Sons Of Horus Reaver Squad - Painting Guide Part 1

Part 1 - Set up notes and Flesh tones.

I'm working on this nice set of ForgeWorld models, The Horus Heresy stuff is some of the best Astartes kits going. 

First of all I cleaned all of the sprues and cleaned them up, made a couple of changes to the arms for better poses later on. Since the armour on the Reaver squad is black I went with a chaos black undercoat. The same was done for the Sergeants helm free face, except I then gave it a dusting with skull white spray. Making sure it was at an angle and retained the black coat in the recesses. 

The first colours to go with the brush were a thin mix of  50% Rhinox Hide, 25% Bugmans Glow, and finally 25% Agrax Earthshade (this was the thinning medium in this case). 

This was applied to the scar, around the neck and hairline, and also anywhere there's natural shadows. 

Next stage after that was to fill in the base colour. For this I used a thinned mix of Bugmans Glow and Lahmian Medium. At least 2 coats is needed minimum.

Paint out the flesh, be mindfull to leave some of that nice pre-shading coming through. 

Next a glaze was made to smooth out and accent the shading. 

 You want this mix to hint not over power, around 75% Medium to 25% Agrax.

Following that a thinned mix of Cadian Fleshtone was made. 

This was painted around the same areas as before but decrease and accent the higher parts of the face. Three layers were done with the areas getting smaller everytime. The new Citadel layer paints lend themselves well to this as it builds in a touch of blendng for you with transparent coats. 

Next I mixed a small amount of Kislev Flesh with water, this was almost like a wash. Don't overload the brush as you could flood your details, think of this a tint not a thick layer. 

This was painted over the higher details and a few passes were made taking care to bring out the features on the face. 

I made a similar mix with Screaming Skull and water. 

I painted this on the very edges of all the details, just tinting and accenting the face rather then broad edge highlights. 

Finally to bring everything together and settle the colours a glaze made from Reikland Fleshshade and Lahmian Medium was made, 25% to 75% respectively. 

Two thin coats of this mix was applied to the model and helped smooth out the look. 

I hope this helps anyone about to tackle some flesh painting. Over the next day or two I hope to cover the rest of the facial details. Then I'll move onto the armour painting.  

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The Manufactorum

Many Thanks James.