CRC's Crazy Compendium 2; Eclectic Boogaloo

Second time writing this, as it just completely failed to post before (I’m guessing the image gallery thing is still causing problems), but here we go again!

I’ve been wanting to do some experiments with various skin tones for several years now. Other than some Tau skin tones a LONG time ago I’ve never really branched out much from what I know and I decided I may as well learn some new recipes for more diverse tones. Still have some experiments I want to try, but I’ve got a couple of them sorted here.

First one is a borrowed recipe from Tuffyears that they used for some Zulus a few weeks ago (at least I think it was weeks…I lose track of time very easily these days…). I added a few extra steps and I may have highlighted a little high, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Second experiment is a Chiss skin tone (Grand Admiral Thrawn) partly in honour of Sundancer’s ever-lasting quest for Star Wars: Epic Legion and partly because I’ve been on a bit of a Star Wars kick myself recently. I suppose you could also use this tone for Tau as well, if you REALLY wanted to. 😛 That being said what I came up with is typically a bit darker than Tau tones are usually depicted, and possibly could do with some brighter stages for Chiss as well, or at least how Thrawn appears in Star Wars Rebels.

The minis I’ve used are Delaques from GW and Necromunda, and the lighting on the pictures is not the greatest. I was going to wait until the morning with the better light for final shots, but I’m afraid of forgetting what paints I used…because I’m an idiot… so here goes!

The basecoat here was Dryad Bark (GW) before being followed with an all over shade of Druchii Violet (GW). Something I did, but didn’t take a step-by-step picture for was to reapply the Dryad Bark basecoat to the top of the head and a little to the back of the hands, though this is not a necessity (definitely not if painting a mini with hair). Following on from that I applied an initial highlight of Gorthor Brown (GW) remembering to try and keep the paint a little thin and applying a few coats if needed. The main focus is on the facial structure, through the hands on these minis have quite well defined tendons as well and this chap, being bald, had a few wrinkles on the back of his head. This step was one of the longest (20-ish minutes) as the more careful you are the better the final look. The final spot highlight was done with Ungor Flesh (GW) and may have been a jump too high. For example this chaps nose looks rather bright. I’d advise replacing the Ungor Flesh with a darker tone like Cadian Flesh Tone (GW) just to keep that slight warm tone in the extremities. That being said, if you were to paint a mini with an outstretched hand the Ungor Flesh would work wonders for highlighting the palm to get that slightly brighter tone.

All in all this skin tone took me somewhere around 1 and a quarter to one and a half hours to finish, though if you cut that final highlight it will save you 10-15 minutes.

The pictures here are a little out of focus…my apologies for that…bad lighting is always a problem and I’m not a fan of the flash…

Basecoat here was Kantor Blue (GW) You could use Macragge Blue (GW) for a bright basecoat or even Stegadon Scale Green (GW) if you want a more green tint to the overall look. Over this I shaded with Druchii Violet (GW). Again, Drakenhof Nightshade (GW) is another option for a more blue look however over a basecoat as dark as Kantor Blue I tend to find it is not as visible as Druchii Violet. As I was going for a Chiss look (and the eyes on the Delaques are very buldging) I decided to go for painting the eyes. After the shade had dried I took the opportunity to paint the eyes with Mephiston Red (GW) and then layered Alaitoc Blue (GW) onto the skin. This is done to brighten the tone up so apply this more broadly, just avoid deeper recesses. I found this coloured worked well thinned more than usual and slowly built up in a few layers. This adds time to the scheme, but the final result is a little smoother. Over this I highlighted with Hoeth Blue (GW) and picked out the center of the eyes with Evil Sunz Scarlet (GW). If you wanted to push the highlights a little further, you could also add some Fenrisian Grey (GW), though I didn’t here.

This scheme took a little less time, as I didn’t have to be as careful with the Alaitoc Blue, but if you do choose to push the highlights to Fenrisian Grey it’s take about the same time as the other tone above. If you don’t go that far, this took me a little over an hour.

It both these cases, be aware that if you have larger areas of skin, or add your shade a little thicker than I did the timings could take longer due to the drying time of the shade paints. I was being fairly careful with my shades here so that cut down the drying time a bit.

Hopefully tomorrow I can add some extra pictures of the finished skin tones with better light. I might add them as a new entry or I might just add them to the end of this one, we’ll see. Happy painting!