AN INDEPENDENT WARHAMMER REFERENCE ARCHIVE ONLINE // EST. M026
Index Obscura.THE WHITE DWARF ARCHIVE

PAINTING·WHITE DWARF 311

Spirits of Athel Loren

November 2005·pp. 102–105

THE SHORT VERSION

Steve Cumiskey uses real trees to challenge the assumption that all Forest Spirits should be brown. Four bark schemes reproduce pale birch, patchy dark trunks, moss and purple-tinged grey, while seasonal foliage, rain, snow and leaf litter connect them to the rest of a Wood Elf army. Construction advice keeps fragile branches intact and ranked Dryads usable. A final brown scheme gains natural variety through grey-green highlights rather than successively lighter browns alone.

AT THE PAINTING DESK

Paints in this article

Every named colour below is searchable across the archive.

Graveyard EarthKommando KhakiSkull WhiteScorched BrownBestial BrownVomit BrownCodex GreyRotting FleshFortress GreyCatachan GreenCamo GreenDark FleshChestnut InkBrown InkSunburst YellowBleached BoneGloss Varnish

Only explicitly named paints used in the feature are indexed.

EXPLORE RELATED TOPICS

Painting techniques

Back to the original

Find this article in White Dwarf 311, pp. 102–105.

This is an original summary. Refer to your magazine for the complete article, rules, images and painting steps.

KEEP EXPLORING

Another page to turn.

Back to the archive →
PaintingWD 311 · pp. 50–55

In Darkness and Light

Adrian Wood builds five Initiates from the new Crusader, Tactical and Assault components, choosing poses suited to their weapons and visible detail. He first paints a fast black-white-red gaming scheme, then develops it with controlled edge highlights, crosses, lenses and richer details. The tutorial progresses from practical construction and transfers to freehand heraldry and the fine liturgy on studio Helbrecht and Grimaldus models, offering successive improvements to an already playable squad.

Warhammer 40,000Black Templars17 paint colours
November 2005Read summary
PaintingWD 311 · pp. 52–53

Painting the Squad: Armour and Shoulder Guards

The fast finish leaves much of the black undercoat visible and uses restrained grey drybrushing before flat detail colours. White shoulder pads can be built over Shadow Grey or painted separately from a white start. A later stage replaces broad drybrushing with fine grey edge lines so the armour remains clearly black. The illustrated excessive highlight warns that too much grey changes the whole character of the scheme.

Warhammer 40,000Black Templars10 paint colours
November 2005Read summary
PaintingWD 311 · p. 53

Transfers and Hand-painted Crosses

Transfers keep chapter symbols consistent in size and shape, while a freehand method begins with an eight-pointed star and adds V-shaped tips before filling the arms. White can repair untidy edges, and red crosses offer a striking alternative. Wood advises practising with diluted paint on paper first, making the method a manageable next step after finishing the basic squad.

Warhammer 40,000Black Templars2 paint colours
November 2005Read summary