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Garrek’s Reavers Painting Showcase (Warhammer Underworlds)

    I picked up Shadespire in February of this year (2018). I’ve been having a blast playing it, and since then I have slowly, ever so slowly, been working on painting up my Khorne Bloodreavers warband, Garrek’s Reavers.

    Granted, it’s only 5 models, but I wasn’t in a rush, and I really wanted to take my time on the models and enjoy the process. I also wanted to continue pushing my ability to paint skin, something I’m historically bad at.

    Another thing that took some time was quality. I wasn’t aiming at creating showpieces, but I also wanted something more than standard tabletop quality too. Once I worked that out, the process went quick, relatively speaking.

    For the final model in the group that I painted, Garrek himself, I went a bit above the rest in the warband in terms of quality. I have been wanting to experiment with the loaded brush blending technique, so I took it as a chance to do just that.

    I loved the results I got, and it made me wish I had done this on all the models, but Que Sera, Sera. Garrek was the last model, I wanted to spend some extra time on him, so I can’t afford to look back.

    Anyway, enough blabbering, here’s some pictures of Garrek’s Reavers!

    As always, click to make them larger.

    Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. The commission earned helps maintain this site.

    Garrek’s Reavers

    Targor

    Arnulf

    Karsus

    Saek

    Garrek

    Painting Thoughts

    Other than what I said above, I’m happy with how Garrek’s Reavers came out. I played around with skin tones a lot on these guys, each having a unique skin tone. I also really love working on darker skin tones. I find their easier to work with and more forgiving of mistakes.

    Anyway, I think the skin overall came out well. It’s light years ahead of what I used to do at least.

    I also wanted to play around with the Blood for the Blood God technical paint. I picked it up a long time ago and have used it on maybe one model so far. So, I did some experimenting with it on the Bloodreavers weapons. I wouldn’t normally do every model with a bloody weapon, but it seems fitting for these guys.

    Oh, the eyes, yeah, they’re just white. I tried doing pupils, kept getting frustrated, so I gave up on the idea and left them white. I did try doing red eyes on one model and didn’t like it. The white stands out more and pure white eyes are eery anyway.

    All-in-all I’m happy with how my Garrek’s Reavers warband came out.

    Garrek’s Reavers Skin Painting Recipe

    I’ve been asked a few times about some of skin recipes, so here they are.

    Anything noted with (V) is Vallejo, otherwise it’s a Citadel paint.

    Targor

    • Base coat Pale Flesh (V)
    • Wash with Reikland Fleshshade
    • Blend back up with Pale Flesh
    • Selective shading with Reikland Fleshshade

    Arnulf

    • Base coat Pallid Wych Flesh
    • Wash with Reikland Fleshshade
    • Blend back up with Pallid Wych Flesh
    • Selective shading with Reikland Fleshshade

    Karsus

    • Base coat Gorthor Brown
    • Wash with Druchii Violet
    • Blend back up to Gorthor Brown
    • Selective shading with Agrax Earthshade
    • Blend up with XV-88

    Saek

    • Base coat Rhinox Hide
    • Wash with Druchii Violet
    • Blend back up to Rhinox Hide
    • Selective shading with Agrax Earthshade
    • Blend up with Mournfang Brown
    • Light glaze with Rhinox Hide

    Garrek

    • Base coat Elf Skintone (V)
    • Glaze with Tan (V)
    • Blend back up with Elf Skintone
    • Selective shading with Tan (V)
    • Blend up to Pale Flesh (V)

    For the skulls on the bases I used one of my standard skull techniques. I’ve got a tutorial on painting skulls, and the one I used is #1 in the list.

    Storage

    Since these are now fully painted, I went and got myself a Feldherr Shadespire tray for the Bloodreavers. It’s a cool laser cut tray with slots for all your goodies.

    Bloodreavers Shadespire Tray

    The tray is actually pretty affordable and I highly recommend Feldherr.

    Update

    I now also have an A-Case+ magnetic case I’m using and I really like it. If you want to go the magnetic route then check out my full review on my other blog.

    A-Case+ Loaded
    A-Case+ Loaded My A-Case+ packed with a Blood Bowl team and 3 Warhammer Underworlds warbands.

    Conclusion

    So, really happy with how the Garrek’s Reavers came out. I’ve been having a great time painting up stuff for Shadespire.

    I’ve got some helpful advice on using Garrek’s Reavers as well.

    Thor’s Warhammer Underworlds Warbands

    Thor

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    17 Comments
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    5 years ago

    The skin is smooth as silk -despite I should not say this in front of them-. The shadows around Targor’s eyes are great! Amazing job. I always hate to do pupils: there are some tricks to to them, but I think the best is to have a top quality brush with a nice belly to not dry the color and a sharp tip. However I’ve not noticed the lack of it, white eyes are cool!

    Rory (Stepping Between Games)

    That came put really well, bravo. The extra time and effort really shows.

    The blood effect paint is great, but I find it is very easy to over use. Thankfully you used it more in moderation.

    Rory (Stepping Between Games)
    Reply to  Thor

    Good idea. The blood splatter effect can work really well at times, I just don’t have the knack of it.

    Rory (Stepping Between Games)
    Reply to  Thor

    Very true, more for a “and then the Knight stood on him” sort of thing.

    Westrider
    5 years ago

    They’re my least favourite of the Warbands to play so far, but they do paint up really nicely. I always like seeing more varied skin tones. The eyes do look nicely creepy. Something else to try perhaps on future Models is to do them white and then a very light red wash over them. BftBG is definitely easy to over-use. Nice restraint with it here.

    Westrider
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Thor

    Ah, I can see that. Unfortunate.

    They’re not objectively bad or anything, I just don’t like how they play. I like the tougher brawlers, or the ones with all kinds of sneaky shenanigans. Orruks and Skaven are my two mains right now, and I expect the Bood Warriors to join them.

    Westrider
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Thor

    The Flesh Hound was definitely a selling point. I’m always a fan of animal companions :D

    TheRhino
    5 years ago

    Looking good.
    I never bother painting eyes anymore, because you can’t see them at arm’s distance anyways.
    I keep looking ay the Dwarf war band just to paint a bunch of skin as well. I don’t play, but they look like fun to paint. Skin is very satisfying to paint, which is why I’m including so many bare heads in my Raven Guard lately.

    TheRhino
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Thor

    I went with pale, Caucasian skin. I tried the alabaster skin thing, but it looked like garbage.

    TheRhino
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Thor

    My Raven Guard are similar to that guy. The background mentions that RG have almost pure white skin, and the attempts I made at that ended I up looking undead or just plain wrong.