Painting Howling Banshees

by Assistant Doc Jason Pyett

Colors needed:

Skull White (pure White )

Chaos Black (flat black)

Snakebite Leather (brown-green mix)

Bleached bone (cream)

Imperial Purple (dark purple)

Shadow Grey (gray-blue)

Ghostly Grey (very light blue)

Blood Red (true red)

Equipment recommended:

000 brushes

Wet Palette

Acrylic Extender

Acrylic Flow Release

Plaster of Paris

Testors Dullcote Spray

Acrylic Sealant Spray

First step is to sculpt the base. There are various methods but for best results I find using Plaster of Paris a great and inexpensive way to sculpt large rocks for a base. Simply follow the directions for creating a sculpture material and apply it to the base where you want rocks. You want a consistency that will not loose it form completely when applied but is not rock hard when applied, this will take some practice to get the mix the way you desire. Once it hardens use your hobby knives and sculpt out your desired shape, if you wish before the plaster dries you could sink bits and bobs into the plaster and they will be held in it when it dries. Plaster of Paris does not adhere well to plaster or metal so it may require being taken off the base and superglued back into position.

After the base is sculpted it is time to prime the entire model. I recommend spray White primer, GW uses Spray White paint, and either will do.

Next blackline the model. If you are unfamiliar with this it is just putting a black line where there are recess in the model, between armor plates etc.

Blacklined Banshee. Notice it isn’t too detailed.

To paint the model I usually use a by item process and by color. This means that I start with the most abundant color on the model and individually paint to completion each item that has that color.

I began by painting the helmet. I use a wet blending technique to paint. Start by basecoating the area, in the case of the helmet, bleached bone. Next I again paint the helmet bleached bone but this time the bleached bone has acrylic extender in it that will allows longer work time with the paint. You can use flow release in your rinse water to help if the extender paint mix is very thick, which it will most likely be. When you have repainted the helmet with the paint/ extender mix you will shade and highlight, as normal but because you have wet paint on the model you will be able to blend in each color so that they appear seamless when dried. This technique takes a bit of work to get the hang of but keep working at it the result is terrific. To shade the helmet use snakebite leather and to highlight use white. The gradient will be, starting with the deepest shade, snakebite leather-> 50/50 mix leather and bleached bone -> bleached bone (basecoat) -> 50/ 50 mix bone and White  -> Skull White and edge with Skull White as well. Edging is painting the very edge of the item with the side of your brush, not the tip.

Helmet after wet blending.

From the helmet I worked down the banshee and painted every object that was going to be bleached bone.

Banshee armor all wet blended.

Once everything that is bleached bone was painted I began with the purple. The symbol was the first part painted purple. The easy way to do a symbol is to paint with very thinned down paints until you have the desired shape. Paint over any mistakes. Retrace over the desired symbol again with thinned down paints until you have it as dark as you wish. You can highlight the symbol by adding a bit of White to the thinned paint.

Symbol when finished.

I used wet blending again for the bulk of the purple except for the hair, which was drybrushed. The method for painting the purple was the same as the bone. The gradient I used was, starting again with the deepest shade, Chaos black -> 50/50 mix black and Imperial purple -> Imperial purple (basecoat) -> 75/25 mix purple and White  -> 50/50 mix purple and White  -> 25/75 mix purple and White. White was used to edge the sword.

The purple finished.

Now onto the tricky part for some, the NMM, as an option, you could paint all the grey NMM with mithril silver shaded with boltgun metal. I will not go into a tutorial here on NMM but there are many resources on the web where one can find guidance on how to do NMM well. The colors I used for the grey NMM were 50/50 mix shadow grey and black-> shadow grey -> 50/50 mix shadow grey and ghostly grey (basecoat) -> ghostly grey -> 50/50 mix ghostly grey and White  -> White for very strong highlights and edging.

The head finished. A little tip I did the eyes before painting the rest of the face.

Grey NMM finished.

The gems and eyes were painted with out wet blending just layering was used. I use the same method found in the Eldar codex pg. 29 except with different colors. The gradient is black -> 50/50 mix black and red -> Blood Red (basecoat) -> 50/50 mix red and White  -> 25/75 mix red and White with a White dot in the black region.

Gems and shadow grey details.

The gold on the pistol, gem settings and honor badges again was layered. The gradient was Vermin brown -> 50/50 mix brown and yellow -> Golden yellow -> 50/50 mix yellow and White  -> White.

Everything but the base done. Notice the gold NMM on the pistol and gem settings.

Finally to the base, almost done! The base proper, the circle itself was painted with shadow grey. The stone was painted with wet blending. The gradient was Black -> 50/50 mix black and shadow grey -> Shadow grey -> 50/50 mix shadow grey and ghostly grey and was edged with ghostly grey. I suggest applying one coat of sealant between each color, just to be on the safe side.

I usually Dullcote at this point, before I finish flocking the mini, but in this case considering it was just painted stone I decided to Dullcote at the end of doing the base. The small stones on the base were glued on as you would with any flock. The stone is a light grey stone. They were painted with a watered down Shadow Grey, which allows the edges of the rock to show thus doing my highlighting for me.

Dullcote with 3 very thin coats and Viola a beautiful Howling Banshee!

Thank you for reading this tutorial and I hope it helps. Happy Painting, and be sure to visit my Mini-Painting Yahoo! Group for more painting tips and tricks.