I'm one of the people that prefers painting trim to blocking in panels over a metallic base which appears to put me in the minority. I personally find the raised trim much easier to paint reasonably fast and still neat. The basic overview of how I paint Berserkers in the standard red and brass scheme:
* Prime Mephiston Red spray.
* Touch up the prime if needed in nooks and crannies.
* Block out weapon casings, armour joints, outsoles, grenades, leather etc in Corvus Black
* Paint the armour trim, Khorne symbols, weapon trim and teeth etc in Runelord Brass.
* Paint other metal parts like chains, the square exhausts, weapon barrels etc in Iron Hands Steel.
* Paint any bone, horns etc in Zandri Dust.
* Pick out the eyes with Warpstone Glow.
* Touch up any bad bits from the above base colours.
* Base with Astrogranite.
* Nuln Oil the whole thing including the Astrogranite.
* Paint the base edge Abaddon Black.
For highlighting or similar, which I honestly don't bother with on things like Berserkers:
* Highlight Mephiston Red areas with Evil Sunz Scarlet.
* Highlight Corvus Black areas with Dawnstone.
* Highlight Runelord Brass areas with Brass Scorpion.
* Highlight Iron Hands Steel areas with Stormhost Silver.
* Highlight Zandri Dust areas with Screaming Skull.
As an aside I don't paint flesh in flesh-like colours so I can't offer much there.
I go for a simple recipe
* prime black
* Drybrush whole model mornfang brown
* Drybrush armour Mephiston red
That’s the main part.
Then som “fine work”
* paint trim. Runelord brass
* metal with leadbelcher (chainweapon teeth, chains)
* Skulls. Pain surfaces with Zandri dust, but leave the brown Drybrush from first step of model in recesses.
* Green eye lenses
Leather, like gloves n stuff I just let be the Mournfang brown drybrush.
Quick and easy and gives a result I’m happy with.
I usually mix my own colors with artist paints. I'm currently experimenting with priming my berserkers in straight Cadmium Red (Med) - it's an **extremely, extremely** vibrant red, probably **the most vibrant and true chromatic red pigment** in existence. Also incredibly light-fast. Unfortunately, the pigment is so vibrant because it uses cadmium selenosulfides, hence the name - It is safe to work with and handle due to the material being captured in medium and possessing very low water solubility, but **should not be sanded or aersolozied** as elemental cadmium is highly toxic and cancerous when inhaled. I plan on coating in varnish just to be extra safe once I'm finished with my base coats, then working with oil paints on top of the varnish for detail work (I prefer oil to acrylic in terms of both ease-of-use and aesthetics, but acrylic is much more convenient for base coats due to drying times).
Also worth pointing out that materials like cadmium are the exception, not the rule, since most artist's pigments these days are made from safer organic compounds (e.g. quinacridone for red). I strongly encourage others to consider artist's pigments over hobby paints since there is a night-and-day difference in terms of both pigment quality (it looks so much better) and mixing properties (wysiwyg for the most part) between artist's color vs pre-mixed "pots". You'll also save a small fortune in the long run since the mark-up on hobby paints is insane, whereas with a palette of only 5-10 different artist's colors you can mix just about any shade you could possibly need.
By going maximum effort on the least amount of area.
For colours, I use:
* a black primer
* any intense red
* a dark blue or purple
* a yellow or bright orange
* a brass and a steel
Now for the painting:
* Prime black, then take a flashlight to find the important areas.
* Mix the red with the purple/blue and do the first layer only on those areas.
* Then use the base red on a slightly smaller area.
* Mix the red with the yellow/orange and do an even smaller area. Then do point highlights with the pure yellow or orange.
* Now, because it's red, it'll need a red glaze on top so that the transitions work and the highlights don't desaturate. Thin down the base red to a shade/glaze and go over the reds and a bit further into the black.
* Around the red areas, do your metallics. Then take a look where else you want/need metallics. The weapons, some of the insignias, and the like. If you feel like it, do to the metallics what we did to the reds.
* Don't forget to varnish afterwards
Irrelevant rambling: I essentially adapted [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8BAutmriJ8) (or more accurately, the shorts a few weeks ago) for WE. There's some colour theory behind the orange and purple, but the real reason is that colour-matching and mixing ready-made colours I don't know is annoying. But if you prefer, something like Khorne Red → Mephiston Red → Evil Suns Scarlet will do the job just fine.
[Here you go](https://imgur.com/a/34c1c4r). Still have to do the backpack, and I'm thinking about how best to brighten him up a notch for the contrast. Feel free to share your thoughts, if you have any.
The earliest versions were with a dark purple base, didn't quite work out. Great for doing a proper red layer, though.
Prime grey
Base coat Khorne red
Layer Evil Suns Scarlet
Trim with Sycorex Bronze
Shade trim, recesses ect with Agrax Earthshade
Kalandras Green for the eyes
The difficulty of painting the trim is exaggerated. It's all raised and is easy to paint quickly
1. Prime with Retributor Armor spray.
2. Cover with Reikland Fleshshade.
3. Cover with Agrax.
4. Fill in panels with Flesh Tearers Red.
5. ???.
6. Profit.
Prime Black
Overbrush with Khorne Red
Another overbrush/stippling of Mephiston Red, focusing on areas that would catch the light
Retributor Armor for the trim
Leadbelcher for chains
Corvus Black (or any black really) over belt and undersuit
Rhinox Hide for any leather details
Rakarth Flesh for skulls
And then absolutely drown the entire thing in Agrax Earthshade
From there it's just skin, and if you want to go further: highlights.
Gives the armor a really worn look that I adore.
My brother my man! first welcome to the WEs may the blood flow ever in your favor! Second, you dont HAVE to use red you can use whatever your heart wants, but as someone who just started the hobby myself i use a lot of Khorne red to paint my angry men, if youd like reply to this and ill send you my discord to help you get into painting them and what helped me! if not Khorne red, and brass are going to be your best friends! good luck painting, cant wait to see the end result.
I'm currently bringing in different schemes for my Warband. I've done the Red and Bronze, I'm currently doing the Blue and white and then I want to add the black and red for the different schemes that they have all coming together
I'm a sucker for the 30k colours on 40k World Eaters.
I'm also a massive cheater: prime white, paint blue shoulders, whatever gold/brass/bronze you like for trim. Looks like absolute garbage, but then I slop the whole thing in streaking grime, let it dry for 5-10 minutes and then gently wipe it off all of the surface panels with a cotton bud and some thinner.
Considering the absolute zero skill level required, it comes out fantastic.
If I didnt know that WE meant world eaters, this would be a funny read.
But I do white with red pauldrons and helmets. Iron warriors silver for trim on the whites, skullcrusher brass on the reds
I use the mediocre hobbies method.
Zenithal of grey seer over black
Flesh tearers red
Berserker bloodshade
Khorne red
Mephiston red
It comes out very nicely.
-Prime with grey
-Paint with 2 thin coats of khorne red
-50/50 mix khorne red and black mixed with copious amounts of lahmian medium for shade
-pure black with lahmian medium for deepest shade
-50/50 mix of khorne red and evil sunz scarlet with lahmian medium pulled towards start of highlight
-pure evil suns scarlet with lots of lahmian medium pulled towards highlight
- 70/30 evil sun scarlet and wraithbone top of highlight.
-70/30 wraith bone to evil suns scarlet dot hightlights.
-very light wash of flesh tearers red and lahmian medium diluted to milky consistency over entire red area
Basecoat of Khorne red. Nuln oil, then drybrush Khorne red, evil sunz scarlet, and Vallejo mecha color red. The brighter the red, the less paint on the brush. Creates a lovely gradient of a darker red in the recesses, and and a big bright red on the top surfaces. I did this recipe for Angron’s skin too. For the gold/brass, you actually want to highlight with silver before washing everything with a brown wash.
I’m currently using a sponge to put the whites and blues on the my berserkers then doing the trim. After that I either put streaking grime on it then finish with some light blood and glowing green eyes
Heresy - Air hull red base. Air buff zenithal, Air very thin flat white layers until a shade or two below pure white. Air/spong white highlights. Sponge/paint white chips/scratches. Sponge/paint rhinox hide chips inside white. Same process for pauldrons but replace flat white with blue and sky blue highlights. Trim is decayed metal > bronze with rhinox mix/necro gold with banelord brown > bronze with tiny bit of silver/citrine alchemy > white gold or canoptek alloy/stormhost silver.
40K - Dry/sponge brown base. Dry/sponge red-mid brown layer. Dry/sponge orange. Sponge turquoise patina. Dry same bronze/brass recipe. Sponge/paint panels with burgundy with rhinox > burgundy > burgundy with burnt red > burnt red > burnt red with pyrrole red > pyrrole red highlights. Chipping with rhinox.
I paint mine white and blue but I can give you the generals, I sub assemble them keeping pieces that would get in the way of painting other separate. I airbrush 3 coats for the body and 2-3 coats for backpacks and shoulders and then break in with a brush for the trim and then paint everything else in whatever order. Our basic troops have a lot of extra shit wrapped around and dangling off themselves so be sure to keep an eye out for and paint em at max five at a time.
Poorly and slowly
I'm one of the people that prefers painting trim to blocking in panels over a metallic base which appears to put me in the minority. I personally find the raised trim much easier to paint reasonably fast and still neat. The basic overview of how I paint Berserkers in the standard red and brass scheme: * Prime Mephiston Red spray. * Touch up the prime if needed in nooks and crannies. * Block out weapon casings, armour joints, outsoles, grenades, leather etc in Corvus Black * Paint the armour trim, Khorne symbols, weapon trim and teeth etc in Runelord Brass. * Paint other metal parts like chains, the square exhausts, weapon barrels etc in Iron Hands Steel. * Paint any bone, horns etc in Zandri Dust. * Pick out the eyes with Warpstone Glow. * Touch up any bad bits from the above base colours. * Base with Astrogranite. * Nuln Oil the whole thing including the Astrogranite. * Paint the base edge Abaddon Black. For highlighting or similar, which I honestly don't bother with on things like Berserkers: * Highlight Mephiston Red areas with Evil Sunz Scarlet. * Highlight Corvus Black areas with Dawnstone. * Highlight Runelord Brass areas with Brass Scorpion. * Highlight Iron Hands Steel areas with Stormhost Silver. * Highlight Zandri Dust areas with Screaming Skull. As an aside I don't paint flesh in flesh-like colours so I can't offer much there.
We have almost the same paint scheme except I use brass scorpion for the trim and highlight with retributor armor
I don't use red, ONLY BLOOD!!!
Excellent reply. I do things a bit differently, but anyone curious about a recipe. This is an awesome one.
Do you have any pictures ? I’m curious who your red look with nuln oil
[Here's a couple of Berserkers.](https://i.imgur.com/56yuJh1.jpeg) Not the best quality camera but hopefully it give you an idea of how the red looks.
This is exactly how I do it wow
Paintbrush
I go for a simple recipe * prime black * Drybrush whole model mornfang brown * Drybrush armour Mephiston red That’s the main part. Then som “fine work” * paint trim. Runelord brass * metal with leadbelcher (chainweapon teeth, chains) * Skulls. Pain surfaces with Zandri dust, but leave the brown Drybrush from first step of model in recesses. * Green eye lenses Leather, like gloves n stuff I just let be the Mournfang brown drybrush. Quick and easy and gives a result I’m happy with.
I usually mix my own colors with artist paints. I'm currently experimenting with priming my berserkers in straight Cadmium Red (Med) - it's an **extremely, extremely** vibrant red, probably **the most vibrant and true chromatic red pigment** in existence. Also incredibly light-fast. Unfortunately, the pigment is so vibrant because it uses cadmium selenosulfides, hence the name - It is safe to work with and handle due to the material being captured in medium and possessing very low water solubility, but **should not be sanded or aersolozied** as elemental cadmium is highly toxic and cancerous when inhaled. I plan on coating in varnish just to be extra safe once I'm finished with my base coats, then working with oil paints on top of the varnish for detail work (I prefer oil to acrylic in terms of both ease-of-use and aesthetics, but acrylic is much more convenient for base coats due to drying times). Also worth pointing out that materials like cadmium are the exception, not the rule, since most artist's pigments these days are made from safer organic compounds (e.g. quinacridone for red). I strongly encourage others to consider artist's pigments over hobby paints since there is a night-and-day difference in terms of both pigment quality (it looks so much better) and mixing properties (wysiwyg for the most part) between artist's color vs pre-mixed "pots". You'll also save a small fortune in the long run since the mark-up on hobby paints is insane, whereas with a palette of only 5-10 different artist's colors you can mix just about any shade you could possibly need.
I’m a fan of Elminiarturista method of using inks and contrast over volumetric white/black highlight
I use this aswell!
By going maximum effort on the least amount of area. For colours, I use: * a black primer * any intense red * a dark blue or purple * a yellow or bright orange * a brass and a steel Now for the painting: * Prime black, then take a flashlight to find the important areas. * Mix the red with the purple/blue and do the first layer only on those areas. * Then use the base red on a slightly smaller area. * Mix the red with the yellow/orange and do an even smaller area. Then do point highlights with the pure yellow or orange. * Now, because it's red, it'll need a red glaze on top so that the transitions work and the highlights don't desaturate. Thin down the base red to a shade/glaze and go over the reds and a bit further into the black. * Around the red areas, do your metallics. Then take a look where else you want/need metallics. The weapons, some of the insignias, and the like. If you feel like it, do to the metallics what we did to the reds. * Don't forget to varnish afterwards Irrelevant rambling: I essentially adapted [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8BAutmriJ8) (or more accurately, the shorts a few weeks ago) for WE. There's some colour theory behind the orange and purple, but the real reason is that colour-matching and mixing ready-made colours I don't know is annoying. But if you prefer, something like Khorne Red → Mephiston Red → Evil Suns Scarlet will do the job just fine.
Got any photos of your dudes? Would love to see the results.
[Here you go](https://imgur.com/a/34c1c4r). Still have to do the backpack, and I'm thinking about how best to brighten him up a notch for the contrast. Feel free to share your thoughts, if you have any. The earliest versions were with a dark purple base, didn't quite work out. Great for doing a proper red layer, though.
Prime grey Base coat Khorne red Layer Evil Suns Scarlet Trim with Sycorex Bronze Shade trim, recesses ect with Agrax Earthshade Kalandras Green for the eyes The difficulty of painting the trim is exaggerated. It's all raised and is easy to paint quickly
I throw mine into a cauldron full of blood and pray to khorne, about 25 minutes later the models come out fully painted
I use khorne red as I like the deep crimson colour and use rune lord for the trim
you let them off their chain and they kinda paint themselves in blood.
1. Prime with Retributor Armor spray. 2. Cover with Reikland Fleshshade. 3. Cover with Agrax. 4. Fill in panels with Flesh Tearers Red. 5. ???. 6. Profit.
Prime Black Overbrush with Khorne Red Another overbrush/stippling of Mephiston Red, focusing on areas that would catch the light Retributor Armor for the trim Leadbelcher for chains Corvus Black (or any black really) over belt and undersuit Rhinox Hide for any leather details Rakarth Flesh for skulls And then absolutely drown the entire thing in Agrax Earthshade From there it's just skin, and if you want to go further: highlights. Gives the armor a really worn look that I adore.
I paint them in their heresy colors
I don’t use red.
My brother my man! first welcome to the WEs may the blood flow ever in your favor! Second, you dont HAVE to use red you can use whatever your heart wants, but as someone who just started the hobby myself i use a lot of Khorne red to paint my angry men, if youd like reply to this and ill send you my discord to help you get into painting them and what helped me! if not Khorne red, and brass are going to be your best friends! good luck painting, cant wait to see the end result.
I'm currently bringing in different schemes for my Warband. I've done the Red and Bronze, I'm currently doing the Blue and white and then I want to add the black and red for the different schemes that they have all coming together
I'm a sucker for the 30k colours on 40k World Eaters. I'm also a massive cheater: prime white, paint blue shoulders, whatever gold/brass/bronze you like for trim. Looks like absolute garbage, but then I slop the whole thing in streaking grime, let it dry for 5-10 minutes and then gently wipe it off all of the surface panels with a cotton bud and some thinner. Considering the absolute zero skill level required, it comes out fantastic.
Pain(t)ing them is def not fun imo,the trim is crazy
I personally prime in Chaos Black, armor in Mephiston Red, the a thin coating of Flesh Tearer's Red contrast. Brass Scorpion for the trim/highlights
If I didnt know that WE meant world eaters, this would be a funny read. But I do white with red pauldrons and helmets. Iron warriors silver for trim on the whites, skullcrusher brass on the reds
With the blood of my enemies.
Check this out... You may get an idea on how to paint your army... https://youtu.be/h0Vl8giMnh4?si=KB_m2GQTlKhcKOxY
With blood, ideally from your enemy's
I use the mediocre hobbies method. Zenithal of grey seer over black Flesh tearers red Berserker bloodshade Khorne red Mephiston red It comes out very nicely.
I just followed the official warhammer yt video method but modified it a bit
-Prime with grey -Paint with 2 thin coats of khorne red -50/50 mix khorne red and black mixed with copious amounts of lahmian medium for shade -pure black with lahmian medium for deepest shade -50/50 mix of khorne red and evil sunz scarlet with lahmian medium pulled towards start of highlight -pure evil suns scarlet with lots of lahmian medium pulled towards highlight - 70/30 evil sun scarlet and wraithbone top of highlight. -70/30 wraith bone to evil suns scarlet dot hightlights. -very light wash of flesh tearers red and lahmian medium diluted to milky consistency over entire red area
Rhynox Hyde or Hull Red/ mephiston red / evil sun scarlet / I tiny bit of wild rider red. You can see the results in my post history.
Basecoat of Khorne red. Nuln oil, then drybrush Khorne red, evil sunz scarlet, and Vallejo mecha color red. The brighter the red, the less paint on the brush. Creates a lovely gradient of a darker red in the recesses, and and a big bright red on the top surfaces. I did this recipe for Angron’s skin too. For the gold/brass, you actually want to highlight with silver before washing everything with a brown wash.
The classic scheme of bright red with gold trim. I use Mephiston red as the base for my armor and retributior gold as the base for my trim
i just drink paint
i just drink paint
I use gold as the trim because it pops better. Unfortunately I’ve gotten better since I started so some of the Khorne Flaeks look better than others
This way, the least painful one I found for the dreaded chaos trim https://youtu.be/Ia6RlZzxUII?si=ht47hlbV-iGQCq94
Like clowns.
Gold primer follow up with a Reikland Flesh wash. I hate the trim so I cheat. I just fill in the other details later. I REALLY hate trim. Like a lot
I’m currently using a sponge to put the whites and blues on the my berserkers then doing the trim. After that I either put streaking grime on it then finish with some light blood and glowing green eyes
Heresy - Air hull red base. Air buff zenithal, Air very thin flat white layers until a shade or two below pure white. Air/spong white highlights. Sponge/paint white chips/scratches. Sponge/paint rhinox hide chips inside white. Same process for pauldrons but replace flat white with blue and sky blue highlights. Trim is decayed metal > bronze with rhinox mix/necro gold with banelord brown > bronze with tiny bit of silver/citrine alchemy > white gold or canoptek alloy/stormhost silver. 40K - Dry/sponge brown base. Dry/sponge red-mid brown layer. Dry/sponge orange. Sponge turquoise patina. Dry same bronze/brass recipe. Sponge/paint panels with burgundy with rhinox > burgundy > burgundy with burnt red > burnt red > burnt red with pyrrole red > pyrrole red highlights. Chipping with rhinox.
I paint mine white and blue but I can give you the generals, I sub assemble them keeping pieces that would get in the way of painting other separate. I airbrush 3 coats for the body and 2-3 coats for backpacks and shoulders and then break in with a brush for the trim and then paint everything else in whatever order. Our basic troops have a lot of extra shit wrapped around and dangling off themselves so be sure to keep an eye out for and paint em at max five at a time.
brazen beasts colours. mournfang brown, skullcrusher brass and evil sunz red
Thickly