Friday 30 April 2010

Khaki Malarkey In The 40K

In the grim darkness of the future there is only khaki.

As part of the process of my development of a prototype squad for Project Big Kahuna, this has involved undercoating the models black (my standard procedure), and now I have to apply Kommando Khaki paint as a basecoat for all the armour, shoulder pads, knee pads, etc.

What I can say is, unlike the joyous simplicity of painting Codex Grey onto my Cadian 512th models, Kommando Khaki is a real b!tch to paint!

I have known for a while and from my experience that the colours red, white, and yellow are in particular, very difficult to paint well onto models. I just never expected that Kommando Khaki would fall into this bracket.

3 thinnish coats on and I still get a semi-dappled 'marbled' effect. No doubt, like with my efforts in painting flesh tones, I will have to patiently apply coat upon coat of Kommando Khaki onto my models to build up the layers and eventually achieve the finish I want.

What has once been a pleasure, is now a downright chore, due to my unfortunate choice of colour scheme, which I will say is a legacy effect of the old Imperial Guard 3rd Ed. release codex. Those who have been reading and following my blog regarding Big Kahuna will understand.

Ah well. Must persevere for the sake of the Project!

"Dusty Ice-Cream is the New White Chocolate"

Anyone else have any similiar difficulties with other types of colours/paints?

7 comments:

  1. But Khaki is soo boring Menzies! If you're going to torture yourself with a difficult paint scheme why not try yellow/black or grey/red. You're an artist after all.

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  2. I've noticed much the same thing - Kommando Khaki is a bit translucent as far as GW paints go. These days I usually undercoat anything that's going to end up Khaki with a spodge of Graveyard Earth over the black primered areas first - it's an extra step, but I find it makes the Khaki look a bit better, and also acts as a shader in the darker areas.

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  3. I am using the Khaki for the horns on my models and I have found that using the Stone Foundation paint makes things a whole lot easier.

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  4. As Magilla said I use Dheneb Stone to base Khaki, it's also quite good for flesh tones too.

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  5. Boy, how I wish I had asked you guys for advice first! :)

    Unfortunately, it's a bit too late with the prototype squad, so am just going to continue as they are, but thanks for the post-undercoating, pre-base coating tips. Will definitely use them out when I do my next batch of special characters in prerequisite Khaki.

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  6. Yup. Y'know I'm no painting maestro, but I'd definitely agree that foundation paints are an essential basecoat for any of those colours. You won't regret trying!

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  7. I started my army using Kommando Khaki and switched to Dheneb Stone. I washed the Khaki with Vallejo Brown ink, and the Dheneb with Devlan Mud. The difference is barely noticable. I've decided it's close enough, so I'm leaving the originals with the khaki/brown ink mix.

    If you're painting three coats of Khaki, why don't you try a coat of Dheneb, then a coat or two of Khaki?

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