Incoming Mail - Painting Fiends.

So this is a bit unusual as I very rarely get asked about painting...

EMail In :

Mr. GMort,

I am a new 40k player, and really enjoy your take on fiends of slaanesh, enough that I plan on doing something similar. Can you explain what paint colors and techniques you used to achieve the blended look on your fiends? With an idea of the colors and techniques I can hopefully perform something similar, while not exactly copying your work.

Thanks for your time

Reply :

Okay, I'll post some close up pictures and then run down the colours used underneath.

At first I was planning on painting them darker and under-coated them all Chaos Black but it seemed like they'd end up not looking very Slaaneshi so I redid the undercoating over the top in Skull White. I gave them a fairly light coat of Skull White so as to leave some black showing through the heavier grooves. I'm not sure if it made any difference from undercoating them Skull White straight off but I thought I'd mention it as that's what I did, lol.

In order to more greatly differentiate the squads I made one lot spiky, gave the 2nd lot tentacles and put the vestigial wings on the 3rd unit.

I painted this lot a long time ago so forgive me if I don't remember every little bit of colour I added...Anyway that's enough rambling...

Editors Note : The 'tentacle' one has took a bit of damage in transit which I didn't notice until after I took the photos.

Tentacle 'Fiend' Front.

Tentacle 'Fiend' Top.

Tentacle 'Fiend' Back.

So I started off with 'Rotting Flesh' and then added 'Bleached Bone' and 'Gryphonne Sepia'. I then re-highlighted with 'Bleached Bone'. Finally I used 'Warlock Purple' on the tips of the tentacles and gradually blended it in.

Spiky 'Fiend' Front.

Spiky 'Fiend' Top.

Spiky 'Fiend' Back.

First the model was washed with 'Scorched Brown' and then highlighted with 'Bleached Bone' with a tiny bit of 'Scorched Brown' mixed in (probably only about 10%). The spikes were then done in 'Rotting Flesh' with highlights on the very ends of 'Bleached Bone'. My girlfriend had just purchased some of the Forge World weathering powders and was desperate to try them out on something so the spikes also got a dusting with 'Dark Sand' weathering powder courtesy of her .

Winged 'Fiend' Front.

Winged 'Fiend' Top.

Winged 'Fiend' Back.

These ones were washed with 'Rotting Flesh' and highlighted with 'Bleached Bone' just like the tentacle ones. They were then washed with 'Devlan Mud' and the spikes were subsequently re-highlighted. Anything spiky on them then had 'Liche Purple' blended in.

I hope that helps ;-)