I’m working on a full Zone Mortalis board for Horus Heresy.
Tutorial below.
Required Paints:
- Black Primer
- Grey Primer
- Brown Spray
- Rusty brown & highlight: Vallejo Charred Brown & Army Painter Leather Brown
- Concrete grey & highlight: Vallejo Basalt Grey & Neutral Grey
- Metal: Vallejo Metal Colour Steel mixed 50:50 with Vallejo Model Colour Oily Steel
- Rusty Iron: Army Painter Dark Rust & Fresh Rust
- Other Metals: Warhammer Canoptek Alloy & Nihilakh Oxide
- The Grime: Warhammer Garaghak’s Sewer
Prep:
I have built my ZM terrain in semi-modular layouts, according to the suggestions from State of Play’s fantastic Zone Mortalis terrain guide (link here - third video).
I left the toppers separate so I could prime them a different colour (Rust-Oleum Flat Grey). I did this first but by flipping the topper over you protect the prime so do it in whatever order works for you.
I primed everything else in black on a sunny day, making sure to get all the crevices. After leaving it a little while to dry, I sprayed again with some brown spray paint that roughly colour-matched Warhammer Rhinox Hide or Vallejo Charred Brown. Roughly.
Once that was all dry and finished off-gassing I stuffed it all in a tub and ignored it so I didn’t have to paint it all in one go.
A little later, I pulled everything out of the tub and gave it a light drybrush of my brown highlight - then everything went back in the tubs.
Now, whenever it’s time to get painting I pull out three or four of my semi-modular sections and start by popping the tops off. They get a layer of my concrete grey, because my primer is a little light for my liking. Then so do all the big flat areas in the wall sections - using a finer brush for the little window sections, because I do not want to clean up any mistakes.
Next, metal. For the batch in this tutorial I used a 50:50 mix of Vallejo Metal Colour Steel and Vallejo Model Colour Oily Steel. This is for two reasons:
- The Metal Colour Steel is a little runny, so using it to dilute regular metallics means I don’t have to keep stirring it when it separates.
- The Model Colour Oily Steel sucks and I try to use it for terrain where it won’t matter so much.
I use a chonky brush for the big pipe sections and a smaller brush to pick out the big bolts on the toppers and any metal details on the wall sections.
I also use Canoptek Alloy to pick out any plate sections that seem like they would look cool if they were non-ferrous. I’ve used Vallejo Metal Colour Copper for this job, too - but for some reason I’m enjoying Canoptek Alloy at the moment.
Continued next post.
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The metals usually take a little while to dry, now. This is a good place to take a break, but it’s not mandatory. Some details will look better if you do this next step after the metal paints dry, but it doesn’t matter a lot.
I’ve distilled some Garaghak’s Sewer into a dropper bottle for the next stages, so I can dilute it with water. I normally use Contrast Medium to dilute it, but for the really grimy look I want, water makes it behave a little more naturally.
I use Garaghak’s Sewer on a fairly big-bellied brush to gloop over all the metal details on the wall, and use Nihilakh Oxide to pick out any non-ferrous metal details. I also use a more-pointy brush to pick out all the little bolts in the wall toppers with Garaghak’s. Diluting the contrast paint with water makes it flow better into the gaps. If you put in too much, smear it with your finger or a tissue. It makes the wall look grimier.
For the next step, keep the Garaghak’s Sewer on the palette, dilute it heavily with water, and absolutely drown all the pipe sections on the wall toppers. If the metal paint hasn’t completely dried, it’ll probably blend in but that’s okay.
This final step is coolest if it’s as random as you can make it. Start with Army Painter Dark Rust, dilute it a little with water and splodge it over the metal pipes in the wall toppers. You want great, big, detail-obscuring blobs of paint. This paint has a little bit of texture in it but it dries without obscuring much detail. If the Garaghak’s Sewer from earlier is still wet, you get some nice transition effects.
Lastly, glob some slightly smaller blobs of water-diluted Army Painter Fresh Rust onto all the blobs of Dark Rust. It’ll blend with the Dark Rust and when it eventually dries, look really natural.
Finally, pick out any other details, add water damage, etc. I’ve built my walls without any monitors or adornment but if you’ve stuck them on - now’s the time!
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Great stuff. I just don’t get tired of looking at the ZM terrain! Looking like a nice combination of simple painting scheme, with a few touches to make things pop… I’m still a while away from being organized enough to tackle mine!
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