Speed Batch Painting: Grey Knights Part 1: Fellowship of the Filth

Speed Painting Grey Knights Part 1: Fellowship of the Filth

So a few months back Mike, Scott, Charles, Joe, Andy and I embarked upon the dark a dangerous journey into the perverted depths of 40k… Now I am actually quite a big fan of the 40k fluff universe having read more than a few Horus heresy novels and the several editions worth of 40k army books etc. Frighteningly over the years I have painted 6 or so marine armies, a tyranid horde and some necrons! I have however barely played the game and certainly not since 3^rd edition way back when!

With the launch of the new edition of 40k (which I hear is actually quite a decent game outside of tournaments and the whole bound/unbound mess)we were keen to try out some small games and in particular killteam and zone mortalis. So a few months ago when I saw a cracking deal on some metal grey knights (I have always wanted an all metal grey knight army but could afford it until I got a big boy job!) I snapped them up. Being that I am OCD adverse to owning/playing with unpainted (by my own hand) models this meant stripping and repainting them all. I set a peasant(scott) to task to strip the models for me ready to be painted.

As with all new armies I wanted to test myself and try a new technique or two. So the experiments with this army was MASS batch painting, single colour completion painting and large area wash painting. I had a discussion a few months back with Steve Wren, Chris Tomlin and Dorian about how we go about painting. They differed in that they paint one colour or part to completion before moving on to a new part and repeat this until the whole model is finished. Personally I approach this differently and complete the model fully basecoated, washed, highlighted and finally glazed. I wanted to try out this other method and will report back at the end of the project as to how I have got on.

So the army theme is based around two of my own small fluff amendments and adjustments. The main part is my force is to based on the “Ghost Knights” which are part of Grand Master Mordrak’s fluff (WH40K Wiki link here: http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Vorth_Mordrak ). These ghost knights materialise around Mordrak and fight for him. My other fluff part which is a contortion of the truth is that I want the force to be based around the chapter which has descended from Loken from the Horus Heresy series so having the sea green armour of the Son’s of Horus seemed fitting!

Ok so down to the painting method. My goal with this army was to speed paint it following the speed painting technique used by Guild Painting detailed in the garagehammer episode (link:  ) where by they paint a model bit by bit (eg just a boot, then just a sword etc etc). So here is the stage by stage guide and timings of what I have done for roughly 70 grey knights! Im going to assume all models are assembled for the start of this guide as all of mine were lol! Pics below of each stage!

Stage 1: Glue Sand and Gravel to base (30minutes, dry 1 hour)

Mix glue with sand and gravel and put on bases using knife clean mess with thumb and have a bowl of water to hand to keep you thumb clean.

Stage 2: Spray Grey (3 minutes x4, dry 1 hour)

Pretty simple….BnQ grey Primer, spray lol.

Stage 3: Dry Brush Entire Model with light Grey (25 Minutes)

This brings out the detail and will make the next stage look that much better…

Stage 4: Wash all armour with a 50:50 mix of Beil Tan Green and Lahmian Medium (1hour, dry 1 Hour)

This effectively paints all the armour for you and thanks to the previous dry brush it does your highlighting too!

Stage 5: Force Weapons (4 Hours)

Paint entire force weapon blade dark blue, progressively move up through the blade both in distance and slightly lighter blues until you reach near white at the extreme edge.

Stage 6: Red Cloth and Purity Seals (4 Hours)

Paint all red areas dark red, then raised surfaces lighter red, wash red. The progressively layer, highlight and blend up to finished very light red.

This is where I am upto so far!

Total Time so far: 13 Hours

Let me know what you think guys!!