I guess I could have killed two birds with one stone and got some practise painting skin in 28mm and green by painting an Ork (Orruk?) but I’m actually going to paint the Underworlds warband ‘Godsworn Hunt‘.
I had a couple of games of Underworlds with my seven year olds last time I was in the UK. I think as they get older it’ll be a fun game to get to grips with. The aesthetic of the Godsworn Hunt is quite savage – like less organised Chaos Marauders (if that’s a thing). Lot’s of exposed flesh for some practise painting skin in 28mm. There’s not a huge amount of space for practising green but there is some cloth. I guess, I could paint some of the weapon blades in green but I probably won’t. I want to get some more NMM in on these models. I actually don’t have any TMM paint and don’t like GW metallic paints (which are the only brand I can get here easily) so NMM is my way to go).
Getting started with skin practise
But before all that, some prepping. I wrote a post on how I prep miniatures (you can find that here). It works for painting skin in 28mm so I just followed my standard process. After the initial undercoat stage I realised that three of the models have huge, unpaintable gaps. I don’t have any liquid green stuff at the moment and have been using Humbrol model putty. I use Humbrol glue and it’s great but the putty isn’t. I didn’t want to correct the gaps with the Humbrol so I’ve put those three models to one side. That left me with these dudes.
Painting skin in 28mm and Zenithal highlighting
One thing should have come through loud and clear from my skin tutorial (you can find that here). Painting skin in 28mm (especially caucasian skin tones) over a single dark undercoat is not a good idea. Any skin is really complex and so adding complexity and visual interest at the undercoating stage helps. It also helps when you’re painting skin in 28mm that the undercoat has some light highlights. This helps avoid having to layer paint on too thickly to cover. So as far as I’ve got now is my standard i) black undercoat ii) grey all over drybrush iii) white drybrush focused on the highest areas iv) all over wash with thinned seraphim sepia v) reinstatement of the highest white drybrush. The final miniatures from the prepping stage are below. Now to get on with painting skin in 28mm!
Comments always welcome.