How I Painted My Biggest Warhammer Model Using Everything I've Learned So Far

She airbrushed, washed, highlighted, and weathered her biggest Warhammer model, a Death Guard miniature, combining every technique she'd picked up over her first 6 weeks of painting miniatures — base coats, washes, edge highlighting, two different metallic methods, and rust effects.

What do you need?

• Elysian Green
• airbrush
• wash
• Winsor & Newton acrylic
• dry brush

How did she do it?

1. Airbrush the base coatShe tried to get a smooth base coat using Elysian Green through an airbrush, worried it would clog if too thick or give bad coverage if too thin. The paint ended up looking like it was 'melting,' so she let it dry and base coated over it three times until it looked right.
2. Apply a washShe applied a wash, nervous it would pool in the wrong spots, go on too dark, or get smudged if she touched it before drying — but this time it came out okay.
3. Bring back highlights on the armorThe wash killed the brightness in the armor, so she used a technique between wet blending and dry brushing that she'd learned from copying Richard Gray on the Death Shroud, now applied to a much bigger model.
4. Paint the larger metallic areasFor the bigger metal sections she used a base coat, then a wash, then brought the highlights back, finishing with a quick dry brush to bring the metal back out.
5. Paint the pipes with a different metallic techniqueFor the pipes she used a metallic technique with Winsor & Newton acrylic, the same method she'd tried earlier when painting Thrall, giving the model two different metal-painting techniques side by side.
6. Paint the small detailsShe worked through roughly 1,000 small details — tubes, skulls, and all the extra bits GW added to the kit.
7. Edge highlight everythingShe edge highlighted the model, which started manageable at 10 edges but ballooned to around 500 edges on the whole miniature.
8. Add rust and corrosionSince it looked too clean for Death Guard, she stopped worrying about keeping it tidy and added rust and corrosion as a final weathering pass.

FAQ

Why did my miniature look like it was melting after airbrushing?

She had the same issue airbrushing Elysian Green — the base coat looked like it was melting, and her fix was just to let it dry and base coat over it again (she ended up doing it three times).

What if a wash kills my highlights?

After washing the armor she lost all the brightness she'd built up, so she brought it back using a technique between wet blending and dry brushing, the same one she used on the Death Shroud.

Can I use two different metallic techniques on one model?

Yes — she used a base coat/wash/highlight/dry brush approach on the larger metal areas, and a separate Winsor & Newton acrylic metallic technique on the pipes, and found they worked well together.

How do you make a clean paint job look more like Death Guard?

She felt the finished model looked too clean for Death Guard, so she added rust and corrosion as a final step instead of worrying about keeping it tidy.

Moments from this episode

The PigmentumBeginner miniature painter documenting the road to a Golden Demon.

Got a question about how she did this? Ask it in the comments — she reads every one.