Painting tutorial for Skorne

A twitter user, Miniatures Gallery or @MiniaturesGall, asked for painting tutorials for Skorne the other day. Being the nice guy I am, I chimed in and offered my take on how to do the Eastern Empire's colours.

Here goes:

I try to paint things the same way each time, to ensure the same results overall - an army with a unified look will seem more coherent on the battlefield, as most tabletop gamers already know. For Skorne, the classic colour scheme is red and gold, with black clothes and pale skin. I decided not to go down another path for mine, but rather see if I could develop a fast, easy way to get a nice result.

I first start by spraying the models red with Army Painter's red spray named 'Pure Red'.

After letting it dry, I check for any areas not properly covered which should be red in the end, and give them some of P3 Skorne Red.

I then grab my bottle of Vallejo Oro Liquido (I'm guessing that's Spanish for liquid gold). The paint is made from synthetic resin and metallic pigments, it's pretty toxic. I don't dilute it, but rather paint the trimmings and so on with a good, even layer.

If I'm doing a titan this is where I paint the first layer of the skin, with GW's Charadon Granite. It's a foundation, so it's got a nice thick feel to it. I usually dilute it before using it, about 2:1-1.5:1 of paint:water.

I then do GW's Devlan Mud on everything - yeah, lazy, I know, but the stuff just works.

Again, titan skin then receives a purple wash, GW's Leviathan Purple. The red armor parts gets another tricky colour, Tamiya Clear Red, which can appear to be a sticky, almost sugary wash.

Clothing is then painting black with P3 Thamar Black, again diluted.

Oro liquido again, pretty much on top of all the previous parts which should now be covered with Devlan Mud. Try to leave recesses, areas and bolts and nuggets and so on clear of the secondary layer.

The rest of cloth is highlighted, with a 1:3 mix of Flat Blue to Thamar Black. I try to only hit the edges with it, you want the cloth to stay mostly black to not make it appear grey.

Mix some 1:1.5 mix of Flat Blue to Thamar Black, and do the final highlight of the cloth with this. Finally, mix some thinned down Thamar Black with some purple wash like GW Leviathan Purple, and wash the black parts of the cloth with this. It may seem redundant, but it leaves a bit warmer black that actually makes it 'blacker'.

Back to titanskin, mix GW Charadon Granite with P3 Jack Bone, about 1:1, and drybrush the skin with this - it 'warms' the skin and makes it look less inanimate.

Finally, do weapons and such. I normally paint it with GW Boltgun Metal (remember to dilute GW metallic paints for a smooth finish!), then shade it in small strokes with thinned down P3 Thamar Black, then highlight again in small strokes with GW Chainmail, then GW Mithril Silver.

Finally, you could (I'm currently not) give all but the edges a thinned down wash of GW Leviathan Purple and GW Thraka Green, again to add depth.

Skorne skin, which I also use for my cyclopses, is done first with a P3 Jack Bone to all of it, then a GW Devlan Mud wash (try to make sure that it pools nicely), then mix P3 Jack Bone with P3 Menoth White Highlight and use it for highlights.

Titan eyes and tongue is done with a base layer of GW Scab Red, then GW Scab Red mixed with P3 Menoth White Highlight for highlightning, add a single small spot of P3 Menoth White Highlight to the eye and then wash tongue and eyes with a pretty good amount of GW Baal Red.

Let's see, what else...banners are done with applying Skorne Red to all of the red basecoat, then sketch the frame of the motiff with a 1:1 mix of P3 Khardic Flesh and P3 Cygnus Yellow, then add in crescents with the same colour, add shapes to the frame, use Skorne Red to make the shapes 'negative' and finally paint in symbols and such using the same mix.

Bone, horns, teeth and nails are all done the same. Start with basecoating with P3 Umbral Umber, then mix in P3 Jack Bone to about 1 part Jack Bone to 2 parts Umbraco Umber. Paint this on about three quarters of the area. Mix in more P3 Jack Bone to match about 1:1.5 of Jack Bone to Umbraco Umber, then paint this on about one quarter of the area. When doing the tusks of the titans, try to paint the jack bone-mix in long strokes along the tusk.

What else....leather and robes, of course. And bases after this.

Leather and robes is done with P3 Umbral Umber mixed 1:1 with Vallejo Hull Red, then highlightning with pure Vallejo Hull Red, then Hull Red mixed 1:1 with P3 Bloodstone, then pure Bloodstone, and finally Bloodstone with 1:1 P3 Khardic Flesh.

Bases - start by glueing sand and stones to the base, let it dry completely - this can take a while.

Then, paint all the sand and stones white with P3 Morrow White, then paint GW Graveyard Earth, then wash it with GW Devlan Mud, then drybrush it twice, first using GW Kommando Khaki and then GW Bleached Bone.

Finally, get your glue and add some patches of grass to it, I can recommend the prairie grass from Ziterdes, then paint the trim of the base black to cover any mishits with the drybrush, and finally paint the front arc like you want them - I use Umbral Umber just to mark the edges of the front arc to each side of the model.

I'll try to add pictures on each step on my next model.