[How-To] Guild Ball Morticians (Part 1)

As promised, here’s the first part of how I painted these dark Morticians for Guild Ball.

Here’s the list of paints I used for these models:

• Black primer (I used Vallejo Surface Primer)
• P3 Sanguine Base
• Vallejo Model Color (VMC) German Grey
• P3 Ironhull Grey
• VMC London Grey
• P3 Coal Black
• P3 Meredius Blue
• Gw Leviathan Purple (or some other purple wash / shade)
• P3 Menoth White Highlight
• P3 Khador Red Base
• P3 Khador Red Highlight
• P3 Red Ink
• Scale 75 Heavy Metal
• P3 Armor Wash

After a black prime, I use VMC German Grey through the airbrush to lay down a fairly uniform basecoat across the entire model.

I then grabbed the P3 Sanguine Base and laid down the shadows on all of the cloth. Where the creases were small and tight (on shirts for example) I just put down a line. Where the creases are large, I do a little 2-brush blending.

Then, it’s time for highlights. Mix some VMC German Grey and VMC London Grey together and use the same techniques to put down the first round of highlights.

The last layer on the cloth (for now) is pure VMC London Grey. Make sure some of the previous mix shows through. This helps trick the viewer’s eye into thinking there’s a gradient when there isn’t. While this color’s on the palette, go ahead and block out the skin as well.

It’s time to take a break from the cloth to get the skin further along. I used GW’s Leviathan Purple to give the skin a cold feel. Use whatever purple wash or shade you have handy.

Once dry, go back over most of the skin with the VMC London Grey, leaving the purple wash in the creases and where the shadows should be.

Now that the skin and cloth are at the same level, it’s time to kick them up a notch. Mix some P3 Menoth White Highlight into the VMC London Grey. This is both the final highlight on the cloth and the first highlight on the skin. For the cloth, touch just the edges of the creases that face upwards. Hit the parts where the creases in the cloth are the sharpest or might be most worn. For the skin, I was looking to cover about 70% of the area that was re-painted London Grey in the last step. Blending is important on the skin, so if there’s a particular area that’s worth some extra attention, it’s the skin.

The skin I was going for needed to be very pale and washed out. I wanted to hype up the super pale goth-like feel of these guys, so I kept mixing in P3 Menoth White Highlight to the previous mixture and blending into higher and higher highlights until I got to pure P3 Menoth White Highlight.

And that’s it for Part One. The main cloth is done, and the skin is done. All that’s left is the teal secondary color used for straps & feathers, the bright red accent color used on ribbons and metals.

Stay tuned for Part Two!