Scourge Painting Guide – “Leviathan Style”

I have been asked by a few people to share how I did my Scrourge, which was inspired Leviathan Tyranid scheme. Before I go into my own scheme I’ll fully admit that it’s heavily based off the excellent tutorial by Tale of Painters.

This method of painting is based mainly on washes, rather than my standard approach of layering lighter to darker shades. It makes for quick painting, but also a little tricky. Less is definitely more and I’d recommend applying the washes in multiple light layers to get the right result rather than one heavy layer. Also apply the washes to the recesses, otherwise it will be harder to get a nice white contrast on the flat raised areas.

The paints used are:

• Mat White (Army Painter)
• Pink Horror
• Lahmian Medium
• Druchii Violet
• Carroburg Crimson
• Magenta Ink
• Fire Dragon Bright

First simply spray the model white. Make sure you get a really good coat on, as we will be applying a wash directly to it. You may find it easier to spray the “wings” separately before attaching:

 

Make light pink wash by mixing Pink Horror with Lahmian Medium. The wash should have a lighter consistency than a standard wash. Try to keep this wash to the recesses.

 

Carefully use Druchii Violet to add a wash to the recess’ and segmented plates on the “spines” of the ship. You really want to avoid adding the wash to the white areas themselves, apart from the end  half of the “wings” which I wanted to be darker. In fact I applied two coats of wash to these areas.

 

Apply Screamer Pink to the raised areas on the segmented plates on the “spines” of the ship (which should have a base coat of Druchii Violet).

 

Using a suitable white (I used army painter mat white), paint over where the wash has gone on the raised areas to get them totally white. I used some dry brushing here.

 

Apply Carroburg Crimson to the occulus arrays and other wepaons, in this case the BTL. I also sparingly added a bit of Carroburg Crimson to some the really deep recess.

 

I added some red wash (I used Magenta Ink, but any red wash would do) to the heat lance an Fire Dragon Bright to the occulus arrays. Also highlight the “spines” with a mix of Screamer Pink and Pink Horror.  I also generally neatened by the model as required and there you have it, a scourge heavy cruiser ready for battle!