Learn How to Paint Death Guard Quickly and Easily

Long ago a great painter, Jean Francois, did post his achievements. Regrettably, rumour has it, he has left the hobby and taken all his brilliant tutorials with him.

Efforts continue to resurrect his work and I found this brilliant tutorial in that vein.

Death Guard Tutorial

Step #1

Prime Black with a few thin layers of your favorite black primer.

Death Guard - Step #1

Once dry, go back over the model with some watered down Chaos Black (with a touch of Future Floor Polish to help break the surface tension). You could also use Badab Black Wash.

Step #2

With an old, large dry brush, stain the model. This is done by drybrushing the model Skull White creating a natural white – grey – black transition through out the model.

Death Guard - Step #2

This method is fast, simple and easy.

Step #3

Now to add some color to the model.

Begin with a drybrush with Camo Green followed by a drybrush of Rotting Flesh on top.

Death Guard - Step #3

Note that the original tutorial (and Jean’s Plague Guard) used a lighter color combination (Graveyard Earth followed by Bleached Bone). The colors don’t matter so much as you will see later. However, pick a color and its’ highlight to use in combination. Don’t worry about how odd it looks now.

Death Guard - Step #4

Followed by the Rotting Flesh Drybrush:

Trust me here… bad picture, poor lighting. Sorry.

Death Guard - Step #4-2

Step #4

So far, we have spent about five minutes painting the model. However, it’s time to slow down a bit and do some simple detailing.

Find all of the bone sections of the model and add color in the following manner: Shade -> Midtone -> Highlight.

Mix a bit of each color together to make the transition a little less contrasty. Don’t worry too much since you’ll be added washes in a bit.

For the bone use: Snakebite Leather (shade), Bleached Bone (mid tone), Skull White (highlight).

All of the armor trim, bolters, and such got a coat of Boltgun Metal.

The armor creases got a mix of Chaos Black and VMC Cold Grey.

Step #5

Enough of that tricky detail work. Time for the big wash!

Grab a junky basing brush and some watered down Badab Black and wash the entire model.

Give it a good dose of the stuff, but be careful not to let it pool anywhere on the model. Jean used black wonderwash. Let it dry overnight.

Step #6

Now take you darkened marine and start to add some color.

Gryphonne Sepia Wash was applied to any areas adjacent to the armor plates, decorations, and any place that needed a deep shade that the black somehow didn’t get.

Next, Baal Red Wash went into all of the ‘organic parts’ of the model. Basically anything that looked like Nurgle got ahold of, got a wash of the red.

Lastly, Thraka Green Was was applied into the the silver parts and other various bits of the armor that needed more depth.

Step #7 – Final Step

Here is a departure from the original tutorial; mostly to get the marines to match the existing army somehow.

Any piping or hoses and the Nurgle ‘trinity’ were given a quick coat of Mechrite Red followed by a highlight of Blood Red. Some other random ‘Nurgle’ spots got some red as well.

Another option for the green on the model is to go back with a thinned coat of Rotting Flesh pick out the highlights. Then go back over this with more Thrakka Green. Repeat this process until happy with the green.

Another quick and effective method for painting Plague Marines. One thing to take care of is during the drybrush stage. Make sure the drybrushing is even, otherwise, some of the armour areas look too rushed.

Remember to have fun during the wash phases of painting, that is where the model will take its characteristics.

SOURCE: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/

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Thor
Admin
December 21, 2018 10:09 am

I did my Plague Marines very similar back in the day. It’s a lot of fun painting stuff like this because you don’t have to be precise and you can just have fun with it.

Also, nice tutorial.

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