Vast Painting Guide Ep. 6: The Spider and Spiderlings

Steps

1. 1 Base coat the large spider's underside, carapace, legs, and fangs with Black Grey; base coat the spiderlings entirely with Resurrection Flesh (a couple of coats for coverage).
2. 2 Base coat the spider's red areas — body, face, and legs, but not the joints — with Bloodfest Crimson mixed into Mephiston Red, leaving a center face strip and the leg joints unpainted for beige later.
3. 3 Base coat the edges of the spider's feet and the back stripe with Amarth Blue; thin the same blue for the spiderlings' little feet.
4. 4 Mix slow-drying medium into the red and blue mixes and wet blend the red-to-blue transition on the body and legs; do the same to smooth the red-to-black-grey transition.
5. 5 Base coat the leg joints (on the spider and the spiderlings) and the beige face stripe with Flat Flesh.
6. 6 Dry brush Ivory over the whole spiderlings, then dry brush Evil Sunz Scarlet onto the spider's red areas, boosting a smaller focused area with Evil Sunz Scarlet mixed with Ivory.
7. 7 Dry brush the blue areas — spider's feet and back stripe, and the toe tips — with Azure mixed into Amarth Blue; highlight the joints and beige face stripe with Ivory mixed into Flat Flesh.
8. 8 Wash the beige areas and the entire spiderlings with Reikland Fleshshade for depth, then catch the large spider's easily-missed lower leg joints with Flat Flesh.
9. 9 Base coat every eye (spider and spiderlings) with Bloodfest Crimson, then build a U-shaped lower highlight with Bloodfest Crimson mixed with Pink Horror, lightening with more Ivory each layer.
10. 10 Add Drakenhof Nightshade into the blue areas (feet and back stripe) for extra contrast.
11. 11 Dark-line the recesses with thinned Black Ink — body segments, the head seam, around every eye, and along the fangs — on both the spiderlings and the large spider, plus a line around each leg joint.
12. 12 Add a small dot of Ivory to the same corner of each eye for a shiny catchlight.
13. 13 Push final highlights: Ivory mixed into Black Grey on the spider's dark edges, more Ivory into Flat Flesh on the beige areas, and Flat Flesh mixed into Evil Sunz Scarlet on individual red hair strands; lighten Pink Horror further for extra eye highlight on the large spider, and boost the blue edges once more with Azure and Amarth Blue.
14. 14 Touch up the undersides: reapply Resurrection Flesh and Reikland Fleshshade where the mounting tack pulled paint off the spiderlings, and wash the large spider's whole underside with Nuln Oil.

Paints used

• Amarth Blue (Scale75 Scalecolor)

  Base coat for the spider's foot edges and back stripe (thinned for the spiderlings' feet); mixed with Azure for the blue highlight

• Azure (Vallejo Model Color)

  Mixed into Amarth Blue to dry-brush and highlight the blue areas

• Black Grey (Vallejo Model Color)

  Base coat for the spider's underside, carapace, legs, and fangs; mixed with Ivory for edge highlights

• Black Ink (Vallejo Game Ink)

  Thinned for dark-lining recesses, eyes, fangs, and joints on both the spider and spiderlings

• Bloodfest Crimson (Scale75 Scalecolor)

  Mixed into Mephiston Red for the spider's red base coat; base coat for every eye, and mixed with Pink Horror for the eye highlight

• Drakenhof Nightshade (Citadel)

  Added into the blue areas (feet and back stripe) for extra contrast

• Evil Sunz Scarlet (Citadel)

  Dry-brushed on the spider's red areas, mixed with Ivory to boost highlights and with Flat Flesh for individual hair strands

• Flat Flesh (Vallejo Model Color)

  Base coat for the leg joints and the beige face stripe; mixed with Ivory for highlights and into Evil Sunz Scarlet for red hair highlights

• Ivory (Vallejo Model Color)

  Dry-brushed over the spiderlings, mixed into Flat Flesh, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Black Grey, and the eye-highlight mix for various highlights, plus a small eye catchlight dot

• Mephiston Red (Citadel)

  Mixed with Bloodfest Crimson for the spider's red base coat

• Nuln Oil (Citadel)

  Wash over the large spider's entire underside to bring out shadows

• Pink Horror (Citadel)

  Mixed with Bloodfest Crimson to highlight the eyes, lightened further for extra highlight on the large spider's eyes

• Reikland Fleshshade (Citadel)

  Wash over the beige areas and the entire spiderlings; reapplied on the spider's fixed lower joints and the spiderlings' touched-up undersides

• Resurrection Flesh (Scale75 Scalecolor)

  Base coat for the spiderlings' entire bodies; reapplied to fix the undersides