Kaleb Daark:
I’m at the stage where I need to decide on skin colours for hell smiths and castellans / bull centaurs.
So i’d like to ask, what if any is the consensus on Dawi Zharr flesh tones?
Admiral:
It’s entirely a matter of personal taste. I’ve seen crimson, ashen-faced, dark-skinned, light-skinned or even deathly pale Chaos Dwarfs done well.
Since Chaos Dwarfs are descended from ordinary Dwarfs I usually try to not deviate too much from the standard Dawi look, so they get the same Tallarn Flesh/Dwarf Flesh treatment with Kommando Khaki and possibly Bleached Bone highlights, followed with Reikland Fleshshade to bind it all together. Likewise I mix in blonde, brown, red and white/grey beards, though the majority are still black as is proper for Dawi Zharr.
You might want to try your hand at Chaos Dwarf tattoos, though.
Thommy H:
Since most GW hobbyists are white people, they tend to paint them as white people. But you can do them how you like.
Grimbold Blackhammer:
I believe our army book refers to them as grey-skinned. Whether you go with greyish recesses or actually grey skin - the book doesn’t specify in that detail.
Yodrin:
I would say just go with the skin color you want them to have;)
gIL^:
Since most GW hobbyists are white people, they tend to paint them as white people. But you can do them how you like.Well most armies in warhammer are derived from Pan european Folklore. it's down to GW to introduce other armies from different fictional enviroments, I wouldn't say people paint mini's white due to their race but the fluff in game. Ive seen white people paint salamanders and those are Black so if GW sold Araby or Cathay they would paint them appropriately.
Thommy H
It would look strange to have non white Empire.
Fortunately Chaos Dwarfs are open to interpretation. All skin colours already stated look great.
Admiral:
One oddball idea which could be tried out if you want a truly chaotic look is to paint marble effect skin, in whatever colours you fancy. Glowing eyes is otherwise an old favourite.
Thommy H:
It would look strange to have non white Empire.Yeah, we wouldn't want any historically inaccurate black people. Griffons were pretty common in Renaissance-era Germany, of course.
gIL^
Sorry, this is just a little pet-peeve of mine. Paint your Chaos Dwarfs how you like - canon artwork has them white, and most people do them that way, but it really doesn't matter since they're not human anyway.
timurbannipal:
The faces are often the focal point of miniatures, and the white flesh tone draws the eye because it’s brighter. Black skin is less immediate, but allow eyes and teeth to stand out. Because of the free reign when it comes to CD’s I’d recommend do what you think looks best. If they have light armour I’d go with darker skin tones and vice versa. That’s my opinion and I’m an average painter at best, but the best painted miniature I own is a gold NMM Inquisitor Coteaz that’s got black skin…
thewizardofoz:
As my first unit of infernal guard are based on the Winkie Guard from the Wizard of Oz, I have done them with a green skin and that looked great. I think it depends on what effect you want.
I would definitely go with mixed beard colours though - they look great in a unit.
Admiral:
The faces are often the focal point of miniatures, and the white flesh tone draws the eye because it's brighter. Black skin is less immediate, but allow eyes and teeth to stand out. Because of the free reign when it comes to CD's I'd recommend do what you think looks best. If they have light armour I'd go with darker skin tones and vice versa. That's my opinion and I'm an average painter at best, but the best painted miniature I own is a gold NMM Inquisitor Coteaz that's got black skin...Very dark skin can still work wonderful if the model is painted with bright teeth and eyes, and some bold skin highlights to make facial features stand out.
timurbannipal
Kaleb Daark:
thanks for all the feedback guys 
here’s the start of them, I decided a conventional flesh colour and go from there…
gIL^:
Ill look forward to your new additions to your Bretonnians :DIt would look strange to have non white Empire.Yeah, we wouldn't want any historically inaccurate black people. Griffons were pretty common in Renaissance-era Germany, of course.
gIL^
Sorry, this is just a little pet-peeve of mine. Paint your Chaos Dwarfs how you like - canon artwork has them white, and most people do them that way, but it really doesn't matter since they're not human anyway.
Thommy H
Bloodbeard:
I use dark flesh (dwarf flesh or something) as a base, highlight with elf flesh and then highlight knuckles and finger tips with ushabi bone. And lastly I wash the skin with ogryn flesh wash and agrax earth shade. Looks fairly dirty and gritty.
After reading Tamurkhan i tried to change the skin colour to grey tones. Dark grey as a base, light grey highlight and ushabi bone lastly. Then washing with the same washes - to make it look more like skin.
The grey tones didn’t work in my force. The models became “flat”, my armour/uniform are grey and purple. So suddently they lacked contrast.
Your army looks pretty nice. Washing your metalarmour a bit dark and having the skin as a light contrast will work well.
Looking forward to seeing it complete.
Kaleb Daark:
thanks Blackbeard.
I’m painting this for a friend who wants to take it to Throne of Skulls on the 8th Feb. But it gives me a chance to do a demo run on my own army’s colour scheme. Once complete i’ll post up the pictures
gIL^:
I use dark flesh (dwarf flesh or something) as a base, highlight with elf flesh and then highlight knuckles and finger tips with ushabi bone. And lastly I wash the skin with ogryn flesh wash and agrax earth shade. Looks fairly dirty and gritty.I tried gray at first but ran into the same trouble as you, Either to dark or they turned gray'y blue so i went with dwarfy flesh as you can see in my avatar :D
After reading Tamurkhan i tried to change the skin colour to grey tones. Dark grey as a base, light grey highlight and ushabi bone lastly. Then washing with the same washes - to make it look more like skin.
The grey tones didn't work in my force. The models became "flat", my armour/uniform are grey and purple. So suddently they lacked contrast.
Your army looks pretty nice. Washing your metalarmour a bit dark and having the skin as a light contrast will work well.
Looking forward to seeing it complete.
Bloodbeard
Thommy H:
Ill look forward to your new additions to your Bretonnians :DHaha - fair point. I think actually I was thinking of non-human armies without historical equivalents and I just got fixated on the example you used there, which was stupid. It's more of an issue with 40K I guess, where there's basically no reason whatsoever to have a whitewashed galaxy, and even the one studio army that occasionally included a brown face - the Salamanders - ended up being retconned to have a genetic abnormality that gave them jet black skin and red eyes instead of being just...you know...black. Like people are, a lot.
gIL^
And don't get me started on the representation of women in GW settings...
Yodrin:
Good start I’d say, any closeups maybe?
Thorgar:
I do them with purple undertones.
1:1 tallarn flesh and rakarth flesh/dheneb stone
wash with GW purple wash (you could add some of the blue wash in for a mix if you want a colder tone)
wash nose/ears/lips/around eyes with a red wash to give those areas color. And then re apply the original flesh tone on the raised parts, and then add astronomican grey to that mix for highlights.
you could also base liche purple and then add flesh colors to it and do layers…but that method is harder to do with faces.
Admiral:
One thing to think about the old school Chaos Dwarfs from before the big hat era is the Chaos of it all. Just like you’d throw in a few tentacles, claws or other mutations and Chaos gifts on blessed Marauders, you could throw in an extra head or eye, or a different complexion on them. Gotta keep it random. And if you can on humans, you can do so on the old kind of Chaos Dwarfs without breaking theme.
the Salamanders - ended up being retconned to have a genetic abnormality that gave them jet black skin and red eyes instead of being just…you know…black. Like people are, a lot.It was a retcon? That at least explains why they’re still painted as actual “black” people (i.e. very dark brown skin*) instead of the coal black-beings they’re always described as.
Thommy H
As for women and GW, they did get that Khorne lady right without ridiculous bikini armour or whatnot that any real, tough, historical Scythian warrior woman, Samurai wife or Viking shield maiden would never have worn. GW is still one of the smaller sinners in this field, though.
* Yeah, I’m irritatingly pedant about colour descriptions, but brown isn’t black and pinkish orange skin isn’t white. Albinos are white.