[Hobby] How to Paint: the Kavadah Dynasty

Enough people have asked how I do these, so I thought it was probably time to explain myself. 

Start from grey primer. I use Citadel's Mechanicus Standard, having choked the detail on a few too many figures trying to make cheap nasty craft shop/automotive primers happen. Just put your hand in your pocket and pay the premium: it does seem to make a difference.

Then give everything that's not a gun or an "engine" a coat of Liquitex Iridescent Bronze Ink. I use a makeup brush for vehicle hulls and a size 4 regular one for infantry and fiddly corners. This takes a while to dry, so go and play some Deep Rock Galactic (a mid complexity dig should do it).

Once that's dry, give everything you've just painted a coat of Liquitex Transparent Raw Umber. You may need to poke this around a bit to stop it pooling too much, but some irregularities are fine; just makes 'em look old and weathered and that. Takes a while to dry. Time for some more Deep Rock Galactic. You should definitely go for a mid or high complexity dig here.

Vehicle armour gets a coat of Liquitex Dioxazine Purple ink; infantry armour and ankhs get a coat of Liquitex Deep Violet. Don't go mad with this - I tend to restrict it to shoulder pads, chest ankhs and occasional thighs. You're not painting Space Marines here.

If you wanted to go a bit harder here, this is where you'd get your Citadel Canoptek Alloy out and paint in some of the moving parts at the Necron's joints. I don't bother because my fine motor control's going, but if you're up to it, it'd probably look sweet.

This close up of a recent Stalker will hopefully show the difference between the purples. The same contrast can also be used for things like making your space skellies slightly different colours just in case you want to use them in two squads.

Next up: weapons. 

First coat on these is Liquitex Iridescent Silver ink, then Liquitex Carbon Black. Be really careful here: the black will throw off colour balance and, if it strays, it's a blighter to clean up. Carbon Black is also really sticky and doesn't cover too well; you may need an almost 1:1 mix with thinner medium to loosen it up. I've recently encountered the same problem with the Dioxazine Purple; the darker colours appear to enjoy thiccness.

 

If you want the glow to be extra bright, as with the gun barrels on my infantry, avoid getting Carbon Black on them. I don't bother with that on melee weapons as too much green makes them look a bit too much like toys.

Glowy bits then get a coat or two of Citadel Tesseract Glow. You, the painter, get a vigorous arm workout from the multiple minutes of shaking it takes to recombine the elements of this strange, wonderful substance. It still beats painting green glow in four or five stages. 

While that's drying, carefully drybrush any hero rocks with Citadel Terminatus Stone. Any metalwork on bases should be treated the same way as the Necron weapons. Any Scarabs hiding on bases should be painted following the first three steps of this guide.

Finally, bases. These are easy. Paint the top with a good thick glob of Agrellan Earth, paint the rim with Zandri Dust, then stick a black plant or two wherever the Agrellan's dried smooth and boring. I use Army Painter Deadland Tufts, because I enjoy saying "tuft" a little too much.

Seemples.