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.

Transcript

I want to see all the coolness. Where is this stuff? >> Welcome back, guys. Today we’re going to kind of do a janky painting video, painting tutorial of how easy it is to paint in kind of the grim dark style, uh, while still keeping kind of like a painterly touch to it. So, I’m just coming in with Army Painter uh broadsource silver, which is their speed paint.

And then I’m coming back in uh touching it up with half like gold. And I’m fast forwarding this just because I’m slowing this part down. So, you can see these are now oil paints. I’m mixing in burnt umber, black, and yellow ochre to make this brown here that I’m swirling up on the palette. and all of the parts that I just painted with that silver.

I skipped over that pretty fast cuz it it’s pretty straightforward. Uh I’m just going to slather this. Um I let it all dry uh earlier today and it’s coming back now. Um I didn’t seal it or anything. I’m just going right on top of the acrylic and this is fine.

I did let the oil sit on this pallet paper for a little bit so the oil evaporated a little bit, but other than that, uh, coming in raw, occasionally adding a little bit more black and a little bit more mineral spirits in so it just flows down into the cracks. And I’m doing my best to not get this on the skin, but it’s not a huge deal if it does because we actually we want a little bit on the skin. Um, just globing this on the gun and making sure I get every piece that of metal covered in this stuff. Oh, you can see here uh my son was playing Legos across from me and he popped the Spidey head off, rolled right into the paint. So, now I am mixing in some blue and this is a modified Zorn palette.

Uh if you’re interested, I would definitely recommend checking out uh Marco Fzone’s not just Mecca’s his videos on a Zorn palette. Um very cool, very grim dark. Uh so this I realized I had a little bit too much black here, so just took it in black and blue. Mixing it up that way. >> Oo, I like that blue color.

So now all the skin I’m covering in this. And uh this is to keep that that like almost undead look. If you look at the official art, uh the skin is very like blue tinted. So that’s how we’re going to achieve that effect here. And we’re really just going to go you see my my son trying to show Legos to the camera, but I don’t think it picked up.

All blue and brown. >> And again, I’m just slathering this stuff on here. Why? leave it there. But >> here we go.

Now, a makeup sponge. And we’re going to wipe it all off. So, again, I’m going to be kind of careful at the start to not mix the dirt in with the skin where I don’t want it. But like on places like the hands and the torso, I’m going to let some of that brown come up and mix in with the blue. We’re taking like most of this off.

Like I didn’t really let it set that much. I probably let it sit maybe 10 minutes tops. Uh because especially with the skin and I’m going pretty heavy. Um I haven’t actually used mineral spirits on the skin, but I’m taking off as much of this oil wash as I can get with just a makeup sponge. >> Dad, why did you wipe all the paint off?

Look how it looks now. >> Before all that paint was just globbed up on it. Now it actually looks cool, doesn’t it? >> Oh. Well, I’m going to come back in and we’re going to finish the metal.

The skin’s pretty much done by the end of this video. Uh, but the metal we really need to come back in and finish tomorrow once the oil dries a little bit more. So, here mostly white with just a little bit of the blue. And I’m using just that same busted brush to paint all the top of the muscles, parts of the arms that the lights hitting, and the like fingertips and knuckles. And again, I’m just dotting this on right now.

There. You don’t really have to have a ton of brush control. And I’m coming back in with what’s called a filbert brush. It’s just a a wide rounded tip on it. And I’m feathering this and blending it into the shadows and the mid tones here.

Very easy to do. And this takes away the stark brush strokes. And this is blends everything together for you. This is why oils are so great. and watching this, I’m realizing that I I need to get like a different camera setup or something.

Uh, if I’m gonna do more painting tutorials because this camera angle is terrible. But hopefully you can figure out what I’m doing. And see, this really just polishes and finalizes the skin. And we still kept in all of the shade from that first like black wash and the zenithl highlight in. And that really just served as our guide on where to put this final color.

And the skin is like perfect. And it took like three paints really. This whole model you probably could do I think probably like an hour total. I was working through the whole war band. I’m going to have more on those guys tomorrow.

But I’m going to have been able to finish my whole war band in like 2 days uh real time of painting, which is kind of crazy. So again, just feathering this out. I’m pretty much leaving the armor alone now. Uh I I’m going to come back tomorrow. The oil is not going to be completely dry tomorrow.

oil paint takes a couple of days to fully cure, but tomorrow it’ll be dry enough for me to come back in with acrylics and then we’ll really kind of punch in the highlights on the armor and be done uh with this guy. And tomorrow I’ve got some more tricks on how to easily do grim dark that I’ll share with the rest of the army. Almost forgot. So, here I finally do have mineral spirits on my brush there. And I was just cleaning up the final bits.

And here’s what we have. Uh, this was seriously, if I was only painting this guy, this probably would have been like 20 minutes of actual paint time. Uh, and just because oils are magic, the result is great. Uh, and this model is also easy because he’s skin and guns. It’s three colors.

The bullets are bronze, the metal is silver, and his skin is white. Um, really made this a no-brainer for the oil wash method. And also, if you have rack guard flesh and you wanted the skin to be a little bit warmer, you could have just base coated the skin in that and then just slathered it in something like streaking grime and wiped the streaking grime off and you also just would have been done that way, too. So, thanks for watching. I’ll catch you tomorrow.