The Most Simple But Effective Paint Scheme Ever?
July 8, 2014 by brennon
One of the big bugbears of a lot of wargamers who enjoy playing the game rather than painting is that it takes so long to get things looking good on the tabletop. After all even the mega-gamers want their miniatures to look nice. Quick and easy techniques are becoming more and more readily available but this one might just be the most simple and effective one yet, for painting Vampire Count armies at least!
This technique comes out of Games Workshop Belfast and Rob as you can see above. It involves four steps and provides you with some very cool ghostly looking skeletons and essentially an entire army with very little effort at all. It looks clean and fits in well with the Vampire Counts especially well. You can see the stages in action below...
Ghostly, creepy and you could even add in a bit more detail if you wanted to. I've been struggling with my own Vampire Counts army for a while now and it is quite daunting seeing that pile of fifty to sixty different skeletons all staring back at you wanting to be painted. It doesn't take an overly long time but getting over that hump is a challenge. With a technique like this however I reckon I would have had it all done by now!
Check out what the army looks like with this scheme applied across different units...
The scheme works well across the skeletons, the spirit hosts, the mounted Black Knights and even the Mortis Engine at the end there! It also allows you play around with a few interesting things like adding tombs and such into the regiments as filler, making it look as if the horde of undead has just risen from the ground.
What do you think of this ethereal scheme?
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This is a great technique to get Alexia Ciannor’s Risen out on the table pretty quick.
I was thinking exactly that same thing as I read this. Also might be good for some (but not many) Cryx units.
Whenever I click on the Rob’s Hobby Corner image, I’m not seeing an enlarged version of it, instead I’m seeing a pic of a mini that might be a werewolf with two blades. Anyone else having the same issue? Looks like the url is going to image.jpg, not sure if that’s the right image for the post?
Should work now @foobar – no idea why that was opening that picture!
BoW Ben
Good technique to get an army painted quickly… Nothing worse than a grey army ! However, it’s a bit lazy, and it’s been seen hundreds of times now…
It looks good, but to be honest people were panting undead using this method 20 years+ ago
True but some people might not have seen this kind of look before so thought we’d share it 🙂
BoW Ben
Don’t get the whole green ghost thing personally, but you could get ten times better results by tweeting this technique. Spray black undercoat, followed by brown spray from the sides, followed by dusting of white from above. That would give you a nicely shaded bone effect. Then you could tint non-bone parts different colours using glazes. It would take longer and require a bit more practise, but the results would be so much better.
Opps didnt see this when I replied though I go by hand… rather than these airbush nuts….
Mmmmm, ghost orks….
@brennon Yep, seen this before too often and I still love the look (don’t know about this process vs, others in technical terms ). I would have been sorely tempted to give it a go had I encountered it before I painted my first VC army. Hopefully somebody sees it here for the first time and has a go.
Correction, I mean: I’ve often seen this before as well and yet still love the look.
While I appreciate the Ghostly look for Spirits, Wraiths and Hex Wraiths honestly painting Skeletons is not exactly difficult, Flock, Undercoat Black, Dark Brown, Light Brown, Bleached Bone, Dry brush the Base, High light bones White, . add some colour or metal in 3-5 layers… shade whole model, Highlight bone white, Edges of metal, and any cloth ..Jobs done…. You can shift though a Unit of 50 in about 10-12 hours painting time…. Wights are no harder just more metal work, and some extra details, ghouls are easy also… Zombies can be a pain in the arse but if you… Read more »
Totally agree. ithink on a whole army is more a hobby hack. skellys can be done easily enough and same with ghouls and horses
You might be able to get away with it on the skeletons, but the armour and swords would still need to be metallic, even if that’s old and rusted metallic, rather than the ‘undead’ colour!
great for some specific units too, Mordrak and his Ghost Knights in 40k being a prime candidate.
I actually quite like it and I have a unit of Mantic Undead cavalry that I might just try it on.
I first saw this used by the guys in GW stokholm about 3 days after the release of the technical range. I think it looks great on the ghostly stuff but rushed on the rest.
In my opinion I think its done by a lazy gamer just force painting to play games, which is cool if that’s your hobby.
This is my take on a ghost army
http://theoutpost.free-forum.net/luketaylor830-random-works-and-wips-vt1135.html
Feedbock is more than welcome
Better a quick and effective paint job surely then a bare plastic army?
I can’t consider it as painted really and everything looks the same, if it did focus on a few details like metal pieces or accessories are painted as real object rather than everything being ghostly them it will look great and more believable, plus add some of the object light from the ghost’s florescence. Is a bit of extra work but it makes from being boring to beautiful.
So a ghost swinging a real sword is more believable than a ghost swinging a ghostly sword? Alrighty.
I don’t much enjoy the painting and building of models, myself, so I always like seeing simple and effective techniques that still look thematic (and pop culture recognizable).
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/8/84761/1994995-vlcsnap_10684981.png
The models have all been cleaned and assembled. The bases have been flocked, painted and even has patches of grass. All the models have been based coated, washed and then dry-brushed. The Necromancer, a living character, has clearly been painted, as has material objects like the tombstones and mausoleums.
I’m not seeing how this isn’t painted or ‘lazy’. Simple and quick? Certainly. But lazy would be spraying everything white or worse, playing with bare plastic.
Yes, there are different degrees of laziness, but lazy is not a work I like to use. Its one of those words which has been so over used and misused on the internet, that it has lost all sensible meaning. I’d rather say that, while this technique is quick, I just don’t think it is effective and the results look horrible to me. That’s just a matter of personal taste though. The popular idea that ghosts glow green has more to do with glow in the dark toys that it does with any real mythology or folklore. I also have… Read more »
The guy who did this is a superb hobbiest (I’m fortunate to have met him a few times). What has to be remembered here, is he achieved exactly what he set out to do 🙂 While it’s ok to have an opinion on all of this, lets not lose sight of the fact that he set out to demonstrate a simple way to get an army on the table that looks effective and striking) I wonder how many of us who have opinions on the technique have considered what the purpose of his little tutorial was, and I bet we… Read more »
Should I assume that comment was directed at me since it’s a reply to my comment? Wel, I don’t doubt for a minute that he’s a wonderful chap and a skilled hobbiest @warzan but, in this case, I just really don’t like the effect his technique has produced. I did say that I fully understand that this is just my personal taste.
“I also have a hard time understanding why people spend a fortune on armies of bare plastic with no intension of trying to paint them. Why not just play with counters?” This comes across a bit too “other people are doing their hobby wrong, why won’t they do it right?”. Some people like miniatures, but don’t like painting. Some people like the idea of painting but don’t have the confidence (in which case simple schemes like this are very helpful to them). Some people are time-constrained, or just eager to get playing now and they’ll worry about painting later. In… Read more »
@grarl All valid points. I’m sorry if my comment came across as judgemental, that honestly wasn’t my intension. In saying I don’t understand something I am certainly not saying I in any way condemn it or look down on it. I do not think anyone is doing their hobby wrong, as you put it. Just because I do not understand the appeal of something does not mean that I am in any way telling people they shouldn’t do it. If anything, when I wrote, why don’t they just play with counters? I was asking an honest question. You have given… Read more »
should be good for the undead army from lord of the rings as well?
Nice simple but effective technique for painting ethereal troops. This would work really nicely for a LoTR army of the dead.
Really like this personally. Definitely has the right feel for me and I think it would look awesome on the battlefield contrasted against a colourful army.
Love this technique! I’m currently painting a Bretonnian Army of the Lake, which I’m going to make as an ethereal being! Can’t wait to use this technique. Simple but very effective!
This is perfect for the new night haunt faction. I will definitely try it.