This article is part of a larger series on how to paint the Thousand Sons. To return to the parent article, click this link.
The Thousand Sons are one of the more complicated and difficult armies to paint in Warhammer 40,000, with lots of trim and intricate details that can make them daunting for new players to take on. However that doesn’t mean you have to paint them with the modern scheme. Our resident expert at painting older style marines, Dylan Gould has instead opted to paint his with a theme more reminiscent of those Rogue Trader era days, with bright primary colors.
These Thousand Sons were based off the four-step method in the old How to Paint Citadel Miniatures guide, with some adjustments to the colors used. The biggest challenge here is those colors: With so many colors next to each other, each model can take several hours to paint up, making this an intense project.
Here’s the process for painting these:
- Spray the model white
- Basecoat all areas with the following colors:
- Enchanted Blue for the trim, helmets, and stripes
- Blood Red for the kneepads, shoulder pads, and right glove
- Sunburst Yellow for the armor panels and yellow stripes
- Snot Green for the green stripes on the armor
- Wash the entire mini with a wash made from the following mix: 1 part Sepia wash, 4 parts Orange wash, 1 part flow improver, some water
- Highlight the blue sections with Enchanted Blue and a 1:1 mix of Enchanted Blue and white
- Highlight the Red sections with Blood Red, then Wild Rider Red, then a 1:1 mix of Wild Rider Red and white
- Highlight the yellow sections with Sunburst then Bad Moon Yellow
- Highlight the Green sections with Snot Green, then Scorpion Green
- Paint metallics with Mithril Silver and Retributor Armor
- Wash metals with Armor wash (The Army Painter Dark Tone)
- Paint bases Goblin Green
- Drybrush bases with Underhive Ash
This article is part of a larger series on how to paint the Thousand Sons. To return to the parent article, click this link.
