How to Paint Trench Crusade Communicant

Quick and Grim

Today we’re doing a janky painting tutorial on how easy it is to paint in the grim dark style while still keeping a painterly touch.

The Metal

Coming in with Army Painter Broadsource Silver speed paint, then touching up with Half Gold. I let it all dry, didn’t seal it or anything.

Oil Washes

Now mixing burnt umber, black, and yellow ochre oil paints to make a brown. I let the oil sit on the palette paper so the oil evaporated a little bit, but otherwise coming in raw.

Slather this on everything metal. Get every piece of metal covered. Occasionally add more black and mineral spirits so it flows into the cracks. Try not to get it on the skin, but it’s not a huge deal—we want a little bit on the skin.

The Blue Skin

Now mixing in some blue. This is a modified Zorn palette (check out Marco Frisone’s or Not Just Mecha’s videos on this). I had a little too much black, so just took it in black and blue direction.

If you look at the official Trench Crusade art, the skin is very blue-tinted—that’s how we’re achieving that almost undead look here.

Wiping It Off

Using a makeup sponge, wipe it all off. Be careful at the start not to mix the dirt with the skin where you don’t want it. But on places like the hands and torso, let some brown mix with the blue.

Take off as much as you can—I let it sit maybe 10 minutes tops. Especially with the skin, I’m going pretty heavy removing the oil wash.

My son asked “Dad, why did you wipe all the paint off?” Look how it looks now. Before, all that paint was just globbed up. Now it actually looks cool.

The Highlights

Mostly white with just a little bit of blue. Using the same busted brush, paint the top of muscles, parts of arms that light’s hitting, fingertips and knuckles. Just dotting this on.

Then using a filbert brush (wide rounded tip), feather and blend this into the shadows and midtones. Very easy to do. This takes away stark brush strokes and blends everything together. This is why oils are so great.

The Results

The skin is perfect and it took like three paints really. This whole model could probably be done in an hour total. I was working through the whole warband—I’ll be able to finish it in 2 days real time of painting.

The model is easy because it’s skin and guns. Three colors: bullets are bronze, metal is silver, skin is white.

Alternative Method

If you have Rakarth Flesh and want warmer skin, you could base coat in that, slather streaking grime on, wipe it off, and you’d be done too.

Thanks for watching. Tomorrow I’ll come back to finish the metal once the oil dries more.