Emperor's Children Painting Guide

My goal when painting miniatures is to find the perfect balance between spending too much time per model and not spending enough. Sure it would be nice to have an entire army painted in Heavy Metal style but lets face it we also want models to quickly look good enough for table-top so that we can start with the next project. I have tons of stuff that I haven't painted because I moved on to the next thing. How fun is Hormagaunt nr 16 out of 20? HQ and tanks can get extra attention because they stand out but the regular troops need a reasonable color scheme that gets the job done in good time. Here is the one I use for my Legion and I am happy with the results!

Primed in Chaos Black. White shoulder pads are a 70:30 mix of White Scar and Screaming Skull.

Main color is of course purple and I use Xereus Purple.

Metal details in Leadbelcher (including the ones that will be gold eventually).

To get a nice golden tone I paint Gehenna's Gold on top of Leadbelcher (and this is important because the tone is completely different if you add the gold over black or Runefang Steel).

Clean up any splatter for the first 4 colors. I painted the crest in the same way as the shoulder pads. Black details such as the chainswords and bolt pistols are 70:30 mix of Abaddon Black and Dawnstone.

Highlighted black details with Dawnstone. The lovely wash or shade with Nuln Oil really binds the colors together.

Painted eye lenses with Lothern Blue and then White Scar. Also used Runefang Steel on all bolts, this makes them pop out in a really cool way (especially on the MKIII which has a lot of bolts).

Final results by sponging with Leadbelcher to give a worn appearance. There we are! I skip any further highlighting which saves a lot of time. Hope you liked the guide (sorry about the lights changing but I took the pictures at different times of the day). I will also later post how I make my bases.