Simple boltgun casings: tutorial

Here's a quick little tutorial on how I paint black gun casings quickly and easily. This would work particularly well for casings with engraved details, like on many of the Space Wolf boltguns.

I really hate line highlighting gun casings. They are such a pain and I can never make them look any good. So I applied my quick-and-easy methods to them.

Read on for the details.

You will need ...

Just three paints for this one:

1. Mechanicus Standard Grey (Citadel Base)
2. Nuln Oil (Citadel Shade)
3. Longbeard Grey (Citadel Dry)

Here's the boltgun casing before we start work. It's best to paint the other details, particularly the metallic parts, first.

Step 1: basecoat with Mechanicus Standard Grey

We start with a nice smooth basecoat of grey. Not much to say here!

Step 2: wash with Nuln Oil

This stage starts to work on the shading and toning down the colour We can also see the details starting to emerge. A little wash in between the casing and the metal parts helps to further define the casing itself.

Step 3: drybrush with Longbread Grey

Now we start to pick out the details with a drybrushing. Pay particular attention to the edges and the ridges of the grip and don't worry about it being too much. Also don't worry about the "dusty" appearance as all this will be smoothed away in Step 4.

Step 4: wash again with Nuln Oil

This is the last stage where another wash tones down the highlighting and and further enhances the shading. All the details, even the tiny little screws/rivets, are clearly visible. This is not a true back of course, more a dark grey. You can add another wash to get a darker colour if you want. I stuck with this as I prefer the greyer tone for my Space Wolves scheme and I didn't want to lose the detail of the engraved runes.

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Now this technique need not be limited to black. In fact, just about any colour would work here. Hope this is useful. If you use this methodology, let me know how it goes!