Airbrushing Speed Paints to Easy Mode Horses
Experimenting with Army Painter speed paints through an airbrush to paint Norman cavalry horses fast—three different tones in about 45 minutes.
The steps
Start from a zenithal highlight.
Lay the peachy flesh tone in from the top.
Come up from the bottom with Warrior Flesh, alternating with the peach from above at each pass.
Go over the top carefully with straight yellow speedpaint. Vary how far you take it per model and you get three horses that read as different animals rather than three of the same one.
Watch for water left in the airbrush or the cup. It thins the speedpaint and you lose the colour.
Full transcript of the video
Today we’re finally putting some paint on these Normans. I’ve been building up my Relic Blade piggies, getting my metal guys assembled, and my goal this week is to paint Normans, finish the Infinity painting, and get all these new models built for one big priming session.
The Process
We’re doing three horses. I want them realistic but still pretty bright. Starting off with a peachy flesh color on top of our zenithal highlight. But I realized there was still a lot of water in either the airbrush or my moisture trap from cleaning it yesterday, so I backed out and restarted.
All of these are Army Painter speed paints. I really wanted to experiment with them through the airbrush. The technique: come in from the bottom with Warrior Skin, then back on top with the peachy one. Getting a really cool result.
Building Up the Tones
At each phase, it’s Warrior Flesh from the bottom and the peachy one from the top. Then I come in with straight yellow Army Painter speed paint, being very careful with how I go over the top. That just hits the highest points of the horse.
Results
About 45 minutes of airbrushing for three horses. I achieved slight variations in brightness—one is pretty brown, one’s pretty yellow (maybe a bit too bright), and the last one I think I got pretty perfect.
I think they might need a wash to knock things down some, but I’m going to sleep on it. Tomorrow we’ll finish up the horses and hopefully get a pretty good chunk into the Normans.
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