How Not To Paint: Descent Skeletons

Warning, the following paintjobs do not photograph well. However, they look pretty good on the table top.

Anyway, welcome to part 5 of my series on looking at how not to paint your descent minis!

With the skeletons I decided to take the lead from the art, which meant many different shades of brown.

I started out with a coat of Calthan Brown all over. All the bones were then painted with Pale Flesh and the clothes with Sand. You’ll notice I Painted the clothes without leaving any shading. Much of the success of a paintjob, when doing skeletons, comes from the ability to paint a good edge. That’s something I still need to improve on. Next I washed the robes with P3 Brown Ink.  I then rehighlighted the clothes with Sand. I’ll deal with the nasty shine the ink left later. I then added all the other details. The belts were done with Battlefield Brown, followed by a mix of Bloodtracker Brown and Sand. The arrow shaft and the grip of the bow were done with Dark Grey. The arrow head and belt buckle were done with Chainmail while the flights were simply done with white.     Turning the model around I did pretty much the same on the back. The hands were done with Tanned Flesh and then highlighted with Pale Flesh, a combination that is generally too harsh, but works in this case. Also the string attaching them to the belt was done with Pale Flesh. Next I washed everything I’ve painted so far, with Gryphonne Sepia. Or as I call it, the miracle wash. This stage does several things. Firstly it tones down the bones and cloth to a more earthy brown colour. It dulls the metallics to something a bit more befitting a creature raised from the earth, but more importantly it gets rid of the shine created by the ink. Next I added Golden Yellow to the bow in segments. This was followed by a highlight in sand that focused on the edges. I also highlighted the grip with Blue Grey. Finally I added White to the very edges of each segment. Next I set to work on the bones. Firstly they were highlighted again using Pale Flesh, really focusing on trying to get a straight edge. Then they were highlighted again using pure White.

Highlight the mark on the skull with a pink or orange and it’s all done except for the final washes. Gryphonne Sepia was washed over the bones again, while Yellow Ink (vallejo) was washed over the bow. And that’s the final result. Not the best skeletons in the world, but quick and easy to recreate, after all there are nine of the fiddly buggers!. I love how the hands on the belt turned out after the wash was applied. The bases were painted with Pale Flesh (or Burgundy for master monsters) Gale Force 9 earth was added. Followed with a sprinkling of GF9 Spring Undergrowth and Rocks.

I’ve not painted a Descent mini in a week, so next week might be something different, we’ll have to see. Hopefully I’m still on track to have these done by Christmas.