This time on Workbench, I get to have a crack at Heresy Miniatures' ghouls. Goody! I love this type of model - lots of well-defined musculature, and no set colour scheme. This means I can paint the buggers pretty much any colour I like. As it happens, I've just finished some Slaanesh Daemonettes which I did with near-white skin. This tone really worked for me, so I thought I'd give it a go on TMP's ghouls.
All the paints I used for these models are from the Citadel Colour range, as well as the new Citadel Foundation range.
Over a coat of spray black undercoat, the skin is given a number of thin layers of Shadow Grey. We all know how important it is to do lots of thin coats of paint to create an even basecoat, don't we boys and girls?
The highlights are done with lots of successive layers of Shadow Grey, with increasing amounts of Space Wolf Grey.
The lightest colour on the skin is a mix of Space Wolf Grey and Skull White.
After going over all the non-skin areas with Chaos Black again to neaten them up, the loincloth is painted Scorched Brown, then highlighted by mixing in increasing amounts of Vermin Brown. A bit of Vomit Brown is then added to the mix for the finer highlights. The belt is given a single highlight of Chaos Black mixed with Codex Grey.
The eyes are Fortress Grey, with a dot of white in the middle. His teeny teeth are Snakebite Leather with a highlight of Bleached Bone.
The severed head - indeed, all the body parts the ghouls have found - are Tanned Flesh, with a couple of highlights with mixed-in Dwarf Flesh and Bleached Bone. The flesh is then given a glaze of super-watery Liche Purple, mixed with purple ink. The hair of the severed head is Chaos Black, highlighted with mixed-in Codex Grey.
The blood is an equal mix of Red Gore, red ink, chestnut ink and gloss varnish. I always use this mix when doing splattered blood on models, although I normally keep it to a bare minimum... these ghouls seemed to deserve a little extra. With this mix, the more layers of it you use, the more pronounced it is. It is also important to put some tiny dots of blood-mix around the larger splatters. It makes it grosser, somehow.
The sickle blade is Boltgun Metal - with blood added, of course!
All three models are based with sand which is coated in black ink. This is drybrushed Scorched Brown, then Bestial Brown, then Vomit Brown. Liberal coats of blood-mix are then added.