[Archive] painting red

Abyss:

hey guys,

one of the things which struck me when i posted picture of my first completed unit was that they where commented on as being “very red.” looking at them now i can see that the red is a very powerful colour on the models and doesn’t look perticularly great.

i was just wondering how everyone else with a red chaos dwarf army paints the red on their models so that it doesn;t overpower everything else. atm i’ve just been going scab red, to blood red.

peace out

Malificant:

the trick with red is that since it can become so bright and unseemly to look at is to work off your basecoat more than the highlights. for example, from what i saw of your stuff, and correct me if im wrong, but it looks as though you did a scab red base coat, and blood red on top, not a highlight, but a full cover.

now, my army is using an orange color scheme, but this can work for red as well(which is my base color anyhow)

here is your basic peice of scale mail armor, 1 scale, black undercoat:

BBBBBB

BBBBBB

BBBBBB

BBBBBB

ok, now you want a red armor color, so you base coat it scab red(S):

SSSSSS

SSSSSS

SSSSSS

SSSSSS

then, you’d like it brighter but not garishly red. so use an “L” shaped pattern on your scal and highlight first red gore(G):

GGGSSS

GGGSSS

GGGGGG

GGGGGG

from there you do your final highlight in Blood Red(R), also using the L shaped pattern:

RGGSSS

RGGSSS

RRGGGG

RRRRRR

it will do nicely to pick out the shape of the scales, and provide you with a red, but not overpowering.

RGGSSS RGGSSS RGGSSS

RGGSSS RGGSSS RGGSSS

RRGGGG RRGGGG RRGGGG

RRRRRR RRRRRR RRRRRR

RGGSSS RGGSSS

RGGSSS RGGSSS

RRGGGG RRGGGG

RRRRRR RRRRRR

Abyss:

thanks, thats some good advice but how do you apply this to larger (mostly flat) area’s, like arms etc.

GRNDL:

Reds usually don’t cover other paints very well, so its important to lay down a good base if you want to avoid doing several coats.

The new citadel foundation paints actually work quite well and you can choose one close to whatever colour you’re going to use without having it show through the reds you paint on top of it. Black and white tend to show through whatever red base you put onto it usually - which is why some painters use a neutral gray/bleached bone as an undercoat.

Vexxus:

Reds usually don't cover other paints very well, so its important to lay down a good base if you want to avoid doing several coats.

The new citadel foundation paints actually work quite well and you can choose one close to whatever colour you're going to use without having it show through the reds you paint on top of it. Black and white tend to show through whatever red base you put onto it usually - which is why some painters use a neutral gray/bleached bone as an undercoat.

GRNDL
The red foundation is absolutely amazing!

That being said, all of the foundations are great, and do a fantastic job as a base coat. Xander got me the set for Christmas, so I enjoy a variety every time I paint, they are a staple of my painting now and I could never go back!

They are also great for drawing patterns or designs since they are not nearly as transparent as other citadel pains, so you never have to go over the same thin line or detail twice!

Grimstonefire:

I use a dark flesh basecoat, followed by red gore.  Then a brown wash.  Another layer of red gore over this (to take away the shine) followed by a straight blood red highlight.

The overall effect is very subdued.

Larger areas I have tended to go for red gore highlighted up to blood red, but I’m thinking I might repaint this in time with scab red to be a bit redder (than orange).

On my latest banner I painted I did a mechrite red basecoat, followed by scab red, then a scab red/bleached bone highlight.  The overall effect is still red, but its a much pinker red than the orangy blood red.

Hammerhand:

Merchite red as a basecoat is now a must in my book! With reds, it’s about the right balance of shading and highlighting and also (and probably more importantly) what other colours you are using on the model. If the red overpowers the complimenting colours (or has no complimenting colours) it will appear to be too much and just not look natural.

As an analogy, think of it in terms of an aeroplane and it’s engine… The main colour is your engine, that’s going to give your model its umph, where as the complimenting colour is the wings, which guides your model to where you want it to be. If you have a powerful engine (say …red!), you are going to need stronger wings and they will have to be dynamic to cope with the power! where as a colour that is not so dominant (yellow) will only need light and delicate wings in order to fly! Infact, if the wings are to heavy, it wouldn’t fly at all!

Shade your red areas first using brown tones (brown ink, or blend a little scorched brown into red gore), and highlight using brighter reds up to blazing orange (any further and you lose the lush red appearance). Compliment your red with browns, blacks and a rich browny golds. Your complimenting colours need to be strong enough to not be engulfed/overpowered by the red, so if you are complimenting with black, you need sharp highlights, brown needs deep shading and sharp highlights. I normally blend a bit of dwarf bronze with burnished gold to get a gold that compliments the red very nicely indeed!

Hope this helps (if you can understand my wishy washy wording!!)

Xander:

Ishkur should weigh in on this, his work with red is top notch. :slight_smile:

Willmark:

Red is the absolute worse color to paint IMHO for the various reasons covered above. White undercoating can help as opposed to black, at least in some cases.

aki:

An easy way to paint red over black undercoat is: A basecoat of scab red+chaos black, highlight with pure scab red (need a couple of layers) highlight of blood red, glaze whit thin red ink. Learnt from Vintagephreak, so if you need examples: https://discourse.chaos-dwarfs.com/t/7469 :wink: