Nighthaunt Painting Guide

My first Chainrasp got quite a bit of attention on Twitter, with a few people asking how I did various bits of it, so I thought I’d throw together a full tutorial, as much for my own reference as anything. Let’s jump right in!

The Model

Step 1 – Basecoat

I used Chaos Black Spray and touched it up with Abaddon Black. For models with both black and white areas, it can be tricky to choose the best base colour. Either you’ll be layering lots of white over a black basecoat, or lots of black over a white basecoat. I chose black for my Nighthaunts because they have a lot of deep recesses that the black will naturally shade.

Step 2

Basecoat the ghosty bits, the arms and the skull with Ionrach Skin. You’ll want to do this in 3 or 4 thin coats to get a good solid colour over the black undercoat.

Step 3

Wash the same areas with a 3:1 mix of Lahmian Medium and Nihilakh Oxide. Try to not let it pool, but don’t worry about it too much as we’ll be going over it soon.

Step 4

Apply a careful wash of Coelia Greenshade into the deeper recesses on the same areas.

Step 5

Apply a layer of Ionrach Skin on the flat areas and edges of the same parts, leaving the wash showing in the recesses.

Step 6

Highlight those areas with Deepkin Flesh. You can also feather the paint out towards the trailing ends of the fabric/smoke/ectoplasm/whatever it is. I also highlighted the teeth at this stage with White Scar.

Step 7

Paint the chains and the metal bits of the weapons Leadbelcher. If the base has any gravestones or large rocks, you can paint these Mechanicum Standard Grey now as we’ll be applying the same washes to both areas.

Step 8

Wash the metal and stones Agrax Earthshade, and once that’s dry carefully wash Nuln Oil into the recesses.

Step 9

Paint the areas you want to look rusted with very watered down Skrag Brown. It’s better to thin it lots and build it up in layers. Stipple it on for a patchy effect.

Step 10

Highlight the chains and rusted metal with Stormhost Silver. For the weapons, I stipple the paint along the edges rather than painting full lines to make it look dented and worn. You can also paint on scratches on the weapons using Stormhost Silver. At this stage I also painted a little Agrax Earthshade back into the recesses of the rusted bits if they needed some definition.

Step 11

Highlight the black fabric with Eshin Grey.

Step 12

Apply a second highlight to the black fabric with Dawnstone.

Bases

If there were any gravestones or large rocks that you’d started earlier, give them a drybrush of Dawnstone to finish them off. I also painted in Nihilakh Oxide where the ghosty bits touches the ground and feathered it out with a wet paintbrush to give a glowing effect. You can do your bases however you want; for mine, I did a Dryad Bark basecoat, a heavy drybrush of Baneblade Brown, and a final drybrush of Ushabti Bone, and then I stuck on some Mordheim Turf grass tufts.

Additional Details

Brown Cloth

I painted a few of my Chainrasps with brown shrouds to vary the units a bit. This was done with a Rhinox Hide basecoat followed by a Nuln Oil wash. Then I did a layer of Dryad Bark, followed by a highlight of Gorthor Brown and a second highlight of Karak Stone.

Wood

I painted the weapon hafts and other wooden details with a basecoat of Dryad Bark followed by a wash of Nuln Oil. I then painted on the wood grain with Gorthor Brown, and highlighted with Karak Stone.

Brass and Gold

The brass and gold details were painted with a Balthasar Gold basecoat, followed by Liberator Gold, a wash of Agrax Earthshade for brass or Reikland Fleshshade for gold, and a highlight of Stormhost Silver. Small spots of Nihilakh Oxide were applied sparingly.

Candles and Green Smoke

Give the candles and smoke an undercoat of Corax White, then basecoat the candles with Ushabti Bone and the smoke with Ulthuan Grey. Give the smoke a generous wash of Biel-Tan Green, and the candles a wash of Seraphim Sepia. Highlight the wax drips with Pallid Wych Flesh. Glaze the smoke with Cassandora Yellow with a little bit of Yriel Yellow mixed in. Finally, glaze Nuln Oil onto the ends of the smoke trails, adding consecutive layers to darken it towards the tips.

And there you go! These models are a pleasure to paint, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the bigger guys over the next few weeks. Here’s a group shot of my Chainrasp Horde, ready to claim some souls for the Supreme Lord of the Undead.