Gray-Scale Washing is a

technique for painting miniatures

very fast with very nice and
smooth shading and highlighting.
As I was a kid and learning to
paint, a friend of mine (who was
much ol der and had been
painting for many more years
t han me) showed me an
interesting painting technique.
He had primed his miniatures
black and dry-brushed them
white before painting them with
inks. It didn!t look very good, but
it did have an unique feel.
Many years later, Games
Workshop discontinued their ink
line and replaced it with the
washes line. I had remembered
that strange technique of my
friend!s and wanted to try it with
the new washes. To my surprise
it looked pretty good. Over the
next few months I played with
the idea some more until I felt it
was perfected.
Here is a step by step
process to painting an Imperial
Guardsmen.
AN EXAMPLE OF AN IMPERIAL
GUARDSMAN AND A ORK
TANKBUSTA PAINTED WITH
GRAY-SCALE WASHING
GREATER DAEMON DWARF ENGINNER
GRAY- SCALE WASHI NG
By Whitman Bottiger
DAEMONETTS
Before we begin, we must
prep our miniature. Assemble the
miniature and ock the base with some
sand. Be sure to use a ne grain. Also,
be sure to shave off any mold lines.
You should always do this, but with
Gray-Scale Washing its very important
as mold lines will stick out like a sore
thumb when you!re done.
Next, prime the miniature with
a white spray.
Then, c ov er t he whol e
miniature with a coat of Badab Black
Wash...even the sand.
Lastly, give the miniature an
extremely light dry-brush with Skull
White. This last step is not necessary,
but I have found that after the black
wash the miniature is a bit too dark.
The miniature is now gray-
scaled and ready to be painted. This
gray-scaling as taken care of all your
shading, highlights, and base.
NOTE: Another approach is to spray
the miniature black and then dry-brush
your way from gray to white. It looks
almost exactly the same (although a
bit darker) but i found it to take a bit
longer to do.
Although it!s nearly impossible to tell from the above pictures,
the top miniature has been given a coat of black wash, and the
bottom miniature has been given a light dry-brush of white.
1: Paint the skin with one coat of
Ogryn Flesh. With all these steps,
don!t be afraid to kinda glob it one.
You can be really generous with
each step.
2: Paint the fatigues with one coat of
Gryphonne Sepia.
3: Paint the armor and gun case
with two coats of a mix of Thraka
Green and Devlan Mud. The mix
should be about 60% Green, 40%
Mud. 50/50 was just a bit too brown.
4: Take some Chainmail and water it
down until it!s as thin as a wash. You
want the gray-scale you made to
show through the silver as well. Paint
the rest of the gun with this silver. Be
careful as it!s runny. Once this is dry,
give the silver a coat of Badab Black.
Once again, don!t be afraid to be
generous.
5: Paint the boots, belt, and gear
Chaos Black. I was lazy and left it at
that, but if you want a really good
look you can paint on multiple coats
of Badab Black. It looks real nice,
but takes forever.
Usually I just water down some
Chaos Black and leave it at that.
6: Finally paint the imperial eagles
Skull White and when dried give
them a coat of watered down
Asurman Blue.
Paint the sand with a coat of Devlan
Mud, the rim with Bestial Brown, and
add a couple tuffs of static grass.
BE SURE EVERYTHING IS DRY
BEFORE ADDING STATIC GRASS.