I’ve been painting some Warlord Celts today, and decided to make them properly grimy – so wheeled out an age old technique I used to use for doing loads of “realistic” models at once – Burnt Umber base coat. Simply get your favourite dark brown and undercoat with that. It’s not easy getting a primer in Burnt Umber, but a watered down coat suffices. This is ideal for any model you want to look “used” – no sci-fi day glo colour schemes here, just tans, yellows, ochres, dark reds, etc – I’m tempted to try and source a primer spray in this colour, as it adds richness, muddiness and overall “nature” into your model somehow. Magic.
(as a side trick which doesn’t often get used – set you scene easily when photographing minis by getting a suitable picture up on your PC monitor and using that as a backdrop. Just try and use a macro shot, keeping the monitor screen out of focus slightly therefore avoiding too obvious a “pixel grid” – even an HD monitor will show off its pixels this close up)
NB – It also helps if you move the cursor out of frame, unlike what I did…
Time to dust off the Photoshop clone tool…
I decided to get a bit fancy, since I had Photoshop open…
Adeptus Dogomatica 