Hey Gals and Guys!

I have started working on my Skaven Doomwheel very recently, and even

though Im not a very proficient painter I decided to document the process with
pictures, and make a tutorial out of them. My reason for this, is that before I
started painting, I have searched extensively for a good Doomwheel tutorial, and
found numerous of which I drew inspiration, but all of them used the old GW paint
range, which obviously makes following them much-much harder, even with the
compatibility chart being available, not to speak of the huge array of technical
paints and other goodies released since then, which make painting certain effects
much easier. Before we begin, le tus clear up some stuff:

First, this tutorial will not use any specialist equipment, no airbrushes, no fancy
stuff. I have used a GW drybrush, a GW small base brush, and a Hungarian brand
(Munkcsy) of synthetic brushes, sizes 0, 2/0, 3/0. For absolute beginners, I
actually recommend synthetic brushes, especially on models like the Doomwheel
with lots of nooks, crannies and curves, as they will last longer than their fur
counterparts.

I am also assuming that the reader is not a professional painter, or just starting
out, so I will thoroughly explain everything I do, even if pictures are not the best
quality. I will also often mention alternatives at certain places, and optional
effects you can skip if you dont like them.

Unfortunately, I have used a lot of paints for this model, and obviously, not
everyone may have all these sitting ont he desk, especially if you are just starting
out. When Im doing a basecoat, a layer, and a highlight, it is usually possible to
skip one or the other, usually the edge highlights, or the layers, with some
reduction in detail, but if you are after a quick TTQ paintjob, its up to you!

Paints you will need (updated as tutorial progresses):

For the metallics:
-Leadbelcher

-Ironbreaker

-Runefang steel

For the copper/brass:

-screaming bell

-balthazar gold

-gehenna gold

-khorne red

-evil sunz scarlet

-waystone green
-zandri dust

-bugmans glow

-cadian fleshtone

-kislev flesh

-agrax earthshade

-Dryad Bark

-Caliban Green

-Warpstone Glow

-Moot Green

-Waywatcher green (optional)

-Yriel Yellow

-Nihilakh Oxide

-Warplock Bronze

-Rhinox Hide

-Mournfang Brown

-Lahmian medium (optional)

-Castellan green

-Straken Green

-Nurgling Green

-Carroburg Crimson

-Biel-tan green or Athonian Camoshade

-Terminatus stone (dry)

Some general tips before starting out (non-beginners may want to skip)

- Always apply multiple thin layers, and slightly dilute your paint with water.
This looks bad at first, since one layer wont be enough to cover the black
undercoat, but this is the best way to make sure your model looks good
when you photograph it, and the flash illuminates every recess.
- Be careful not to clog up the details with excessive amounts of paint!
- Always clean your brushes in your pot after each color, to make sure the
paint doesnt dry on the bristles.
 - -Dont be alarmed if you go over the lines while applying base colors, you
will touch them up later anyways, when basecoating those particular parts,
or if you already have, you can touch them up anyways
- Be careful with washes! There is a general misconception, that you should
always, without exception, apply a wash to any surface, in huge amounts,
to make it look good. This is not the case. Always think about whether you
want the area in question to be darkened by the wash, or left shiny and
clean. Also, on some occassions, applying the wash directly into the
recesses with a detail brush is a much better option than drenching the
entire miniature in it.
- -Dry paints are hard to remove/touch up if overdone, use them in
moderation
-

First, assemble the chassis and the cockpit with the driver glued in. I advise you
not to glue the arms on first, since it will make painting the inner sides much
harder, and potentially make some nooks and crannies unreachable. Do glue ont
he other side of the tank on the back though, and the small wheel on the side,
since they wont in any way obstruct your view. Once assembled, prime your
model with GW chaos black spray. You could, in principle, prime with white, but
black is more forgiving, if you accidentally miss a part, it will look like shadows.
As the next step, I decided to basecoat the metallic parts of the driver. Many
people advise to basecoat every part of the model first, and proceed to the
detailing, washing next, but personally, I always find that completing a certain
aspect of a model first (skin, armor, etc.) lets me keep my interest and motivation
longer, since Im immediately seeing how the final result takes shape. Basecoat
the boots, armor, and upper half of the mask with Leadbelcher. Be careful not to
thin metallic paints, since the pigmentation will fall apart, they wont cover, and
wont stick to the miniature. Using a slightly wet brush is okay, just be sure not to
try adhering to the multiple thin layers principle here.
Once done, basecoat the eye-part and the filter-part of the mask with Screaming
bell.

Basecoat the ear with Bugmans glow. Use multiple thin layers if not satisfied
with the coverage.

Layer the ear with Cadian Fleshtone. You can either cover the entirte thing, or
leave Bugmans glow showing int he recessed part, it is completely up to your
own preference. I covered the whole thing, since it is very small, and once the
model is assembled, you wont really be able to see.
Next you want to use a thin layer os Kislev Flesh to highlight the outer part of the
ear, basically only the edges.

The next part is the clothes. Basecoat the robe of the figure with multiple thin
layers of Khorne red. Khorne red is an extremely good paint, with awesome
coverage, but wou still want to use multiple layers. Also, be sure to basecoat the
front part of the armor as well. Even though the model itself is somewhat less
detailed at the front, you can still see the little raised areas above the
breastplate, which are supposed to be the front part of the hood.
Dont forget the bottom parts! Also, at this point, you may want to paint the little
sachels on his torso with Dryad Bark

Next, I decided to paint the small bomb/flask in his left side. I decided to make a
freen glowing flask out of it. To achieve this, I basecoated the round part with
Caliban green, and using a small detail brush, painted the stopper with Zandri
Dust. Once youre done, paint over Caliban green with Warpstone Glow. (picture
missing). Be careful, Warpstone Glow is an extremely thin paint with bad
coverage, so use multiple layers.
Finally, use some heavily thinned Moot Green to give it a greenish glow, and paint
th estrap fastening the flask to his belt with dryas bark. Optionally, you may want
to use waywatcher green (glaze) to dull the highlights a tiny bit if you are not
satisfied, but I liked the result this way, and skipped the glaze.

Now, paint a layer of Runefang steel to the place where the lens ont he mask
would be. Wait for itt o dry, and put a thick blob of Waystone green on it. This will
give the lens a greenish, shiny, reflective look, which IMO looks quite amazing. If
you want a red, or blue lens instead, you can use spiritstone red or soulstone
blue. Some people also prefer using Stormhost Silver to use as a basecoat for
these technical paintsm but personally Ive found Runefang Steel to be
sufficiently shiny and light.

Once done, use Agrax Earthshade to wash the entire miniature, except the lens
and the flask. Be sure to use enough for itt o flow into the recessed part ont he
clothes, but do not drown the figure in wash.

While the wash dries, paint cadian fleshtone onto the skinny part sticking out
from under the tear ont he robe. If you are extremely sensitive to detail, you
might want to drybrush a tiny bit of kislev flesh to the middle of itt o give it some
depth, but its not strictly necessary.

Not the hard part! Take Evil sunz scarlet, and highlight the edges, and raised
parts of the robe, while leaving the shade showing int he recesses, Its not a
problem if you are not 100% precise, and if the lines are not entirely straight, it
will only make it more realistic.

Now highlight the armor with runefang steel. Just draw an extremely thin line
onto the edges
Basecoat the entire outer frame with Balthazar gold

Basecoat the inner frame with Screaming bell

Since the reddish hue of Screaming bell is a bit overwhelming at this point, use
Leadbelcher to paint some cogwheels and panels metallic, and then use
Runefang steel to paint the rivets. It is very important not to use Leadbelcher for
this, as the next step will be washing the entire frame with a very thick layer of
Agrax Earthshade, and it would darken Leadbelcher enough not to leave the
contrast between the rivets and the frame sharp enough.

Next, well do the huge warpstone in the front. First, basecoat the stone with a
few thin layers of Caliban green. Once you are done, paint the entire thing with
several layers of Warpstone Glow. Warpstone Glow is an extremely thin color, and
needs several layers to cover properly. (this phase is not pictured, unfortunately.)
Now, lets do the web pattern on the warpstone. There are basically two schools
to doing this. Some people prefer drybrushing the stone with moot green, but I
have been doing it by simply taking a detail brush with a good tip (2/0 or even
3/0), whipping out my Moot Green, and very carefully painting along the raised
parts ont he stones surface. When looked at close-up, small mistakes can be
seen, but IMO this method produces a much stronger color, and looks better. To
finish, take some Yriel Yellow, dilute it somewhat with water, and put a little bit to
the points where the green lines converge to make it look like as if it was
emanating a faint glow from the cracks.
Next we can start painting the pipes and cables around the cockpit. For the
cables, I have used a leadbelcher basecoat, washed with a mildly diluted Agrax
Earthshade. You can also use Nuln Oil for the metallic parts if you want to achieve
a more oily, worn out look, but I like the dirty style of Agrax a bit better on
Skaven.

Next we finish basecoating the parts of the chassis we have been neglecting so
far. For this, use Balthazar gold the same way you did with the outer part. I have
decided to base the two springs with leadbelcher, and used three colors for the
tank. Leadbelcher for the metal plate, Balthazar gold for the bottom and the top,
and Screaming skull for the rest. This will give the illusion of a makeshift
compressor, tinkered together from various metal parts.
Now comes the fun part! Since the reddish copper color is still a bit
overwhelming, and does not really resemble a real metal chassis, well weather it
somewhat to make it look more realistic, and make it pop more. For this, just load
your brush with a bit of leadbelcher, and paint a few notches ont he chassis in a
random pattern. Be extra careful not to make any recognizable pattern, as it will
make it not very believable to say the least.

You should end up with something like this

Since our chassis is made of copper/brass, it makes sense to add some verdigris
to make it even more gritty, realistic. For this, you will need Warplock bronze, and
nihilakh oxide. Paint Warplock bronze to the parts where you want there to be
verdigris, to provide a darker base color for the oxide, and then paint some
nihilakh oxide over it, then immediately wipe the excess off with a paper tissue.
This will leave the oxide smeared ont he surface and sittin gin the recesses.

This is how it will look like. Just add it to whatever parts you think it would look
good on. Make sure not to overdo it though.
Another example

Finally, paint the tubes the same way we painted the warpstone: caliban green,
layered with warpstone glow, and finally some heavily diluted moot green. Also,
make sure to add a layer of waywatcher green to the tubes to dull the highlight a
bit, so that it still contrasts with the warpstone.
Next we turn our attention to the wheel. Assemble, and prime them with chaos
black. Pay attention to the alignment of the cogwheels, as you need them to be
aligned properly to attach the wheels to the chassis. Make sure to try them on
before glueing to avoid having to cut it apart later.

We would like the wheel to look like as if it was put together from various random
pieces of wood. For this purpose, we use Mournfang Brown, Dryad bark and
Rhinox hide to basecoat the planks in various colors. Use the paints in a random
order, the less pattern is noticeable, the more believable it will look like in the
end.
Next, drybrush the entire surface of the wheel with Terminatus Stone to really
make the wood grain pop. From what I read, some people paint the wooden part
by mixing whatever brown color they are applying with administratum
grey/Mechanicus standard grey in a 1:1 ratio, basecoating, then drybrushing with
a 1:2 misture of the same stuff, then drybrushing with administratum grey. I like
this method better, IMO the wood grain is much more visible.

Next, apply a wash to the entire wooden surface. For the mournfang brown part, I
used diluted carroburg crimson to give it a cherry-red appearance, for the other
two colors, I simply washed with diluted agray earthshade. Unfortunately, this
has made the contrast between the dryad bark and the rhinox hide parts
disappear, but its not a big deal. When it has dried, apply another layer of
drybrushing, with an extremely dry brush, with barely any paint left on it.

Next paint the inner area between the teeth of the cogwheel with mournfang
brown to provide a neutral brown basecoat for whats to come.

Dont forget the inner part! Its not a huge deal if the paint doesnt cover every
little nook and cranny equally well, the inside of the wheel wont really be visible
once the model is assembled and the rats are glued in.
Now, paint the cogwheel with Balthazar gold, and give it a thin layer of agrax
earthshade, then let it dry.

Paint the cogs and the spikes inside with leadbelcher, then carefully paint the
rivets on the external surface of the wheel with Ironbreaker. Feel free to do it with
Leadbelcher if you dont have any Ironbreaker, but I found it to not really be very
visible ont he dark surface, so I went with Ironbreaker in the end. If it is still too
dark for your taste, use Runefang Steel/Stormhost Silver and give it a wash.
This is what it should look like at this point

Overhead view
Now, were going to do some extremely subtle effects, which you can skip, but
they will make the wheel much more lifelike. Apply an extremely careful pseudo-
drybrush (just use a standard brush, dont leave too much paint on it, and gentle
rub the side of the brush on the cogs) layer of Gehenna gold to simulate the
metallic part being shiny from constant friction, then again, make a few notches
with leadbelcher to make it look weathered.

Finally, use Nihilakh oxide like a wash: just put some ont he cogs, between the
wheels, and wherever you want it, then wipe most of it away with a tissue. The
end result will be really gritty, and corroded, just like we want for Skaven
machinery!
This finishes the first half of the tutorial, I hope you like it.