Painting Warmaster Fell Bats Step by Step

As I've been "speed painting" some Warmaster Vampire Counts models I thought I might do a step by step to show the process I go through.

This is intended to be a way of getting units painted quickly but effectively. It's not how I paint *all* my Warmaster armies, or even all the units in this army but it is pretty quick and looks good at a tabletop distance. With a horde type army like the Vampire Counts a speed painting aproach may be what you need to get it finished.

I'll be using Fell Bats models, sculpted by Forest Dragon and available from White Dragon Miniatures.

So first, clean up the models and then glue both strips, yes, that's right both strips on to the base.

At this point people will be saying, "that's madness, how will you paint the models when you can't get your brush in the gap between them?"" The answer is that we won't be doing that. I think it was Graham Davey in a White Dwarf article at the time Warmaster launched who pointed out that if you can't get your brush in there you're not going to be able to see it at 10mm scale when it's on the table, so don't even bother trying to paint it. Will this make the perfectionist miniature painter in you twitch? Yes, but we're after speed, not perfection here.

Next, apply sand. 

Apply PVA, dip in sand, leave to dry.

Then spray black.

Bog standard black primer spray over the whole model - they're mostly black so that's the best colour to use, also you need it dark to hide the bits you can't paint in the middle.

Then paint the base brown.

You could try and do this at the end, but then you risk getting the basing colour on the bits you've painted - so best done first.

Next up, drybrushing. A reasonably heavy drybrush of a dark bluey grey (I used the long OOP Fenris Grey from GW)

Then paint the metal railings bits - I used Leadbelcher I think.

 

Next up apply a mid grey in an overbrushing style on the stonework (more OOP Paint -  Adeptus Battle Grey)

Then a final drybrush of a light grey on the stone  (OOP Astronomivan Grey)

Paint the tree stumps with browns

Then, to finish cover the whole lot (apart from the base), with a black wash (Nuln Oil)

Then drybrush the base to taste (I used Vomit Brown followed by a Bone colour)

Add static grass

Job done. Drying times (for the wash and the basing materials) were probably the longest bit of the whole process.