Yes, I jumped on the new 40k box set. I didn’t fully plan on doing so, but I broke down, and I am glad I did. These new models are incredibly detailed and full of character. The zombies were the first to get paint and here is the tutorial on painting pox walkers with washes.

I decided to use washes on the Pox Walkers as I wanted to get all 20 of them finished quickly and experimented with the style. When done well, you can get a great looking unit with a few different glazes of color.

Priming and Prep

After assembling the miniatures, I took some of the duplicates and modified them as you will see below. On some, I removed horns and extra equipment. On others, I bent arms and hands to get a different look.

Each model got a solid coverage of white primer using two light coats. For painting with washes, others have recommended using gray primer and give it a quick spray of white from the top. This can help add extra shadows to the underside of the model.

You will also notice through the pictures that I had glued the minis to empty bases as I wasn’t sure what I was going to do yet. I later picked up a set of the Games Workshop Imperial Sector bases for the kit. More on that later.

Base Colors and Brown Wash

I credit my learning on painting with washes to Greg (greggles) and his technique for painting Orks. One modification I made was painting the metallic areas first – pretty much the only standard paint on them.

In Greg’s flow, he paints the metals last, which means if the paint gets on something it shouldn’t, it is a pain to clean up. Painting them first provides the ability to clean up as everything else is just white primer. The downside is that the metals are a bit messier and darker.

Afterward, I gave the whole model a good wash of dark brown. I thinned it down a bit with Airbrush Medium and Flow-Aid. The mediums prevent much of the pooling that can happen with washes. The dark brown provides an excellent base color to work off of while creating most of the work for the bones and leather.

Colors:

• Brass: WarColours Metallic Copper (Warplock Bronze)
• Iron: Vallejo Game Colors Gunmetal (Leadbelcher)
• Brown Wash: Vallejo Dark Brown Wash (Agrax Earthshade)

Adding Color

Here comes the fun part, adding a riot of colors to make these guys fun and disgusting. I didn’t take a lot of pictures during this stage as I was sitting on the couch painting them up.

The different colors were used to provide coloring on the clothing as well as the mutations. This allowed for each mini to be colorful but some amount of uniformity of colors.

Most of the clothing was kept the previous brown wash, red, or yellow. This allowed some variation without going crazy. Some of the details like belts and boots were washed with black.

The skin had variations of yellow, flesh wash, green, and additional brown layers. I added more colors to the puss and boils, including some turquoise, purple and green.

Colors:

• Yellow: Games Workshop Casandora Wash
• Green: Vallejo Dark Green Wash (Athonian Camoshade)
• Flesh: Game Color Flesh Wash (Reikland Fleshshade)
• Red: Game Color Red Wash (Carroburg Crimson)
• Blue: Game Color Blue Wash (Guilliman Blue)
• Turquoise: WarColours Turquoise Transparent (Nihilakh Oxide)

More Color

Below you can see the gallery of each set of minis in the set which highlights some of the changes I made to the figures. The color variation also created separation between the duplicates as well.

The next stage added even more color, especially through some fluorescent paints from WarColours. I used the pink on the maggots and green for all the exposed insides. I also added some additional color washes to parts of each mini and rust spots with bright orange.

For some of the bones and teeth, I did go back with Bonewhite to brighten it back up. I also added some blacklining with a black wash to add some definition where colors were blurring the details.

Colors

• Bright Green: WarColours Fluorescent Green (Nurgle’s Rot)
• Bright Pink: WarColours Fluorescent Pink (Emperor’s Children-ish)
• Purple: WarColours Transparent Violet (Druchii Violet)
• Rust: Game Colors Orange Fire (Ryza Rust)

Painting the Bases

One of the hopes I have once I finish painting the models in Dark Imperium is to get them featured in White Dwarf. So to that end, I couldn’t use any of the resin bases I have been collecting from Secret Weapon. I instead picked up some of the Sector Imperialis bases from GW.

While not nearly as detailed as the resin bases, they still provide a nice thematic look to the army. It will also go nicely with the city board I am building.

To paint the bases, I left them all on the sprues and primed them with gray. All the silver and brass areas were painted as above. Layers of washes were then applied with some additional dry brushing.

• Concrete: black wash then dry brushed gray
• Metal: green and brown washes then some orange rust
• Brass: turquoise and brown wash, then some touchup with brass
• Skulls: Bonewhite then brown wash then more bonewhite
• Dirt: brown wash then dry brushed Bonewhite

Finished Unit Showcase

With the bases done, I removed them from the plain base. Tip for the future: use super glue. It snaps off nicely.

As you can see, they are a great riot of color, and yet look like a unit. The pops of color add some interest throughout the mob. But I am well aware that each mini has lots of rough spots be it paint splatter, puddles, or missed details. I am fine with this as they are meant for tabletop, deployed as a mob.

The bases look cool all together as well. It adds some interest and setting, without distracting from the actual miniature.

Up Next

As I previously showed in my last WIP post, I have started the Chaos Space Marine unit, painted for my Iron Warriors. But before I get those done, I need to finish the tactical squad of Rainbow Warriors and get them out for the charity raffle.