How to Paint Deathwing – Jack Hunter’s Method

This article is part of a larger series on how to paint Dark Angels space marines. For more on painting Dark Angels, you can return to that series by clicking this link.

I don’t normally play Dark Angels – my primary marine armies are Imperial Fists and Blood Angels – but I was incredibly excited when the chance to add to the Dark Angels came up as Forge World had just released two Dark Angel Praetors, one in power armor and one in terminator armor. We’ve pretty well covered painting green in our main Dark Angels article, so this gave me a perfect excuse to try out painting bone instead.

This isn’t quite a perfectly traditional Deathwing – I’ve painted the inside of cloth bits, and some of the smaller cloth areas in red rather than pure green, and did the chest eagle in black, and instead of gold trim I went with a dark silver for contrast.

Priming and Basecoating

1. Prime with Vallejo Desert Tan (73.813)
2. Do a first pass in the shadowed areas with Vallejo Model Air Bud Brown (71.037)
3. Do a second smaller pass inside the previous with Vallejo Model Air Rust (71.080)
4. Hit upper surfaces with a highlight of Vallejo Model Air Insignia White (71.279)

5. Spray a few thin passes with Citadel Air Terminator Stone to tie it all together and lighten the shadows a bit.

Varnish and Wash

1. Gloss varnish the entire thing
2. Use AK Paneliner Sand and Desert (AK 2073) to wash into all the recesses
3. Matte varnish, then use a torn up piece of foam and Citadel Rhinox Hide to add some chipping

Details

It’s time to start painting in all the details. I typically block in any large areas of color (so on this model the chest eagle, silver areas, and robes) so I can see what it’ll look like, then start on the details. I used Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey (70.994) as the base for all my metals.

• Red Cloth: Follow my Blood Angels painting method
• Other Reds: Mephiston Red, Carroburg Crimson, Wild Rider Red, Troll Slayer Orange
• Greens: Caliban Green, Nuln Oil Gloss, Warpstone Glow, Moot Green
• Undersuit: VMC 70.994 Dark Grey, Black Templar Contrast
• Blacks: VMC 70.994 Dark Grey, Nuln Oil Gloss, VMC 70.867 Dark Blue Grey, Scale75 SC-03 Graphite
• Golds: Scale75 SC-87 Decayed Metal, Druchii Violet, Scale75 SC-72 Viking Gold, 50/50 Viking Gold + SC-75 Citrine Alchemy
• Sword: Scale75 SC-63 Black Metal, Nuln Oil Gloss, Scale75 SC-66 Speed Metal

• Armor Trim: Iron Hands Steel, Nuln Oil Gloss, Speed Metal
• Other Silvers: Vallejo Mecha Color 69.058 Gunmetal, Nuln Oil Gloss, Speed Metal
• Parchment: Skeleton Horde Contrast over the bone basecoat

At this point glue on the sub-assemblies, matte varnish the whole thing, and gloss varnish the eyes. I painted the base with Mournfang Brown before coating it in Agrellan Earth, which got washed with Seraphim Sepia and drybrushed with Terminatus Stone, but you should base him to match the rest of your army.

This article is part of a larger series on how to paint Dark Angels space marines. For more on painting Dark Angels, you can return to that series by clicking this link.