In this tutorial I quickly show you how I built and paint a unit of Warhammer Chaos Hounds. Some years ago, I built and painted these miniatures for my Warhammer Age of Sigmar Slaves to Darkness army and my One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Havoc army. It so happened, that I documented the whole process with pictures. Recently, when I found some of said photographs I had lying around somewhere on my home server, I decided to come up with a proper tutorial. Consider it as my first tutorial ever!
Materials
Besides the box of miniatures and the bases, I prepared my clippers, knife and plastic cement for the assembly.
For the following steps, I used a grey primer, a black and a white spray paint from the can. I always use the cheapest brands. They work well for me.
Of course, you’ll need your acrylic paints, brushes, water, a homemade wet palette, sand, and PVA-glue for basing and a jar of water. Don’t use the cheapo brands when it comes to acrylic paints. The ones in the picture are just a placeholder for the real deal in the likes of Citadel, The Army Painter, Vallejo, and other dedicated miniature paints.
Building
Carefully remove your minis from the sprue, using hobby clippers. Use the flat end against the miniature parts. Remove mold lines by scraping over them with a sharp hobby/utility knife or box cutter.
Glue the pieces together using plastic cement à la Revell Contacta. Once solid, glue the minis on their bases using that same glue. Let them completely dry afterward.
Painting
Before starting with the painting step, stick all your miniatures on something rigid (I use a piece of wood), using double-sided tape.
Priming
The first step in painting your miniatures is to prime them. For this, I first spray paint them with a plastic primer, Mine happens to be always grey. Next, I went all over with a black spray. Then, I applied a grey zenithal highlight from a 45° angle, just to finish it off with a final white highlight from above.
Let the coats of spray paints fully dry, before applying any paint.
Base coating
I used an air-brush to apply the main colors: brown, black, and flesh color. But, you could also apply it with a paintbrush.
First, I airbrushed the brown parts.
Then, I went to airbrush the black fur.
As a final airbrushing step, I did the snouts ans the fleshy tails, using a flesh color.
With my paintbrush, I base-coated the horns, teeth, and spikes. A regular bone color does the job.
A beige drybrush allover brings out the details.
As a final painting step, I used “liquid skill”, also known as a wash. In my case I used The Army Painter Strong Tone. Apply it allover the miniatures.
Before basing, leave the wash to dry completely.
Basing
For units, I tend to stay simple with my basing schemes. This means, (water-proof) PVA-glue and sand from the beach in my case. I tend to collect my sand at the beach.
Apply a watered -down slurry of PVA-glue directly unto the base and sprinkle the sans on it. The watered-down glue seeps mixes with the sans and dries rock-hard.
Once dry, I use a dark brown-black wash, either homemade or bought, and apply it on the dried sans base. Here I learned from my mistakes. The watery wash regularly re-activated the PVA and ruined my basing. Hence the water-proof PVA-glue.
Paint your base edges in any color you like. I tend to paint mine black, brown or grey.
And that’s how I paint Warhammer Chaos Hounds the easy way. With that, your unit is ready to crush its enemy on the tabletop!