Introduction
Having learned some lessons from the POC, I could finally start to paint the entire squad. According to the lore, these guys are not big on personal hygiene, so I went for a dirty look. They also scavenge their equipment from wherever they can, so I made them wear different colored clothes (with dirt being the uniting factor).
Heavy Red basecoat for the armor. This is probably the only stage I got to be sloppy, so I broke out the larger brush to save time.
Colors used for the clothes: Electric Blue, Heavy Orange, Escorpena Green, Bonewhite, Filthy Brown, Khaki, Dead Flesh.
I used very light and striking colors, and also paired them off to have the coats and pants in contrast (except for the second guy on the right, Dead Flesh + Bonewhite, which are too similar).
Multiple steps of wash Agrax Earthshade, then highlight with the original colors. Only wash the armor once.
In the final wash step, mix in small patches of Black Wash while the Agrax is still wet, just for an extra dirty look.
Final highlights:
Skin and eyes
Paint a variety of skintones, as these guys are a ragtag bunch.
Light skintone:
Pale skintone:
Leathers
In the 41st millennium, despite all the omnipresent synthetic materials, the retro-futuristic setting demands loads of natural leather on the miniatures. I spread around light, medium, dark and black leather straps, belts, boots etc. to reinforce the scavenged feel of the equipment.
Other details
Dark grey grenades, but of a different shade than the leathers. Basecoat Black.
Drybrush Heavy Charcoal.
... belt buckles, pins on the satchels...
... clasps on this leather vambrace.
Black iron facemasks
Mix 1:1 Black and Gunmetal for the basecoat. Highlight Gunmetal.
Put some Black Wash in the recesses - holes, snarling faces, cross where the eye should be etc.
Shotguns and pistols: black casing
Basecoat black, edge highlight Heavy Charcoal.
Munitorum lasguns: urban camo
Basecoat with a mix of Stonewall Grey and Black, as I don't have any midtone greys.
Draw Black tiger stripes.
Ghost grey inside the stripes.
Autoguns: cheap green plastic casing
I searched for images of rifles, and I found one civilian rifle with a green casing that just radiated that cheap knock-off plastic look. That is what I wanted to reproduce here.
Basecoat Dead Flesh.
I wanted a flat look, but still have the recesses pop. Mix Biel-Tan Green with Lahmian Medium to wash.
Highlight Dead Flesh.
Las weapons: glowing green muzzle
The las type weapons have a little bolt sticking out of the muzzle. Color that Chainmail Silver.
Then Waystone Green.
Scroll and banner
Basecoat Bonewhite.
Wash Agrax Earthshade.
Highlight the middle of the surface by stipling Bonewhite. Also do a fine Bonewhite edge highlight on the ridges and edges.
Other details on the banner includes skulls, brass and silver chains.
Blood for the Blood God! Literally.
First, fill the eye sockets and draw the paint downward, as if the icon would be weeping blood.
Then I searched for "runes", found some (viking, I think), and drew them randomly on the banner. Randomly as in without any meaning, but I tried to maintain lines of runes as with regular writing, and also to follow the folds in the cloth/parchment. After strengthening the runes with a second layer, I did little downward lines from the edges to simulate blood seeping down after being dabbed on.
The parchment on this guys shoulder (also stipled and edge highlighted) looks like some sort of personal oath, so I did squiggly lines to simulate handwriting instead of runes.
Weapon metallics
As can be seen above, I have basecoated all the metal details in Gunmetal; the knife handles in Hammered Copper; and some additional details on the 'civilian' rifles in Tinny Tin.
Now I washed them all in Black Wash, and added patches of Fuegan Orange to simulate rust.
Then highlight the silver with Gunmetal, the copper with Bright Bronze...
... and the brass with Polished Gold.
Blue details
The lamp on the vox unit and the gemstone in the sigil. For the lamp, look at the plasma vent on the base; for the gemstone follow this only do the progression using Heavy Blue, Magic Blue and Electric Blue with the obligatory white spot highlight.
Armor highlights (and a red dial)
Broad highlights using Gory Red mixed with medium to a glaze consistency.
Basecoat this small dial in Heavy Red.
Highlight the previous highlights using Bloody Red.
Also paint the upper half of the dial with Bloody Red.
Scars on hands
Lorewise, all of the Blood Pact draw their hands over the extra-spiky armor of their leader and swear on the spilled blood. Quite grimdark.
I had to paint these really quick, so no in-progress pictures.
For each of the 3 different skin tones, take the last highlight and mix it 2:1 with Warlord Purple. Draw thin lines; about 2 per hand. Then mix more Warlord Purple in (about 1:1) and highlight the lower edge. Then mix a slightly lighter skintone than the original and highlight the other edge. Done.
Matt varnish
2 coats, just to be safe. Then we can proceed to the shiny details.
Shiny details
Blood for the Blood God! on the bayonets.
Extra small Chainmail Silver highlights on the armor chips.
Gloss varnish on the lasgun muzzles, the lamp on the voxcaster and the gemstone in the sigil.
Draw blasphemous runes on the shoulderpads using Bright Bronze, then highlight using Polished Gold.
Mount on bases
Good luck they are already pinned!
Muzzle flash
Use superglue to attach bits of cotton (from a Q-tip in this case) to the ends of the firing autoguns.
Carefully break away the cotton (I did manage to break it off a couple times, but just glue it back). Use your hands to twirl it into a cone-like shape. Cut away any excess using scissors.
Lamenters' Yellow on about 3/4 of the cone.
Fuegan Orange on the tip.
Then leave them to dry. The washes permeate the cotton and harden it when dry.
Mud on feet
Apply Typhus Corrosion on the soles of the boots and a bit around.
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