Hive City Gangs: The Nomads – Part 4 – Paint

Tutorial

I’m finally putting paint on my Ashwaste Nomads which I plan to use in One Page Rules Grimdark Future Firefight! At this point I have a relatively clear mental picture in my head. Consequently I directly jump into the painting process.

Priming the Nomads

I primed everything in cheap grey plastic primer from the rattle can. This is a step I take on every miniature, regardless of their base colors.

Prime paint on the Ashwaste Nomads.
Primed miniatures on my “priming/varnishing board”

Firstly I used my airbrush to lay down the base colors on the dried primer coat.

Start to paint my Ashwaste Nomads.
I base coat everything in a brown ink/paint.
Paint my Ashwaste Nomads orange.
A follow-up with a rusty orange (i mixed red and yellow Army Painter Airbrush paints) is used to give the miniature that rusty appearance.
Then everything got a withe zenithal highlight.
A “dirty” brown ink follows on top of the white. I used Green Stuff World “Swamp Brown” ink.
The undersides got a coat of red ink.
The undersides got darkened with a green or blue ink. I used “Virdis Green” ink by Green Stuff World.
A skeleton bone was misted from the top as another zenithal highlight. This gives the miniatures a dusty/sandy desert look.
In the end I a highlighted the tops with white as a final step in my air brushing priming process.
Airbrushing the Ashwaste nomads

Base coating the Ashwaste Nomads

Following the air brushing I started base coating the main parts of the miniatures or to basically paint the Ashwaste Nomads.

First I used a layer of gunmetal to paint all the weapons, tanks, backpack frames, etc..
A brown ink was used to paint all of the leather straps, holsters and pouches.
I used black ink for some parts of the weapons, for the boots and the breather masks.
My “Swamp Brown” ink was applied to areas of cloth to add some contrast/interest to the robes.
That's my Ashwaste Nomads with paint on them.
The face shields were painted in a light grey.

I used some pastel inks to give the cloth some more interest.

Paint Basecoats on the Ashwaste Nomads.
I added some light colored inks/washes to add some further variety to the cloth/leather cloaks.

As a final step I painted some cables red, the rocket grey-white and the eyes light blue. During the painting process I thought of the Fremen warriors from Dune: a nice focal point for the faces I think. I also highlighted the bone parts on the banners.

Paint the grunge

The base coating done, I went ahead to paint some grunge to my Ashwaste Nomads. Or if you will, I “grim darkened” them. I first applied some different tones of brown washes by blowing compressed air through my air brush on a thick brush loaded with the wash. This leaves a very nice speckled pattern on the miniature and adds a very realistic dirty look.

The I used a fine piece of blister sponge to stipple on some brown acrylic paint followed by a bright orange. This should simulate rust on metal areas.

I added some dark inks/washes at the bottom part of the miniatures to make the upper part of the miniature stick out much better in the overall paint job.

Grunge paint on my Ashwaste Nomads.

Finally I applied an oil wash I mixed up using odorless white spirit and a lot of brown, some black and a tiny amount of blue oil paint to mix a heavy liquid to wash the entire miniature with it. Also please make sure you gloss varnish the miniatures first. With this in mind I use cheap spray varnish from the can which helps to protect the underlying paint coats from being rubbed off in the next step.

Oil paint on my Ashwaste Nomads.

Then I removed everything on the raised surfaces with a make up sponge after the oil wash has dried for half an hour. I thus leave the crevices dark and reveal the initial paint underneath.

Oil paint on my Ashwaste Nomads.

Afterwards I left them aside for a couple of days to let the oil wash fully dry.

Final steps to paint the Ashwaste Nomads

I finally added some highlight on the grey face masks, on the eyes and on the rim of their hoods with the initial base colors mixed with white and skeleton bone. This makes their faces really stand out of the otherwise very (grim) dark paint scheme.

That's how I paint Ashwaste Nomads.
I think the result speaks for itself.

Finally I will cover my basing method for the Ashwaste Nomads in the last part of this tutorial series.

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