Welcome to the first instalment of Turbo Tabletop, a series of articles aimed at getting your models to the tabletop looking as good as possible in the quickest possible time.
Our first contender is the stunning Balefire Acolyte from the Kill Team Nachmund box set. I used to have a very small contingent of Crimson Slaughter and decided this baddest boy needed to join in with his naughty brothers.
Contrast paint is always going to be my pal in Turbo Tabletop so expect to see it a lot! Without any further delay, as Abaddon does detest dilly-dallying, let’s get into it.
I apologise for the quality of a few of these photos, some were taken at 12am.
Step 1
First off I undercoated him in Runelord Brass primer and then applied a heavy drybrush of Canoptek Alloy.
Step 2
I then applied a wash of Cryptek Armourshade Gloss. Handle this Shade with care as it’s very thick, I think even thicker than most Shades. It needs to be bullied around the model so don’t just slap it on, take it section by section, it will be worth the time.
Step 3
The next step was painting all the armour panels in Blood Angels Red contrast. Guess what, the trim is already finished from completing the previous steps!
Step 4
I painted any soft armour joints in Black Templar Contrast. The book, eye lenses and magical flames in Corax White Base. Any other metals that I didn’t want bronze, I painted Leadbelcher. Any leather items were then painted in two coats of Cygor Brown contrast (I found two coats dulled down the metallic far enough to not look metallic anymore).
Step 5
The magical flames and eye lenses were painted in Tesseract Glow technical, one grenade was painted in Militarum green, the leather was highlighted in Steel Legion Drab Base, the silvers were washed in Basilican Grey contrast and the base was coated in Armageddon Dust Technical washed in skeleton Horde. The book pages were also washed in Skeleton Horde Contrast.
Step 6
To add the finishing touches I drybrushed the base in Tyrant Skull Dry, then added some mixed tufts. I used a micro (0.1 mm) art pen to add some squiggles to the tome and black rimmed the base.
I really enjoyed painting this legionnaire and getting him to this standard in a few hours has given me a proper buzz, I think this mini project has cemented that Chaos Space Marine Legionnaires will be my next full Kill Team.
A copy of Killteam: Nachmund was supplied to us by Games Workshop.