All posts by Shawn

Hazard Stripes

Hazard Stripes are a requirement to complete the look of an Iron Warriors Army. They are surprisingly easy to do, and they look great everywhere, especially on chain swords, power fists, and bolters. This technique takes a carful hand so take your time.

Here’s what you‘ll need:

  • Chaos Black, Vomit Brown, Golden Yellow, Sunburst Yellow, Skull White paints (GW)
  • Fine Detail Brush
Step-I
Step-I
Step-II
Step-II
Step-III
Step-III
Step-IV
Step-IV

Step-V
Step-V

Step I: Paint the area you want the stripes to be black. Next paint on several diagonal stripes in Vomit Brown. Keep the lines as straight as possible. If you mess up, just clean it up with black.

Step II: Using Golden Yellow, paint a highlight stripe onto the Vomit Brown stripe but don’t cover it up all up.

Step III: Now using Sunburst Yellow, paint another highlight stripe on top of your Golden Yellow.

Step IV: Using Skull White, paint a fine line at the very edge of the hazard stripe bar on the Sunburst Yellow highlight you did in step 3.

Step V: Now using Codex Grey, paint a fine line on your black stripes. That’s it!

Easy Iron Warriors

Back when I owned this army I received quite a few inquiries on how I painted my Iron Warriors. To answer all of your questions I have decided to make this my first painting tutorial. Click on the image thumbnails for a better view.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Iron Warrior Logo

  • Black Primer
  • Air brush
  • Tank brush
  • Latex/Vinyl rubber gloves
  • Cheap brush
  • Badab Black & Gryphonne Sepia Washes (GW)
  • Boltgun Metal, Mithril Silver, & Shining Gold (GW)
  • Chaos Black & Bestial Brown paints (GW)



Before I get started I would like take some time and inform you on proper priming. The most important rule on priming is to never prime miniatures on rainy or humid days. Repeat this line ad nauseum!!! Moisture gets on your mini when it’s humid outside, you may not be able to see it, but it’s there. That moisture gets caught between the mini and the primer, and when it dries your miniature will look like it’s been sprayed in fine black or white sand. Getting that stuff off is a real pain, so save yourself some heartache and only prime during the proper weather conditions. That being said, let’s move on.

Now I used to use Future floor wax for this tutorial, but with the release of GW’s (Game Workshop) Citadel Washes that noxious mess is no longer required. Mixing Future into your washes, rather than straight water, breaks up the water’s surface tension and causes the pigment in your paints and inks to settle and dry properly in the recesses of the model, rather than on the surface of your miniature. While useful, Future does come with some problems:

I. Future leaves your minis coated in a medium to heavy gloss depending on how much you use. The gloss is also pretty resilient and will act as a protective varnish for your minis, but I’m not a fan of polished models on the tabletop.

II. Future is toxic if ingested. Many hobbyists out there like to lick their brushes after washing them off to reestablish a nice brush tip. That habit is easy to forget and can make you sick when using Future. If you use that stuff PLEASE be careful to not ingest any or leave it in a place where family/pets could get into it.

Since we are using GW products with this tutorial we don’t have to worry about ingesting toxins and gaining all those cool superpowers the following morning. All that said, let’s get started!

Step-I
Step-I
Step-II
Step-II
Step-III
Step-III
Step-IV
Step-IV
Step-V
Step-V

Step-VI
Step-VI

Step I: After the black prime has dried, it’s time to basecoat the minis in Boltgun Metal with your airbrush. I suggest you check out my tutorial on Airbrushing and practice on some old unused minis to get this technique down before starting on your precious traitor marines. A complete coat is important for this step so make sure no black is showing. Don’t forget your pistols/guns!

Use your gloves for steps 2&3. That is unless you like shiny silver fingers…

Step II: Wet-brush (just like dry-brushing but keep more paint on the brush) your minis with Mithril Silver using your Tank Brush, and let them dry. Just like in Step I, a complete coat is very important. The washing in Step III relies on total coverage.

Step III: After the silver has dried it’s time to apply the wash (GW Badab Black). The new Citadel Washes from GW are pretty damn useful. They pool in the recesses and when they dry you’ll find all your joint shading done all at once. Another fine quality of these washes is that they can be used right out of the pot with no watering down. You’ll want to use a brush that can hold a lot of wash so you can do your mini’s assembly line style to save time. You can find some nice cheap soft bristle bushes from Michaels Arts and Crafts.

The only negative I’ve found with these washes is the time it takes them to dry. You’ll have to wait around 30 minutes or so for the model to dry naturally. I have a halogen lamp on my desk that trims the drying time down a bit but it still takes my minis at lest 10-15 minutes. Make sure they are completely dry before moving on to the next step.

Step IV: Pick out the detail of the mini with Shining Gold. Hit the trim on the greaves, shoulder pads, chest, belt, backpack, pistol/gun detail, and helmet. Now grab your Sepia wash. Use a detail brush to paint the wash onto the gold trim being careful not to get any on your newly dried iron armor. It gives the gold a very ‘rich’ look I am quite fond of.

Step V: Paint interior of the shoulder pads, the spots between his armor plates (backs of the knees and such), tubing, helmet, and sides of your pistols/guns in Chaos Black, then paint any horns with Beastial Brown. Highlight the horns with Bleached Bone. Now it’s time to make these guys into real Iron Warriors: it’s Hazard Stripe Time!

After the stripes, apply your decals and you are done! Base your minis, and give them their weapons, it’s time to slay the lackeys of the Corpse Emperor! “Iron Within! Iron Without!

Lord of Change

This was the first large model I have ever painted. For years I avoided large projects because I was afraid I lacked the skill to do them justice. I had so much fun with this model I grew a rather crippling enjoyment for character models. ~DO YOUR CHARACTERS LAST!~

With the new Fateweaver model en route from GW in August I decided to rebase him for my WoC army and use him as a Demon Prince of Tzeentch. The minimalist theme I’ve been using for the bases in this army really works well with red heavy models.

Lord of Change
Tchar be Praised!

Chaos Troll Template!

Finally finished this sucker! It took me several attempts to get my colors down and uniform with the army concept I’m going for. My original paint attempt had the trolls skin in bright violet.

It was horrible.

I moved the violet to the scales, adopted the same grey skin I did on the warhounds, and added the bone for contrast. It was damn fun to paint.

1 down, 10 to go.

~Throgg excluded~

Front View
Front View
Left Front
Left Front
Rear View
Rear View
Right Side
Right Side

Tyranid Tervigon

Finally got around to uploading these images. I decided to go with a modified variant of the design from Hydra from Warpshadow.com. I could not get the egg sack method he used so I went with my own.

To be honest this is one of the best models I have painted. I don’t like to paint large minis on the most part but this one came together so well I had to.

Front View
Front View
Left Side
Left Side
Right Front
Right Front
Head Detail
Head Detail
Egg Sacks
Egg Sacks
Egg Sacks
Egg Sacks

Sorceress of Slaanesh

I painted this mini a LONG while ago. It’s a landmark model for me as it’s the first time I successfully painted NMM (non-metallic metal) gold. That technique has been my Everest for the longest time and through that success I was able to add some serious detail I’ve been missing from my work for a long time.

After a quick re-basing she was added to the new Warriors of Chaos army I’m painting as I’ve never used her and I really don’t remember how I did this paint scheme. Replicating it will be torture so I’ll use her as a Sorceress.

Hail the Darkling Prince!

Right Side
Right Side
Right Front
Right Front
Left Side
Left Side
Rear Left
Rear Left
Rear Right
Rear Right

Chaos Warhounds

Warhounds done!

I followed the hair color from the warhorse template model for the fur here. It came out very well.

I sculpted fur with greenstuff over the holes where the horns went because they were lame.

Snakes? Coming out of the side of their heads? That’s gh3y man…

Template Model
I need to paint that tounge...
One unit down!

Paint Theme Template!

Ok. I finally settled down on the template for this Slaanesh Warhost.

I started this theme for a Tzeentch army when the Chaos army book was released but I never got around to finalizing it. I already have a Demonic Tzeentch army so I decided change gods.

It took me a long while to settle down on the metal plate section for this scheme. I first wanted to do a lacquered white with a lavender hint to it but replicating that army wide was a path to damnation and madness. I went with the default pastel pink.

Rider to come…

Right Side
Right Side
Left Side
Left Side

Throgg & Lads

Got all my trolls bought and built. I decided to go with the new river trolls, as they are sexy as hell.

I wracked my brains over what to use for Throgg as GW is fond of releasing rules for models that don’t exist. After much deliberation over at GW Springfield, I settled on using the new Doombull from the recent Beastmen line.

Now I’m no Dave Taylor, but I can make this guy fit in. He’s suitably huge, armored, and wielding an axe as large as he is. A head swap, some scale sculpting, a few horns and he’ll do fine.

Throgg & Lads
Needs more work!