The Space Marines, or Adeptus Astartes, pictured above were all painted using ONLY shades/glazes/washes (and pure white). And it took very little time. Some will be astonished by this, not because of the level of painting, but that you can achieve what is a very decent table top level with depth of highlighting and shadows very quickly and with just washes to boot.
This post is not mainly about painting space marines, but a general post about how you can use shades and glazes. This can mean products from the citadel line of shades and glazes, but could also mean similar products from other manufacturers, or indeed thinned down paint (with medium preferably).
This post is not mainly about painting space marines, but a general post about how you can use shades and glazes. This can mean products from the citadel line of shades and glazes, but could also mean similar products from other manufacturers, or indeed thinned down paint (with medium preferably).
The Space Marines were painted using the same basic technique as the Skaven I posted about earlier: http://jesterpaintingstudio.weebly.com/blog/how-to-speed-paint-skaven. Basically, a white primer or base coat, followed up with a black shade/wash and a white drybrush, in that order. This is followed by one or more layers of washes/shades/glazes to bring out the colors. The premise of this is that you first create a grayscale highlighting from nearly black to pure white, and then add color. It gives nice depth, ok "cleanliness" if you are careful, and is very quick to do. |
Some of you may want "recipes" for painting the various chapters. Here are a quick rundown of the colors used for some of the chapters I've tried out:
Please note that they were all:
Primed White -> Shaded with Nuln Oil -> drybrushed with White Scar (a pure white)
Also, these are the colors or techniques used for all:
Purity Seals: Carroburg Crimsson *2 (twice applied)
Scrolls: Agrax Earthshade
Flesh: Reikland Fleshshade
Metal like parts of guns and the like: Nuln Oil
Gold: A little special trick: Silver basecoat (Leadbelcher) and then Seraphim Sepia.
Eyes: Painted normally, layers of red through orange with gloss varnish last.
Please note that they were all:
Primed White -> Shaded with Nuln Oil -> drybrushed with White Scar (a pure white)
Also, these are the colors or techniques used for all:
Purity Seals: Carroburg Crimsson *2 (twice applied)
Scrolls: Agrax Earthshade
Flesh: Reikland Fleshshade
Metal like parts of guns and the like: Nuln Oil
Gold: A little special trick: Silver basecoat (Leadbelcher) and then Seraphim Sepia.
Eyes: Painted normally, layers of red through orange with gloss varnish last.
Carroburg Crimson *2 -> Bloodletter Glaze *1 Imperial Fists Cassandora Yellow -> Lamenters Yellow Glaze Dark Templars Nuln Oil until satisfied (about 3 times) White on shoulder pads applied afterwards. Dark Angels Athonian Camoshade *2, Biel-Tan Green *2 Red on weapons is Carroburg Crimson *2 Salamanders Biel-Tan Green *2 Ultramarines Drakenhof Nightshade *2, Guilliman Blue |
Some other WIP pictures and examples of finished Blood Angels:
Finally, I would like to add some general observations on the Citadel Shades and Glazes.
Observations on the glazes
They are quite shiny, which is a bit bad considering what they are meant to be used for. This can be solved with a bit of matte medium mixed in (just a little bit). You can also paint the surface with a bit of matte medium afterwards.
Another problem with this shiny quality is that it looks strange if the glaze flows into recesses, as these definitely should not shine – there is no light falling there!
So, be careful when applying these.
They are quite shiny, which is a bit bad considering what they are meant to be used for. This can be solved with a bit of matte medium mixed in (just a little bit). You can also paint the surface with a bit of matte medium afterwards.
Another problem with this shiny quality is that it looks strange if the glaze flows into recesses, as these definitely should not shine – there is no light falling there!
So, be careful when applying these.
Observations on the shades and glazes in relation to wash painting techniques
For dark green like Dark Angels, you need to mix in a bit of Nuln Oil. This does work quite well though, and makes for a nice military green, particularly with a bit of athonian camo shade thrown into the mix.
Sepia works very well as a brownish yellow, while the cassandora yellow is more orange. See these goblins for example of “sepia yellow”:
For dark green like Dark Angels, you need to mix in a bit of Nuln Oil. This does work quite well though, and makes for a nice military green, particularly with a bit of athonian camo shade thrown into the mix.
Sepia works very well as a brownish yellow, while the cassandora yellow is more orange. See these goblins for example of “sepia yellow”:
Cassandora yellow does however work very well for Imperial Fists and that sort of yellow tone. See above!
When wash painting - There is no red shade that goes towards orange. Fuegan Orange is an orange shade, but more yellow than red. Carroburg crimson has a lot of blue in it and with several layers goes from pink to crimson, to purple/crimson. To achieve Blood Angel red you need to use both carroburg and bloodletter glaze. The bloodletter glaze is quite orange on the other hand, but also quite thin to use by itself for wash painting.
Glazes does not work very well on their own, unless you only want to slightly tint something. This means that they work fine over chaos armour for example:
When wash painting - There is no red shade that goes towards orange. Fuegan Orange is an orange shade, but more yellow than red. Carroburg crimson has a lot of blue in it and with several layers goes from pink to crimson, to purple/crimson. To achieve Blood Angel red you need to use both carroburg and bloodletter glaze. The bloodletter glaze is quite orange on the other hand, but also quite thin to use by itself for wash painting.
Glazes does not work very well on their own, unless you only want to slightly tint something. This means that they work fine over chaos armour for example:
(official GW picture)
But they do not work very well for applying a deeper color with over white. This is for two reasons: One, they are too thin, it will take you 4-5 layers to get a deep color. Two, they create too much shine. This is fine over metal armor, but not on colored cloth. This is not a big issue with one layer over an already highlighted piece, but definitely a problem if you use several layers of glaze. Again, a bit of matte medium solves this.
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But they do not work very well for applying a deeper color with over white. This is for two reasons: One, they are too thin, it will take you 4-5 layers to get a deep color. Two, they create too much shine. This is fine over metal armor, but not on colored cloth. This is not a big issue with one layer over an already highlighted piece, but definitely a problem if you use several layers of glaze. Again, a bit of matte medium solves this.
I hope this was valuable to you and if you liked this - follow me on instagram or facebook - see links to the right of this page.