Warband Paint Plan
Speedpaint over Lead Belcher

Warband Paint Plan

Pick a legion and a model, then spin it round. Switch to Step by step to watch the model get painted one layer at a time.

Every scheme side by side

Tap one to pick it

Your kit: what to use for what

Rubber well paletteKit's Smart Paint Palette

Use this for Speedpaint and Agrax Earthshade. One drop per well. Speedpaint soaks into wet-palette paper and goes blotchy, so keep it in the wells. Once it dries, peel it off the rubber.

Wet paletteArmy Painter, the black box

Use it only for the thicker paints: AK Intense Black and Vallejo Plate Mail Metal. Soak the sponge, lay the paper on top, and wipe off any puddles. Keeps the black workable for hours.

Painting Handle XLCitadel

Clamp the Dreadnought's oval base in it so you never touch the model. For the round bases, use it if they grip securely. If not, stick each model to a bottle cap or cork with Blu Tack.

Wargamer RegimentYour main brush

Most of the Speedpaint goes on with this: armour, weapons, cloth, cables. It holds enough paint to cover a whole shoulder pad in one stroke, which stops tide marks.

Wargamer Insane DetailTiny work only

Eye lenses, skulls, purity seals and fine trim. Only dip the very tip. Don't use it for metallics or washes, the fine point wears out fast.

Small DrybrushOptional highlight

After the armour colour is dry, take a little Plate Mail Metal, wipe almost all of it off on a paper towel, then flick the brush lightly across the armour edges. That brings back bright silver on the edges. It works especially well on Black Legion and Night Lords.

Daler-Rowney flats and roundsOrange handles

Use the flat shader for base rims: lay the flat edge against the rim and turn the model. Use a medium round for the Dreadnought's big armour panels.

Black-handled multipackYour sacrificial brushes

Use these for Agrax Earthshade, the bare-metal wash and the base wash. Metallics and shades wreck good brushes, so keep the good ones for colour.

Your first session

  1. Pick one Legionary as your test model. Paint it all the way through before starting the rest, so you can check the colours before committing the army.
  2. Set up. A cup of water for rinsing and paper towel next to you. A drop of each Speedpaint in its own palette well. Wet the wet-palette sponge for the black and silver.
  3. Shake every Speedpaint bottle hard for 30 seconds. The pigment settles, and unshaken Speedpaint goes on thin and streaky.
  4. Work down the painting order below, biggest areas first and small details last. Let each colour dry for about 10 minutes before painting the area next to it, so they don't bleed together.
  5. Look at the test model in daylight. Happy with it? Batch the rest of the squad: do step 1 on all five, then step 2 on all five, and so on. By the time you finish the fifth, the first one is dry.
  6. Leave the Dreadnought until you've done a squad. It's the centrepiece, and you'll paint it better with some practice behind you.
  7. Varnish last, after a full day of drying, and only if you're happy to lose some shine (see the tip below).

Painting order

Working with what you have

One wet coat, then leave it

Speedpaint sets as it dries. Brush it on in one even coat and don't go back over a half-dry area or you'll get tide marks. Need it darker? Wait until it's fully dry and do a second coat.

Thin it with Speedpaint Medium

Over silver, a 1:1 mix of paint and Speedpaint Medium gives a brighter, more see-through metal. Use it on the gold trim if Zealot Yellow looks too brassy.

Light colours need a white base

Pallid Bone and Holy White look grey over silver. On skulls, horns and purity seals, do two coats of Holy White first, let them dry, then add Pallid Bone.

Fix mistakes with the silver

Use the Vallejo Plate Mail Metal to tidy slips back to bare metal, then re-paint that spot. Fix black slips with AK Intense Black.

Painting over the red you started

Grim Black covers your existing red in one coat. Any darker Speedpaint goes over it fine. Lighter colours like yellow won't, so touch those spots up with Plate Mail Metal first.

Matt varnish kills the shine

Your Army Painter Matt Varnish protects the paint, but it will flatten the metallic look on the armour. Try it on one model first. If you lose too much shine, varnish only the bases and cloth, or skip it. Fully dried Speedpaint is fairly tough by itself.

Check which Ingco sprayer you have

Ingco sells pen-sized airbrushes and big HVLP spray guns for walls and furniture. A big gun (cup holding hundreds of ml) puts out far too much paint for miniatures and will flood the detail, so don't use it on these. A pen-sized airbrush is ideal for the varnish: thin, misted coats from about 15–20 cm away.

If you want to re-prime

You don't need to strip anything. Mist Mr Finishing Surfacer Black all over, then Grey at 45° from above, then a short burst of White from straight above. Speedpaint goes on brighter, but the armour won't be metallic. These surfacers are lacquer, so spray thin coats outdoors.