How To Paint Ghouls

I had a couple of queries about a tutorial on painting ghouls. I did prepare one a few months back but for some reason I did not post it. Well, that's remedied now. Here's my quick and easy way to paint your ghouls.

Step 1: Clean and assemble figures. I put the figures into the slottabases for this stage, they are a snug fit so no glue is required. Note that I am using these as temporary bases, for traditional gaming they would be glued into square bases. They are primed white.

Step 2: I mixed up a thin glaze of dark grey paint, with a few drops of matt varnish and a few drops of matt medium added. I find this helps the coat to glaze smoothly and also stick in the recesses, without too much pooling. I don't measure exact quantities, but it's roughly equal parts of the three mediums, then enough water to make it translucent on a white plate. The usual description of skimmed milk is about right.

Step 3: Another glaze is mixed up, this time using equal amounts (roughly) of dark grey and chestnut. This is applied more densely to the mouths and the eye rims, less densely as shading on the bodies and limbs. The aim is to accentuate the facial features and also to hint at a mottled skin. On some of the models I dotted on the colour to make patterns on the head or upped body, again to add a little texture to the skin.

Step 4: Time for some standard painting now, I just apply these bits neatly as possible. The hair gets a coat of field grey, then I mix in some tan earth to paint some of the loincloths. I then mixed in some horse tone roan for the remaining loincloths. Bones are painted off-white, straps are painted horse tone roan, metals are painted chainmail.

Step 5: All the bits painted in the previous step get a glaze of a darker colour to provide some easy shading. The bones and strapping are glazed with a mid-brown, the loincloths with a light brown or green, depending on the original colour. The hair is glazed black, then chestnut added to make a rusty brown to glaze the metals. Finally, a very light grey wash over the feet gives a hint of a dirty environment. At this point, the figures could be based and used in games, but I want to add some dirt, rust, blood and the like.

Step 6: For the rust I use MIG pigments, added to an old brown wash with a few drops of matt varnish. I use dark mud and standard rust, mix a little puddle of each on my palette, then mix the two together for an intermediary shade. Then I stipple these onto the weapons, starting with the darker tone, then the mid, then the lightest, adding less of each as I progress through the stages. I then mixed some MIG russian earth with a purple ink and some matt varnish, to create a dark greyish wash to add to the arms and legs and on any areas of cloth. This gives a little more definition and shading to the figures. Finally, I add the blood, which is made from Tamiya red, some mixed in with the grey wash. It's all a bit rushed and random, I add it mostly to the hands and mouths, dot a bit here and there.

Done! There's still the bases to do, mine are on large element bases but for most it would be a simple task now to base up in the usual way with sand, grass, flock and whatever works for you.