Santa's Workshop

Quick and Dirty Guide to the Undead

by Tom (Guest Elf)

Having recently been working on some undead, I thought I would write a short guide to painting them quickly. I know there is some interest in the undead recently, so I hope this will be of help.

First off, prime everything black. There's nothing bright and cheery about the undead, so a black undercoat helps keep everything toned down.

Skeletons: These are easy to paint in a rapid, assembly-line manner. The quickest is to simply dry-brush bone-white over black. I prefer a three stage process of dry brushing. With each successive dry-brush, make sure there is less and less paint on the brush. For the first coat, I use Ral Partha's Minotaur Fur Brown, which is a slightly red-ish brown. I dry-brush the entire figure with this, including weapons and armour. Next, I use Americana's Mississippi Mud, which is a light brown (the color of dry dirt), over the bone areas. The final coat on the bones is done with a light dry-brush of any creme/bone white paint. Now go back and dry-brush weapons and armour with gunmetal. Let some of the red-ish brown show through, since it will make the metal look slightly rusted. Finish up any cloth and shields, and add a very thin wash of black to tone down any areas that look too bright. You can also add pure-white highlights to any prominent areas of the skeleton, such as the ridge above the eye-sockets if they are particularly pronounced on the figure.

Mummies: I usually use the same process as for skeletons, but I add a step between the second and third dry-brush. This would be an additional dry-brush of a golden or mustard color.

Zombies/Ghouls: I use Citadel's Rotting Flesh for the flesh (what else!). It's a pale greenish grey color that probably doesn't look a whole lot like rotting flesh, but helps make these figures stand out as no-longer-living. Wash with black. Highlight with the original color, and then a final highlighting with the original color mixed with a little bit of white.

Vampires: For flesh, start with bone white/creme, then wash with your normal flesh color. Highlight with the base color and white. Use a thinned out dark brown or black around each eye, before painting the eyeball itself.