A quick scheme to paint up Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons, using an airbrush for basecoats.
Paints used:
- Vallejo Metal Color Gold (or Retributor Armour)
- Citadel Liberator Gold
- Citadel Blood Angels Contrast
- Citadel Guilliman Flesh Contrast
- ‘Ardcoat
- Vallejo Metal Color Dark Aluminium (or Leadbelcher)
- Vallejo Metal Color White Aluminium (or Stormhost Silver)
Assemble your mini and prime with a light Primer. I’ve been using Vallejo Mecha Grey Primer for these.
Basecoat the entire model with Metal Color Gold. You could use Retributor Armour for this.
Coat the entire model again with Blood Angels Contrast.
Take your time picking out all the gold details with your base gold colour.
Paint any silvers in to break up the Red and Gold, and pick out any black areas.
Shade the gold and all the rivets with Guilliman Flesh, then highlight with Liberator Gold and White Aluminium (or Stormhost Silver) on the edges.
Brush on some ‘Ardcoat towards the high points of the red armour panels to make the red shine – if you prefer a matte metallic finish you can skip this, but use some matte varnish anywhere you’ll be placing transfers.
For character models, I’ve been putting some diluted Flesh Tearers Red in the recesses and dark areas of the armour before the ‘Ardcoat.
It’s a really simple scheme but has a nice end result if you keep your painting as neat as you can!
