In my previous post on painting water, I said the effect should be fine for all of the bases bar the Skabrus, and here’s why. Unlike the other bases, the Skabrus has ‘organs’, you see the Skabrus is a giant undead, zombie fish, crewed by undead Skaven…. so we need to not only pick out organ details, but also leave a trail of rotting effluence in the Skabrus’s wake. Once again, Games Workshop’s October White Dwarf (WD 382) provided a ton of good advice. (Do go buy a copy, I won’t be doing blow-by-blows for each of the Dreadfleet minis unless I get a load of requests).
Here’s how I did it. Start off with your base colours, for me, this was Necron Abyss for the water, Mechrite Red for the organs and dark angel green for the effluence.
Next up, I used a 1:1 mix of Tin Bitz and Dwarf Bronze to pick out the metalics and Scorched Brown for the wood. When that was dry, I washed the organs in a 1:1 mix of Devlan Mud and Baal Red and washe dthe wood and metallics in just Devlan Mud. I also dry brushed Enchanted Blue onto the waves and Goblin Green into the effluence.
As I waited for the organ washes to dry, it was time to move on to the second drybrush layer for the water and effluence. Again, Ice Blue for the water was used (again, focus on the wave crests) and Scorpion Green was used in the effluence.
Finally it was time to wash the water parts and the organs were dry enough to apply some effects. As before, the water wash (for both waves and effluence was a 1:1 Thrakka Green and Badab Black washed heavily. As that dried, I applied a 1:1 Mechrite Red and Blood Red layer to the organs, applied a verdigris effect (when you see brass turn green) to the metallics (mix 1:1 Dark Angel Green to Hawk Turqoise then water down to a wash and apply) and touched up the wood work with more Scorched Brown. When the organ layer was dry, I applied line highlighting to the organs to pick out details.
Finally, as the water wash dried, I applied a final dry brush layer of Skull White to the wave crests and effluence. Jobs a Good ‘Un.
My next post shows how I did the Skabrus body, you’ll find it here…
