edge highlight and then an oil wash? A heavily thinned oil wash will settle in the low spots without tinting the rest of the model too much. Or the new GW washes claim to have that same kind of behavior and might be a good option, but you'll have to wait until they're actually released to get an answer there.

Cassandora yellow shade for the yellow will give a nice warm feel to the yellow with some surface variation.

One of the new shades coming soon should work well on the reds.

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I'm not necessarily against having the whole model darkened a bit.

Is there a black or similar dark wash that is known to go on very evenly? I'm not tied to the citadel range either.

Thanks for taking the time to help. I've been dipping minis for so long that my knowledge of most other painting techniques is virtually nil.

Are you are you want a black wash? I don’t think that will look good over yellow

mrFickle wrote:
Are you are you want a black wash? I don’t think that will look good over yellow

I am very much not sure. 😁
Also, even though I'm looking for quick, I'm willing to do different washes and highlights on different colors if necessary.

If you are after quick and easy, then Cassandora yellow shade for the yellows, the new berzerker bloodshade shade for the reds, null oil for the metallics and drakenhof nightshade for your blue devastator helmets. These will help give a bit of depth and definition really quickly. If you want more pop, then you can add your own highlights to brighten ilarmour edges and suchlike, but I think a quick shade to each of the colours will make a huge difference.

 Flinty wrote:
If you are after quick and easy, then Cassandora yellow shade for the yellows, the new berzerker bloodshade shade for the reds, null oil for the metallics and drakenhof nightshade for your blue devastator helmets. These will help give a bit of depth and definition really quickly. If you want more pop, then you can add your own highlights to brighten ilarmour edges and suchlike, but I think a quick shade to each of the colours will make a huge difference.

Heck yeah, this is the kind of thing I'm looking for.
I think I even have a couple of those as I recently bought my buddy out of the hobby and got all his paints.

I would probably do a quick highlight on the red at least. Since the red is so light/bright already, I'm afraid a much lighter shade might come out pink. Could I highlight in approximately the same red color after the berserker bloodshade?

 Eilif wrote:
I would probably do a quick highlight on the red at least. Since the red is so light/bright already, I'm afraid a much lighter shade might come out pink. Could I highlight in approximately the same red color after the berserker bloodshade?

The key to avoiding the pink look is to lighten your reds with yellow not white. Adding yellow shifts into orange a bit but still gives you a bright saturated color, adding white is where you increase the brightness at the expense of de-saturating the color.

As your bases are green have a look at things like gamers grass or army painter scenery and you could probably stick some grass tufts etc on the bases and quickly make them look good

Really appreciate all the advice folks. A couple things...

-the new Berserker Bloodshade looks quite purple. How is that going to interact with the red on the figures that has a hint of orange in it?

-Does any company makes very deep or dark red wash that isn't purpley?

-Thanks for the advice on orange/yellow vs white. I see that in the Citadel App the highlights for some reds do lean toward orange.

-I'm going back and forth about the bases. I do like the retro look of goblin green but I'm probably going to go with a different basing scheme.

Possibly a variant (maybe a grey rubble version?) of the quick basing I did for my Runewars figures.
https://www.chicagoskirmishwargames.com/blog/2017/05/runewars-daqan-army-finished/

I tend to shade the red on my World Eaters with agrax earthshade

1475 Gallery images and looking for a quick job on a 20-26yo job? If for purity then I'd look up an old paint tutorial or guide with a paint conversion chart.

So many other ideas, but hard to say from the pics, and comes back to 1475 images, are they memes? Seems you should probably know.

Crispy78 wrote:
I tend to shade the red on my World Eaters with agrax earthshade

Looked up a few pictures of Agrax over reds and it does look good, though the result definitely leans less classic and more weathered.

Might do a test mini as I think I have that one already.

I use AMMO Oilbrushers Rust wash on my BA, but they are Vermillion, not Red so YMMV