How I Paint - Skaven - Clan Pestilens

 

With the release of Skabbik Plaguepack for Warhammer Underworlds, I needed a guide to paint up this warband of Plague Monks.  I wanted to go with the classic green robes for these devotees of disease. I was also keen to get a nice luminous look for the funes of the plague censers. This is my guide, I hope you enjoy.

How I Paint - Skaven - Warlord Skritch

Priming and Underpaint

Begin by undercoating the miniature with Chaos Black spray

Then give the whole miniature, except the weapon blade and the base, a basecoat of Mournfang Brown. You do not need to be too tidy at this stage. Keep the paint relatively thin so as not obscure any details and make sure it gets into the recesses. For this job, I use an old medium basecoat brush, which has bristles pointing in all directions, or course an airbrush would be faster, but I would avoid using a rattle can. The brown gives a nice warm base to build the colours of the miniature upon.

Once the brown was full dry, the fur of the miniature was given a light drybrush with Ushabti bone.

Basecoats

The next steps, all take time and require you to be as neat as possible. Try not to make too many mistakes, but if you do just tidy them up, The washes will 'magically' fix some of them anyway.

For all these basecoats, I used a size 1 Raphael brush, equally, you could use a small basecoat brush. I began by giving the flesh a basecoat with a 1:1 mix of Cadian Fleshtone and Bugman's Glow. The robes/cloth were given a basecoat of Castellan Green. The inside of the mouth was painted with Screamer Pink. The rope, teeth and horns were painted with Zandri Dust. Finally, the tail was given a basecoat with a 1:1 mix of Cadian Fleshtone and Pink Horror.  

I then gave the smoke/vapours a basecoat of Ionrach Flesh. This took a couple of thin coats to get a nice solid finish. The metal (the censer and hinges of the book) were basecoated with Leadbelcher mixed with a very small quantity of Rhinox Hide. Finally, the pages of the book and the bookmarks were painted with Rakarth Flesh.

With this done all the base coats have been applied to the miniature. Check over the miniature to tidy up any little mistakes. Hopefully, all the basecoats are as neat as possible.

Washes

Now for the magic step. Wash the whole miniature, except for the tail and the smoke/fumes, with Agrax Earthshade. Then wash the tail with Carroburg Crimson. Finally, wash the fumes with a 1:1 mix of Biel-Tan Green and Cassandora Yellow. Allow the washes to fully dry before proceeding with the next steps.

Once dry the metal was given a second wash with Reikland Fleshwash.

Do not allow the washes to pool. If they do, wick the excess away with a damp clean brush.

Immediately, after the miniature has dried it looks surprisingly good, even without any highlights. 

Highlights

I began by highlighting the robes of the miniature. To begin with I used Castellan Green to reestablish the overall colour of the robes, leaving the wash only in the recesses. For the first highlight and add a little Straken Green to the Castellan Green and start to highlight the robes. I continued to add more Straken Green to the mix buliding up the highlights. Eventually, a final highlight of Straken Green was applied. When the robes were fully dry, I glazed them with Poxwalker, which I heavily diluted with water (I tried Lahmian Medium on the first miniature and it ended up shiny!).

With the robes complete, I moved onto the flesh. I began by highlighting the hands, ears and the nose of the ratman with a 1:1 mix of Bugmans Glow and Cadian Fleshtone. I then add Kislev Flesh to the previous mix and added further highlights. 

The tail was highlighted by painting rings around the shaft of the tail. The rings were first painted with a 1:1 mix of Cadian Fleshtone and Pink Horror. Take care to leave some of the Carroburg Crimson showing. Thinner rings were then painted in with a 1:1 mix of Kislev Flesh and Pink Horror.

The lower two-thirds of the teeth and the upper two-thirds of the bone spurs were painted with Ushabti Bone, try to keep a vertical thin dark line in the centre of the teeth, to indicate two teeth. Then highlight the lower third of the teeth and the upper third of the bone spurs with Screaming Skull.

The small quantity of brown fur on the miniature was then highlight first with Mournfang Brown and then with a 1:1 mix Mournfang Brown and Skrag Brown.

The Fumes were highlighted with Ionrach Skin and then with Deepkin Flesh.

The metal was given an edge of Leadbelcher.

With this the miniature is painted. Next to the base.

The stone on the base was drybrushed with Mechanicum Standard Grey and then with Dawnstone. This was then washed with Athonian Camoshade. When the wash was fully dry, the stone was drybrushed with Dawnstone and then with Administratum Grey.

I really like the earthy feel of this paint scheme and it is extremely easy to do and will provide impressive  results even if used to paint whole units of troops.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below. Until then 'Happy Hobbying'.