Various Skeleton Techniques

[Valander]

So, I\'ve just gotten into Warmachine (really fun game, BTW), and I\'m amassing my Cryx army. For those of you not familiar, the Cryx are basically undead, but they have cool steam-powered implants and stuff. And they go boom.

Anyway, I\'m torn about how to do bone on these guys. I\'m kind of tired of my usual \"dirty bone\" technique (prime white, wash dark brown, start picking highlights), and was wondering what other palettes people have used for doing bone.

Share your bone painting techniques!

 

[DennisMech]

Simple method....

I just use the standard base of scorched brown, highlighted slowly with bleached bone (though now that GW has released commando khaki, I use that in the middle, as it\'s basically just scorched brown and bleached bone mixed.). If I want a slightly warmer bone, snakebite leather is used as the in between color instead.

 

[Nomis]

I haven\'t painted any undead for a while but used to use a base of bleached bone with a heavy wash of very diluted snakebite leather or flesh wash. I followed up by a dry brush of bleached bone to pick out the bones and shadows. This was followed by highlighting with bleached bone and white with more white added to eventually give pure white highlights.

Think this is fairly standard GW technique

 

[Sand Rat]

Depends on what look you are going for - if you want them to have that just fresh from the grave look, I would go with a darker base color (Ivory or Aged Ivory) followed by a series of dark washes - burnt umber and burnt sienna come to mind - then black lining to pick out the sutures in the skull and any joints that are exposed, then highlight to your hearts content

If instead you are going for the boiled clean by the necromancer first look, then I would go with something like bleached bone, followed by blacklining and perhaps a grey wash and highlighting.

 

[kittykat23uk]

Hi,

My main recipe for bone was given to me by my fiancee. Its:

1. Prime white
2. basecoat bleached bone
3. wash with a mix of brown ink and yellow ink (or add a boit of chestnut ink for a different effect.
4. drybrush with bleached bone and gradually add more white until you
5. finally drybrush with white.

For a bit of variety, adjust the mix and add a little more yellow to
the highlight stage. Or you can mix a little brown ink into the
bleached bone basecoat and highlights for a darker look.

This is the recipe I used for my dracolich with adding a little more
yellow in places for the teeth and claws and more brown for his horn.
(sorry hes a little dusty!)

You will also see that I mixed in a little pink in with the basecoat
and highlights for the wings.

Other good ways of doing bone are:

1.basecoat codex grey
2. wash with a mix of black and brown ink
3. gradually highlight up to fortress grey and then to white- you can
get a very nice smooth transition - this way is great for Lizardmen
temple guards especially for the horns on the stegadon skulls.

I also did another group of temple guards using chestnut ink rather
than brown with the main colours used for the dracolich method- these
give a nice warm bone look.

For an old weathered look like the skulls on the games day chaos dude
(on my demon entry):

1. I started with a black basecoat
2. paint scorched brown
3. drybrush with bestial brown and gradually add more bubonic brown
then bleached bone
4. wash with a mix of brown and yellow ink
5. highlight with more bleached bone and white
6. then wash again with yellow ink for that just exhumed look!

For Hy\'Li\'Spy\'Qui

I used a layering/wet-blending technique.

1. Prime black

2. Basecoat scorched brown.

3. Adding more snakebite leather in to this basecoat, gradually highlight up using thin layers. I will generally wet blend these layers into each other to get a smoother transition.

4. Slowly lighten the colour with bleached bone, then white.

5. Shade with a wash of chestnut ink and purple ink mixed together.

6. Rehighlight where needed.

Enjoy!

Kat

 

[Chrispy]

The problem with bone is it is actually semi-transparent, like skin or marble. So to make realistic bone, I\'d suggest using the layering technique with very thin washes. For my Morbid puppets, I used Vallejo Cork Brown and Dark Yellow to give a greenish mildewy look. I started with a white base, though that means I had to blackline the ribs and everything. Oh, well.. I geuss the result is worth the time and effort if you want to make it super cool.

 

[alexgrunt]

Message original : kittykat23uk
Hi,

My main recipe for bone was given to me by my fiancee. Its:

1. Prime white
2. basecoat bleached bone
3. wash with a mix of brown ink and yellow ink (or add a boit of chestnut ink for a different effect.
4. drybrush with bleached bone and gradually add more white until you
5. finally drybrush with white.

Used to do it this way... (and still do it when in a hurry)
Otherwise, another method is done by layering:
1. Prime White
2. General Wash with Bubonic Brown
3. 1st coat with 1/2 bubonic & 1/2 bleach bone
4. : Add more bleach bone \'till pure and do the last highlights adding white...

 

[mouse]

sama sama...

Originally posted by kittykat23uk
Hi,

My main recipe for bone was given to me by my fiancee. Its:

1. Prime white
2. basecoat bleached bone
3. wash with a mix of brown ink and yellow ink (or add a boit of chestnut ink for a different effect.
4. drybrush with bleached bone and gradually add more white until you
5. finally drybrush with white.

...that\'s malay for likewise (or same)..except:

i normally add a tab of green to it.

kat, did your fiancee (add a \"n\" there and u get financee...someone who gets financing from a financer?? you know, interviewer, interviewee...haha....okie lame joke) got you interested in mini-painting? if so, cool shit...

 

[Valander]

Thanks for the variations!

I just tried a little experiment on one skelly, and I\'m fairly pleased with the results (I\'ll post pics this weekend or next--gotta deal with finals now).

Anyway, here\'s what I did:

1. Prime white (almost always do this anyway).
2. Wash entire model with VMC Beige Brown, at about 1:5 ratio.
3. Start adding Ivory, one drop at a time, to the Beige Brown mix from 2, and progress through a few layers of highlight, until finishing with pure Ivory.
4. Smoke (no, not tobacco--the Vallejo \"wonder paint\") the innermost areas (between ribs, eye sockets, inside mouth...).

And that was it! He\'s not got any green tone, but he\'s much softer in the gradiations than I used to do.

I\'m also thinking of trying pretty much the same as above, replacing Beige Brown with English Uniform to get a slightly greenish tone. Pics will be posted here eventually...

 

[mouse]

disappointing...

Originally posted by Valander
Thanks for the variations!
....
4. Smoke (no, not tobacco--the Vallejo \"wonder paint\") the innermost areas (between ribs, eye sockets, inside mouth...).
....

...no smoke? oh...finn will be disappointed. tsk tsk. always end off painting with a good smoke lol

PS: congrats for a successful attempt!

 

[Valander]

LOL... just don\'t smoke at your painting table! Glue fumes and other various things have a nasty habit of being a bit combustible.

Besides, then you get ashes in your paint. Hmmm....I wonder if there\'s any useful techniques for using cigar/cigarette ash as basing?

Finn?

 

[Valander]

Test Subject S001

Here\'s the first test subject, using the method I just described above.

Skeleton Warrior Test

(Just uploaded it, so it may take a while before it\'s approved and in the loop...)

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

The next test subject is going to be pretty much the same technique, but starting with Vallejo English Uniform....

 

[kittykat23uk]

Hmm.. good job, very clean-looking. I prefer a bit more texture and depth to my skeletons, but it photographs well, which is a good thing.

Regards

Kat

 

[Valander]

Originally posted by kittykat23uk
Hmm.. good job, very clean-looking. I prefer a bit more texture and depth to my skeletons, but it photographs well, which is a good thing.

Regards

Kat

Thanks. I know he\'s a bit \"clean,\" but I didn\'t want to bother doing too much on him, since he\'s really a test for colors.

I\'m preparing to do a bunch of Cryx for Warmachine, so these old plastic GW skellies are great for quick tests. Besides, much of the Cryx bone stuff is \"processed\" more than your typical skeleton just dug up. (Gotta prepare your bone bits to integrate with the steam engines... )

 

[kittykat23uk]

I reckon that scheme for Cryx would be very cool, especially if you combine that with a rough/ dirty look to the metal. I think that would make a nice contrast.

Regards

Kat

 

[Valander]

Originally posted by kittykat23uk
I reckon that scheme for Cryx would be very cool, especially if you combine that with a rough/ dirty look to the metal. I think that would make a nice contrast.

Regards

Kat

That\'s the plan.

I\'m also leaning towards doing my Cryx in a \"Romulan\" kind of scheme. The big panels are going to be a grey-green, and the metals basically weathered iron. Google for some \"Star Trek: Nemesis\" images to see what I\'m shooting for.

I just didn\'t want to do the typical \"black and gold\" that everyone seems to do on those nasties.

 

[wulverine]

Metal panels!

I would think that by now the bone tecniques have been fairly well covered, although for the panels I would recommend the way I paint warpstone for GW Scaven.

1. Start off with a mix off black ink and boltgun metal.
2. Highlight in the usual way if you want to, but I wouldn\'t recommend taking it any lighter than chainmail, then give a final wash of thinned down black ink.
3. Begin painting on alternating layers of thinned green ink with a few light highlights of sunburst yellow, then again with the green ink.
4. Continue until satisfied.

I know that GW paints are usually a little course for fine painting, but hey! ya gotta work with what ya got.
This technique may not be what you are looking for, but the end result should leave you with an oily looking green semi gloss finish. Hey! it works with warpstone!!

 

[Valander]

That sounds pretty interesting. I\'ve done similar green-wash things on other metals, usually brass or bronze.

I\'ve still got two other bone color mixes I want to try, then I\'ll be getting into the metal stuff.

 

[Evil Dave]

have you seen this?

it\'s on tinctureadept.com.

 

[Valander]

Yes, I\'ve seen those. Dead Dogg (at least, that\'s his alias over on the Warmachine forums) does some great work.

That green is pretty much the tone I\'m thinking of (found his pics after I decided to go Romulan... lol), but instead of the bronze I\'m thinking more of cast iron.