HOBBY: Airbrushing Blue Skin in 4 Easy Steps
Hey guys, today we take a look at how to paint Trollblood (aka blue) skin easy and effectively. It works on Tau or anything blue as well!
A hobby tutorial by Col. Festus
So I’ve been working on a lot of Trollbloods as of late because I love their warbeasts. They also have a great line of miniatures with a lot of character in them. The biggest problem for me was their skin. When it comes to Hordes miniatures they have a lot of open organic areas that can be somewhat alien for a GW painter. So open up your recipe books folks, here is a surefire way to get some good looking Trollblood skin.
I started by undercoated the model grey. Once this was dry I dusted the entire model with my airbrush from above with Vallejo Model Air White. Once this was done I thinned down P3 Trollblood base with magic water in a 1:1 ratio (a 1:10 mix of Liquitex flow aid to distilled water). I then proceeded to apply this mixture via airbrush evenly to the entire miniature. One that was dry I added a drop of P3 Trollblood Highlight to the mixture and gave the model a coating from the top down. I repeated this procedure until I had almost a 1:1 mix of Trollblood Base to Highlight in my airbrush. To finish it off I put a 1:1 mix of Trollblood Highlight to magic water in my airbrush and sprayed the palms, inner arms, and belly of my Mauler. Once everything was nice and dry I went back with a 1:1 mix of Asurman Blue to magic water and hit the deep recesses.
So a quick recap of the skin:
1) Trollblood Base
2) 1:1 mix Trollblood Base to Trollblood Highlight
3) Finished with pure Trollblood Highlight on “Fleshy” areas
4) 1:1 Asurman Blue to magic water shade
Now the airbrush helps greatly when you are dealing with light colors such as these, however the same effects can be achieved using a retardant of some kind and doing some wet blending on the model. The only real difference is the time you save with the airbrush.
Here are a few shots of the finished product:
~So this model was a blast to paint. It’s always good when everything just goes right on a model. I’m looking forward to painting some Trollkin in the near future, keep an eye out for more! What secret recipes do you use for airbrushing skin?
