Speed Painted Metallic Kabalite Warriors Showcase
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This article will show a quick way to paint wargame miniatures with individual variation in batch processes to a tabletop standard.
This squad of Kabalite Warriors is my first attempt at Dark Eldar, or Drukhari as we are meant to call them now. I had three aims with the paint job:
One, I wanted them to look different from the standard kabalite look. I wanted them to be a little bit more colourful and have a lot of metallics.
Two, I did not want them to be too uniform across the squad. There should be significant individual variation; I just do not see Dark Eldar as being conformist or regimented. I think even kabalite warriors would make or buy their own armour and weapons rather than have a standard kit issued to them.
Three, I wanted to get it done fast but still look goodish for the tabletop.
Aim two is in contradiction to aim three. Individual variation by default reduces the scope for batch painting to save time. To square this circle my idea was to use batch processes to lay down 90% of paint. Then use translucent inks to tint the underlying areas in order to quickly introduce some individual variations in hue and value.
The Process
- Prime black (airbrush)
- 45 degree light zenithal with silver (airbrush)
- Top zenithal with gold (airbrush)
- Paint various details with a bit of a glaze to allow the value graduations to show through.
- Create individual variations by tinting the metallics with translucent inks of various colours.
- Call it done.
Usually I would create the initial value sketch using a grey and white zenithal over the black before adding the metallic layers. Here I saved a step by using silver for grey and gold for the white top light.
The tinting with inks allowed me to create the individual colour variations while still leveraging the work done on the lower layers.
So that is how created individual variation in a squad of Kabalite Warriors.
Do you like individual variation in the paint schemes for your squads?
Share this article to my twitter @SolarCrossGames or my reddit community r/SolarCrossGames and let’s chat about it.
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