Cult

of Paint Course Notes

Infantry
Table of Contents
1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 2
2 Preparation...................................................................................................................................... 3
3 Pre shade ......................................................................................................................................... 3
4 Colouring ......................................................................................................................................... 4
4.1 Black ........................................................................................................................................ 5
5 Pin wash .......................................................................................................................................... 6
6 Transfers .......................................................................................................................................... 7
6.1 Damage to transfers ................................................................................................................ 7
7 Armour Finish .................................................................................................................................. 7
8 Battle Damage ................................................................................................................................. 7
9 Edge Highlight.................................................................................................................................. 8
10 Larger areas of Damage................................................................................................................... 9
11 Metals .............................................................................................................................................. 9
11.1 Gold ......................................................................................................................................... 9
11.2 Silver ........................................................................................................................................ 9
11.3 Wash ...................................................................................................................................... 10
12 Leather .......................................................................................................................................... 10
13 Eye lenses ...................................................................................................................................... 12
14 Pigment Wash ............................................................................................................................... 12
15 Appendix........................................................................................................................................ 13
15.1 Colours Used.......................................................................................................................... 13

1 Introduction
This guide is based on that the models in question is painted as Blood Angels

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2 Preparation
Glue the figures together, leave the following bits of

• Backpack
• Shoulder pads
• Weapons

If any additional bits are to be done in a separate colour, leave them of as well, for instance hand
with a power weapon or similar.

Prime the model in a nice colour, light grey is recommended.

3 Pre shade
Airbrush the entire model in Flat Black

The pre shade stage is there to create gradient in the model, from the brightest spots to the darkest,
leaving black in the deep shadows and having bright white on the surfaces in direct light.

Here you have to select a main light point and a secondary point as well, think that the light intensity
in the main light is 100% - that is bright white, then the secondary point should provide somewhere
around 80% light.

The simplest way for this is to see the model from above, think a circle (like the base) on the model,
divide this into quarters and select one of them as the main source and the opposite as the
secondary source. Also from right above should be classed as the main light as well.

Secondary source

Main source

The pre shade is done with Flat White.

To start cover the model from all sides in a very thin layer, so that the model is more of a dark grey
than a black, this to give the reds something to grab hold of. Then procced to build up the white from
the main and secondary source, keeping a gradient from the darks to the lights.

Start off with the airbrush from a distance, then as the colours builds up, move closer and closer,
going from overall light to specific areas. Try to keep interesting gradients on parts that can take it,
like the back of a power fist, going from light to dark over the area even if it then would somewhat
break the light sources.

Sharp edges are excellent to use for going from light to dark quickly, like on the helmet on an MkIV
marine.

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After the white, go back with some black, fix areas with overspray, get back some darker shadows
and tidy up places like the sharp contrast on the helmets. Also, use this black to make some of the
white areas a bit narrower to keep it interesting and not overly bright so that the result looks bland.

Pre shade complete

Close up of helmet and colour shift

4 Colouring
The main thing here is to start with the colour that you want the miniature to be, the colour used on
the white areas first will be the main colour and the one that shapes the look and feel of the model.
Colours can produce a vastly different result if they go on as the first or second colour, if they are the
shade, highlight or base.

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The simplest way of doing things is to use the base colour as the first layer, if you use the shade
colour first, try to avoid using it on the brightest parts of the model.

Go over the model with thin coats, be prepared to use 5-20 coats of paint to get the desired result,
but don’t go on so thick with the paint that the pre shade disappears, make sure there always is
contrast in the model.

After this go in with a highlight if necessary and a shade if needed, not all colours need it, but it can
bring additional life to the model. A tip is to use some sort of complementary colour on the shade,
like blue on a red marine; this brings some more visual appeal to the model.

After the colouring is done, varnish the model in gloss, 2-3 thin coats.

Base Color
Highlight and Shade
added

4.1 Black
To paint some black details, for example backpacks, keep them black from the basing stage, and
instead of pre shading them, use a neutral grey colour and lightly highlight them as you would during
the pre shade stage, but only very lightly. After this, mix a small amount of white in with the grey and
do a very small highlight from the top, just lightly hitting the model.

After this, go back with the black and pull back the highlights a bit, just to keep everything small and
still looking black.

This is the first and final stage of anything black, so take your time here, do it right and don’t rush
through it.

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 Black parts next to some red to show the similarities in how they are highlighted

5 Pin wash
This stage is here to bring out some definition in the model and is done with oil wash. Oil wash is
ordinary artist oil paints made very thin with oil thinner, Wisor & Newton oil paints is used here with
Sansodor thinner.

The colour to use is defined by what colour the model is in, for the Blood Angels, black is used. For
something like yellow, use burnt umber.

Use a brush with a good point to it, take some wash in the brush and just touch the lines in the
model, like on the feet, between armour plates and so on. The capitulary effect should spread the
paint along the plates without you having to do much, do this all over, along every line that should be
defined.

Remember that until there is varnish over the oil paint, it can always be removed by a clean brush
with some thinner on it, so any mistake or bleeding of the wash can be fixed.

With and without pin wash added

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6 Transfers
Before starting to apply any transfers, make sure that there is a gloss varnish under where is should
go.
Use MicroSet to soften the decal, place it where is should be and let it dry, if it is over a curved
surface it might be necessary to make one or more small cuts in the transfer to make it set over the
surface and not wrinkle.

After the MicroSet is dry another transfer may be applied on top of this one if that is desired,
otherwise use MicroSol on the transfer and let is set for a few hours.

If there is wrinkles after the MicroSol has dried, make cuts in the wrinkle and reapply MicroSol to
smooth it out.

6.1 Damage to transfers

After the transfers have set take something hard, like the back of a knife, and make a few very small
scrapes in the transfers if they are in a position to take large amounts of battle damage, if they are
not, let them be as is, any smaller damages is handled with paint.

Then, apply a layer of gloss varnish over the transfers, blending them in totally with the armour.

7 Armour Finish
At this time it is time to varnish the model for the last time, choose the amount of sheen that should
be in the armour and varnish it in this. Some sort of satin is the most useful, and could easily be done
yourself by mixing matt varnish with gloss on a 4 to 1 basis or whatever glossiness is desired.

This enables us to make more contrast in the model, not just with colours, but also with texture, with
this we can have our shiny metals, matt leathers and so on.

8 Battle Damage
Damage should be concentrated on parts of the miniature that has much/thick armour, since this is
the places that should see the most damage, remember not to go crazy with it, have it on a few
areas, and leave others completely without, the contrast will bring out what is done more.

The damage should for starts be applied with a sponge, something from a blister pack, packing foam
or whatever. Mostly the colour to use is some sort of brown, black and/or grey. Mixing these are
perfectly fine, just don’t overdo it. As with everything else, less is more.

In a few of the places with damage, go over them again with some darker silver on a sponge to
represent very recent damage, do this just a little, and only on a few places.

After the initial damages, take the edge highlight colour, and do some highlights under some
damages, and do a few small spots here and there to give the illusion of damage that has just
scratched the top layers or the paint, coloured spots with some highlight looks deeper than those
without.

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 Battle damage

9 Edge Highlight
While doing the battle damage, go in and do the edge highlight as well, here you can go two
directions, the GW way to edge highlight every single edge on the whole model, or on the other side
of the spectrum, just do a few and only where the pre shade is as lightest. Eather way is fine and
produces nice results, but just do the way that feels right. On edges that has a some battle damage
from before, do a more stipple application than a straight line, this will add to the feeling of uneven
surface under the damage.

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10 Larger areas of Damage
To do larger damaged areas do a larger area of one of the damage colours with a brush, and do a line
with the highlight under it, keep this to maximum 1 or 2 places on a model not to overwhelm it with
damage, unless you’re doing something that should look like it’s been beaten to hell, then ignore any
restraint in this part of the guide.

One of the classic things to do this for, it the cut over the eye on the miniature, looks great, but don’t
have it on everyone, keep it to max a few models per squad or it’s going to look odd.

Larger damage over the eye

11 Metals
Blacken out all parts that should get a metal colour.

11.1 Gold
Base all areas with Decayed Metal, then use Elven Gold as a highlight, concentrate on areas that will
bring the eyes to the centre of the model and the head.

When doing the highlight, start the highlight from the darkest place of it and lift of the brush when
you get to the place that should have the most highlight, this is because the brush leaves the most
amount of paint when it’s lifted and less at the beginning of the stroke.

As with everything take guidance from the pre shade where highlights should be placed and where
the decayed metal should be left as is. Only a little gold will make the whole area look like gold.

11.2 Silver
Silver are largely like the gold, use a dark silver as a base, such as Leadbelcher and a light silver as
highlight, such as Ironbreaker

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11.3 Wash
Use an oil wash after the metals have been applied; use a brown over the gold and a black over the
silver. Or use whatever shade you want in it, like purple, blue and so on.

Highlighted gold

12 Leather
Stolen from Henry Steels Facebook guide, and this is what is reproduced below

Leather! Here are the simple steps for painting brown leather on our armies.

The theory can be applied to any colour of leather. Reference pictures are very helpful. Google
images of leather holsters, boots etc. You will see that with worn leather the “highlights” i.e.
scratches and areas of wear are much much lighter than the main leather colour.

The steps in this pic were as follows:

1. Basecoat Rhinox Hide

2. Basecoat 95% with a mix of Rhinox Hide/Gobi Brown

3. Edge Highlight and scratch with Gobi Brown

4. Edge Highlight and scratch with mix of Gobi Brown/Iroko

The matte properties of the Scale75 are fantastic for this application. Especially when we consider
them next to our Satin armour finish and high gloss metallic.

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13 Eye lenses
Blacken out the lenses and then take the main colour you want on them, paint about 4/5 of the eye,
leaving some black in the back corner of the eye, and a small black edge all around the eye, then with
a highlight colour, do a small line in the front and bottom of the eye, perhaps 1/5 of the entire eye.
Lastly put a small dot on the black in the back or the eye, and you are done.

The highlight color should be a very light colour in comparison to the main colour, and the little white
dot should have black all around it.

14 Pigment Wash
Use X20A thinner to mix with the pigments, use any ones that match the basing you are going to use,
mix it to a thin paint-like wash and use it on any parts that should get dirty, concentrate on the lower
parts of the legs and feet, as with so much else, less is more.

The thinner hardens the pigments, they are possible to remove before any varnish has been used,
and they will stay more or less the same even if a varnish is added. To remove it, use thinner or just
water.

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15 Appendix

15.1 Colours Used

Pre shade
Flat Black Tamiya XF-1
Flat White Tamiya XF-2
Black
Flat Black XF-1
Flat White XF-2
Neutral Grey Tamiya XF-53
Armour
Scarlet Red Vallejo Game Color Air 72.012
Bloody Red Vallejo Game Color Air 72.010
Blue Tone Ink Army Painter WP1139
Fire Dragon Bright Citadel
Pin Wash
Ivory Black Winsor & Newton
Gold
Decayed Metal Scale 75 SC-87
Elven Gold Scale 75 SC-74
Silver
Leadbelcher Citadel
Ironbreaker Citadel
Battle Damage
Rinox Hide Citadel
Skavenblight Dinge Citadel
Leadbelcher Citadel
Lether
Rinox hide Citadel
Gobi Brown Scale 75 SC-12
Iroko Scale 75 SC-27
Eye lenses
Black Vallejo Model Air 71.057
Green Zink Vallejo Model Color 71.094
Livery Green Vallejo Game Color 72.033
White Vallejo Model Air 71.001

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