Painting Tutorial: Skull Takers

You want an easy way to pain some Guard/Astra Militarum guys quickly? Need to have a large number of troops ready for next month or so? Here is a very simple solution that can be carried over to other colors, or schemes, or even armies.

Colors I used:  GW Paints Link 

Pants/Jackets

Mechanicus Standard Grey Base

Dawnstone           Highlight

White

Celestra Grey        Base

Ulthuan Grey        Highlight

Belts/Straps/Boots/Rifle Butts

Charadon Granite or Dryad Bark

Wooden Handles

Baneblade Brown

Heavy Weapon
Steel Legion Drab

Skin

Reaper Olive Skin

Reaper Olive Skin Highlight

or

Ratksin/Bestigor Flesh /Ungor Flesh

Bugmans Glow/Cadian Fleshtone/Kislev

Metal parts

Ironbreaker

Misc

Desert Yellow, Black

Shade

Army Painter Quickshade: Strong Tone

After priming in white this time, I painted the ground and all the terrain first. This is where you can be sloppy without fear of messing up your guys. I then applied the Mechanicus Grey to the pants and jackets if they had one.

Using Dawnstone, I then highlighted any folds in the pants or anything that would appear raised. If these guys had jackets on, I would follow the same steps.

Most of the time, I paint any skin first following the inside-out technique. The first layer of flesh was applied to all of the skin. This layer should be the darker of the two skin tones. If you want, you can just paint the second tone to cut out a step. Just remember, each layer you add gives the model more dimension.

Here you should be able to see the second layer of flesh added to all the raised parts. You just want to get the higher portions, any part that may be seen from above. Neatness helps, but it's not completely necessary in this case.

I followed the same technique for the whites on the shirts, any Imperial Eagles, and the horns.

Then Dryad Bark/Charadon Granite was added to boots, straps, rifle butts, anything that you want to contrast or look dark, even hair.

Steel Legion Drab was added to most of the hardware, heavy weapons and the shovel.

Ironbreaker was used to get buttons and any shiny parts of metal, like the helmet or rifle.

The hair was painted desert yellow. You could also use bane blade brown, black, etc.

I wanted to get everything basecoated with a nice layer before I moved on to the next step, the shading. Before you begin the next step, ensure you protect your clothing and/or furniture with an apron, extra paper layer, or what not. The varnish will stain anything it contacts!

The figures and weapons were then covered with a liberal coat of the Quickshade Strong Tone. Army Painter has a video on how to apply it nicely. The wall and the ground did not receive the Quickshade, just the figures. Ideally, you want this to sit for 24 hours. It should be dry to the touch in twelve hours.

Already you can see how it sits heavily in the corners, creases, and crevices throughout the piece, while also adding a nice tone to the rest of the figures. This is a thick coat that doubles as a gloss, adding a layer of protection to the model. If needed you can use some thinner to make it easier to move around or clean up.

Once it has dried, they were sprayed with a dull coat; Testers, GW, or Army Painter works fine, whatever you prefer. This concludes the painting.

The process allows for a full squad to be painted up very nicely in one night. The Quickshades allow a fast effective finish to help you get a large amount of guys onto the table fast.

This technique (aka dipping) can also be changed around to what ever color combination you want. You can utilize this with greens, blues, yellows, or whatever you need. Just realize that you may need to start with lighter shades to get the colors you want, as it will darken the overall piece. Dark colors will work with the Strong Tone, but not as well as the lighter colors. In addition, this will work great with any vehicles you have. Just be sure to add any decals before the shading begins.

Kanak Skull Takers

Long time no post....
I have finally gone back to the Imperial Guard, oops, sorry, the Astra Militarum. I came up with the plan to make the Kanak Skull Takers when doing the Four Color Chimera Post, link here. Orginally, the name plate showed Malvi, a planet from the Calixis Sector of Dark Heresy by Fantasy Flight Games. Long story short, (too late) I changed the name on the side to Kanak. I just thought the Skull Takers needed to be represented somehow. Also, since I had some extra Beastmen bits and Chaos Marauder sprues, why not put them to use.

So the Kanak Skull Takers are a feral bunch that tend to use axes and flamers a majority of the time. Keeping with the theme, most of my guys also have axes and flamers. I also organized them into clans based on platoons. So each platoon will have a similar skin color, identifying tattoos, and banners-styles that differ by color. First squad has a single slash or bar, the second has two slashes or bars, etc.

Squad One

Squad Two

Squad Three

The figures themselves are incredibly easy to put together. Just mix 'n match a Catachan squad with Chaos Marauders and you are set. I found one sprue of each could usually make a ten-man squad. A word of warning though. Some preparation is required ahead of time. As the chests of the Marauders do not allow for two handed rifles to be added easily. You will notice I use the Catachan bodies for all troopers that are aiming their weapons. The Marauder bodies tend to be carrying their rifles in one hand, have it slung across their back, or some other creative way to fit them in. This was the fun part; thinking of creative ways to fit them together.

Once I got to the Platoon Command Squad, things got a bit more difficult. I want them to be different and stand out more, so I put the Command Squad sprue to use. This sprue is more 'streamlined' as the figures are not as large. The other heads and arms from the troop sprue do not fit quite as well. Luckily, I planned to make some Rough Riders too.

Command Squad

The Chaos Horsemen sprue has sixteen different heads for the five riders. That leaves twenty-two extra heads if I make a full ten man cavalry unit. These heads are AWESOME and fit nicely with the command squad figures. All the helmeted heads go with the Catachan and Marauder bodies quite nicely too. Otherwise, many of the heads can appear too small for the barrel chested figures.

I also added a few little things like giving them something akin to biker jackets.

I am going to leave with just the completed first platoon. Meaning I have to come back and post more pictures of the others I have finished.


If you want to find out more about the Kanak Skull takers, here are another couple of links to the Lexicanum and the Manchurian Campaign put together by the Bell of Lost Souls.