Today on the hobby grotto we're looking at a fast way to paint those Blood Knights!
Now the key to speed painting is working out exactly where to cut those corners while still
delivering a solid product so we're over brushing the whole model with our metallic base to start,
which is a mix of Rhinox Hide and Iron Warriors, heavier on the Rhinox because
we mainly want that brown but with a metallic glimmer, and over brushing is just a heavier
form of dry brushing where we aren't wiping off quite as much paint before brushing the mini,
which is good for base coats, this is all just going to speed the process up.
If you're wondering why I'm wearing a glove it's because I have to handle this model
a lot more than I usually would due to its tiny single leg joint on the base. I'd always
recommend doing this with fragile models as dry brushing can be quite rigorous on the mini.
I actually wish GW wouldn't do this on minis but that's a talk for another time! Bear in mind if you
don't want to mix this paint up you could also use something like Runelord Brass, but I like
to mix it because I think the non-metallic Rhinox Hide paint makes it look a bit more dirty looking.
now i'm coming back through with a dry brush of iron warriors to give this metal some more shine
I actually use this technique for a lot of my metals as i prefer the dinger look to contrast
with the brighter colors I like to use for clothing. Concentrate on the areas of fine
detail with this dry brush but you still want to give the whole model a once over. when that's
done you've already saved a lot of time because the majority of this miniature is metallic armor.
now that we've got this nice metallic base coat over everything i'm coming back and repainting
anything that's not going to be metal with abaddon black, repainting like this is not always necessary
when speed painting because you're going to be covering up that metal with layers of other colour
anyway but it's very useful for this miniature for two reasons. Firstly a lot of these parts are
going to be black anyway and secondly some of the other colors i'm using are quite bright so
it's going to create some nice additional black lining to help these colors pop a bit more.
you could paint these details purple or red for a more traditional look but i'm using Sybarite
green because that's the color i use for the rest of my soulblight army and i think using a stark
contrasting color like this is always a good bet with all the other dark colors on the mini.
bright tones like this will require a couple of coats over black so always remember to keep
your paints nice and thin. Green is the third color in our triforce of black, metal and green
and keeping the color palette to a minimum like this will not only help with painting
a bunch of these it'll also create a more bold look for the entire army. There's less bone than
you would imagine on an undead miniature here but i like to start my bone with a base of XV-88
it's just the head of the steed here but it's not a bad design decision as it creates some
contrast with the darker head armor and also means i don't have to spend ages
trying to decide what colour eyes to paint on an undead horse, which can be quite the conundrum!
there's also the tiniest patch of face showing on the helmet which i'm basing with some Dark Reaper
because i like my vampires to have a more blue grey skin tone.
finally i'm dry brushing a few areas like the tail with a dark grey so that they'll be
highlighted after the wash is applied, and that's just another nice way to save time with a colour
like black. When trying to get models out quick Nuln Oil is the perfect wash for something like
this with metallics and dark colors it'll tie everything together and give all the colors the
same underlying tone while also providing the first level of depth to the paint job.
now that the wash is completely dry we can see the model has some nice shading
and we're going to start to apply the layers firstly with the Sybarite Green base
making sure to leave the dark and wash in all the shadows and crevices for shading.
to help blend the layers a bit more i've mixed Sybarite Green and Gauss Blaster Green in equal
parts and i'm applying another highlight layer a bit more sparingly than the last.
and finally i'm doing some highlights with pure gauss blaster green
this is a very stark color so keep this to just the most raised areas
so we don't overwrite the blends we've created with the previous green layers.
so same as with the green, the bone parts are getting the base layer reapplied first
followed by an equal mix of XV-88 and Ushabti Bone to help create that blend towards the highlights.
some final highlights can be applied with pure Ushabti bone,
depending on how clean you want the bone to be i like to brighten it up a bit to create
more contrast with the darker parts of the mini but that's going to be down to personal choice.
now that we have a very serviceable battle ready paint job it's really up to you to decide how much
extra highlighting you want to add, but i'm also taking the time here to pick out tiny details
like the teeth which will also help complete the overall look of the model particularly with
a focal point like the face you don't want to be skimping any details there. It's always important
to paint to your purpose and if you want to get models like this out on the table fast
just keep them to a bold simple color scheme and don't get too lost in the highlighting stages,
you can always come back later once you have a bunch of models
painted and add highlights like this quite easily in a batch.
some highlights on the sharp edges of all the metal bits can help bring back some shine while
also giving more definition to the detail of the armor. With metallics most of the work is done by
the paints themselves as well as the wash but this can be a nice way to add some finishing touches.
and that's the Blood Knight complete! We've been waiting a long while for these miniatures and they
don't disappoint. As always thanks for watching and we'll see you next time on the Hobby Grotto! :)