How I paint - Stormcast Eternals - Gryph hounds

One of my favourite units for the Stormcast Eternals are the Gryph-Hounds. They are a great unit for filling out the spare points in an army or adding a bodyguard/pet to a hero. They are also a fantastic unit for Warcry providing a dose of speed in an otherwise slow warband. From a painting point of view, the Gryph-hound also give you some different textures and colours to paint when compared to your Standard Stormcast fighter. I wanted my Gryph-Hounds to be painted with a relatively natural colour scheme, which was based around greys and light browns. For this guide, I am using the Sleak from the Storm of Celestus, the Stormcast Castigator warband from the Warhammer Underworlds Starter set.

My other Stormcast painting guides include:

Aetherwings

Gryph-hounds

Stormcast Eternals - Hallowed Knights

Paints required:

• Chaos Black spray
• Abaddon Black
• Mechanicum Standard Grey
• Dawnstone
• Administratum Grey
• Celestra Grey
• Ulthuan Grey
• XV-88
• Balor Brown
• Zamesi Desert
• Zandri Dust
• Ungor Flesh
• Seraphim Sepia
• Agrax Earthshade
• Casandora Yellow
• Nuln Oil
• Reikland Fleshshade
• Reikland Fleshshade Gloss
• Rhinox Hide
• Skrag Brown
• Kantor Blue
• Alaitoc Blue
• Hoeth Blue
• Retributor Gold
• Leadbelcher
• Karak Stone
• Ushabti Bone
• Screaming Skull
• Auric Armour Gold
• Runefang Steel

Start by undercoating the miniature with Chaos Black spray (you could also use Mechanicum Standard Grey spray, I used this on some Gryph-Hounds I painted recently).

The basecoats for the body and the head were painted first. The base paints were all thinned with a little water to allow them to flow freely from the brush. Multiple coats of paint were applied for each base layer, to produce a nice solid finish.

The body was painted with Celestra Grey. The hair at the end of the tail was painted with Dawnstone.

The neck and head feathers were painted with VX-88 and finally the beak was basecoated with Zandri Dust.

I think, the key to nice looking table top miniatures is neatness. This neatness starts with the basecoats. Take your time and try to keep the basecoats as neat as possible.

The next step is to shade the miniature, this will help to define the individual feathers on the neck and head. On top of this, I am using the washes to give the browns and greys some tonal variation, which helps to give the miniature a more organic feel. 

The neck feathers were washed with Seraphim Sepia and the head feathers were washed with Agrax Earthshade. I washed both sets of feathers at the same time so that the washes were able to mix together where they met, resulting in a nice easy to achieve transition. The beak was washed painted with Casandora Yellow, again this was applied while the Seraphim Sepia was still wet.

The hair on the tail was washed with Nuln Oil. I took care not to get any Nuln Oil on the actual tail.

With all of these washes do not allow them to pool. If they do, remove the excess with a damp brush.

The body of the Gryph-hound was highlighted with a 1:1 mix of Ulthuan Grey and Celestra Grey. You are aiming to leave the Celestra Grey basecoat in the recesses. Once this is dry a second highlight of Ulthuan Grey can be applied across a smaller area. When applying highlights apply a single layer of paint.

The neck and head feathers were drybrushed first with Balor Brown and then with Zamesi Desert. This was then followed by drybrushing the neck feathers with Ungor Flesh. I preferred painting the ends of the head feathers with Ungor Flesh rather than drybrushing them. I think painting the feather gives a more defined finish. At this point the tips of the ears were also highlighted with Ungor Flesh.

The next step is optional but I think it really finishes of the neck feathers. Using a small detail brush paint the tips of each neck feather with Ungor Flesh.

The tail hair was then drybrushed with Administratum Grey.

Then paint some Reikland Fleshshade into the recesses of the beak.

At this point, the majority of the Gryph-hound is painted and it is onto the detail work. My Stormcast are all Hallowed Knights, so the colours used here reflect my Stormhost.

The leather straps were all basecoated with Rhinox Hide. Optional wash the leather with Nuln Oil.

The shield covering the chest was basecoated Kantor Blue. The head armour, the spike on the chest shield and any Sigmarite symbols were painted with Retributor Gold. The metal clasps on the leather straps were painted with Leadbelcher.

The beak was highlighted with Ushabti Bone, before a second smaller highlight of Screaming Skull was applied. The Screaming Skull should be used on the edges of the beak to produce the illusion of sharpness.

The gold was washed with Reikland Fleshshade Gloss. Once the wash was fully dry, the gold was then highlighted with Auric Armour Gold. This was followed by a second highlight of a 1:1 mix of Auric Armour Gold and Runefang Steel (you could replace the Runefang Steel with Stormhost Silver).

The leather was highlighted with Skrag Brown. Optional A further small highlight of Karak Stone can be applied to the edges of the leather, with tiny perpendicular lines. The studs on the leather straps were painted with dots of Leadbelcher.

The chest shield was highlighted first with Alaitoc Blue and then with Hoeth Blue.

The eyes were painted with Abaddon Black before being highlighted with Dawnstone.

The claws were given a basecoat with Mechanicum Standard Grey.

To finish off the miniature, the claws were given a wash with Nuln Oil. When the wash had fully dried, the claws were highlighted with Mechanicum Standard Grey, then with Dawnstone and finally with Administratum Grey.

You could leave the miniature painting here or attempt these next optional steps. These steps do seem very 'alien' and it may take a bit of courage to give them a go.

Optional step

Mix a tiny bit of Xerus Purple and/or Screamer Pink with some Lahmian Medium. You are trying to add a small amount of colour to the Lahmian Medium rather than thin the paints. This is your glaze. This glaze can be painted in and around the toes on your miniature. You could add a little to define the tendons in the lower leg. However, do not over do it! the glaze is there to add some variety to the body of the animal are give it a more organic, less uniform feel.

I have really enjoyed painting my Gryph-hounds. You can try darkening the grey body on some by starting with Dawnstone or Administratum Grey as a base.  This will help to give the unity variety but keep it still looking like a whole. Overall, have fun with these faithful companions. If you have any questions, or would like to show me your Gryph-hounds drop me message in the comments. Happy Hobbying.