I’ve had a bit of a break from blogging, not because I got bored but because I had to do some work, a lot of work in fact, on my garden which was threatening to take over my house.
Blame the trees, not me!
Anyway, I have another tutorial to post, a fairly short and sweet one if I’m honest. This one is about painting shields and I thought I’d share with you a couple of tricks I have learned for making them look a bit more realistic.
Basically, I have two methods of painting shields, one for making pristine looking shields and one for making shields look slightly worn and damaged. I’ll start with the former. These tutorials assume you have already painted the shield in a particular colour scheme and applied any transfers you may require.
What you will need
You will need the following colours from the citadel range. For any other ranges refer to the conversion chart in the side bar on the left.
- Dryad Bark (Base)
- Pallid Wych Flesh (Layer)
- Aggrax Earthshade (Shade)
Or
- ‘Ard Coat (Technical)
Clean Shields step 1
Paint your shield in a colour of your choice and add any transfers.
Clean Shields Step 2
Paint your shield with gloss varnish. When it’s dry, you can add a second coat if you do not think the effect is glossy enough. The picture above has 2 coats.
Worn or Damaged Shields Step 1
Paint your shield in a colour of your choice and add any transfers.
Worn or Damaged Shields Step 2
Apply a wash of Aggrax Earthshade to the shield
Worn or Damaged Shields Step 3
Paint some thin lines of Dryad Bark criss-crossing the shield. I would advise against perfectly horizontal or vertical lines.
Worn or Damaged Shields Step 4
Paint some thin lines of Pallid Wych Flesh alongside the lines of Dryad Bark. It’s important to note that these should be on the underside of the line.
Worn or Damaged Shields Step 5
Apply a final wash of Aggrax Earthshade to the shield.
Below you will find some examples of the two different shield types taken from my own Bretonnian army. These skills could be used on any non-textured shield (i.e. not Lizardmen or anything that has a wood grain carved into it) that you are painting with a non-metallic colour. It would work equally well on High Elf shields, Empire shields, Dwarf sheilds etc.
As always feel free to comment or request new tutorials; if you’d like to see something specific I’m happy to oblige.
Aaah, glad you are back! Hope you showed those trees who’s the boss!
Nice tutorial as always, pity I can’t use it: 40k player mostly :p
Is there a particular aspect of 40k you’re interested in?
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