Alcazaba Painting Recipes

The terrain is base-coated using matt enamel. It seals the mdf and provides a good starting point. Many pieces are painted before assembly to make things easier to reach and handle. 

After the Recipes, there is a brief description of the strategy and process of painting Alcazaba Terrain.

The following paint brand abbreviations will be used throughout:

VMC: Vallejo Model Colour
VGC: Vallejo Game Colour
P3: Privateer Press P3 Paints
GW: Games Workshop
SC: Scale75 Scalecolor

All colors are applied with an airbrush, and edge highlights are applied with a brush.

Tan

• P3 Hammerfall Khaki
• VMC Iraqi Sand (First Highlight, 33% Coverage)
• VMC Pale Sand (Second Highlight, 10% Coverage)
• Note: If you find this too great a transition, and get speckling or cannot achieve a smooth gradient, then mix Iraqi Sand and Pale Sand together as an intermediate layer. 
• VMC Flat Earth (Shade, 5-10% Coverage)
• Edge Highlight with Iraqi Sand, Pale Sand, and VMC Ivory

Concrete

• P3 Cryx Bane Base
• P3 Cryx Highlight (First Highlight, 50% Coverage)
• VMC Deck Tan (Second Highlight, 25% Coverage)
• VMC Silvergrey (Third Highlight, 10% Coverage)
• SC Petroleum Grey (Shade, 10% Coverage)
• Stipple lightly using Blister Pack Foam with all the same colors to add texture
• Edge Shadow with Petroleum Grey (You may wish to add Black)
• Edge Highlight the opposite edges with Cryx Highlight, Deck Tan and Silvergrey

Gold

• VGC Leather Brown
• VMC Goldbrown (First Highlight, 60% Coverage)
• VMC Yellow Ochre (Second Highlight, 40% Coverage)
• VGC Bonewhite (Third Highlight, 15% Coverage)
• VMC White (Final Highlight, 5% Coverage)
• VMC Black (Extreme Shadow, 5-10% Coverage)
• Edge Highlight with Yellow Ochre, Bonewhite, and White

Brown

• VMC German Camo Black Brown
• VMC Flat Brown (First Highlight, 75% Coverage)
• SC Arabic Shadow (Second Highlight, 30% Coverage)
• SC Iroko (Third Highlight, 15% Coverage)
• VMC German Yellow (Final Highlight, 5% Coverage)

Blue

• VMC Blue
• VMC Medium Blue (First Highlight, 50% Coverage)
• VMC Deep Sky Blue (Second Highlight, 25% Coverage)
• VMC Sky Blue (Third Highlight, 10% Coverage)
• VGC Glacier Blue (Extreme Highlight, <5% Coverage)
• VMC Dark Prussian Blue (Shade, 10% Coverage)
• Edge Highlight with Deep Sky Blue, Sky Blue, Glacier Blue, and White

 White

• VMC German Camo Beige WWII
• VMC Deck Tan (First Highlight, 50% Coverage)
• VMC Ivory (Second Highlight, 25% Coverage)
• VMC Dark Bluegrey (40%) + German Camo Beige WWII (60%) (Shade, 15% Coverage)
• Edge Highlight with Ivory and White

 Steel

• VMC Black
• VMC Dark Grey (First Highlight, 75% Coverage)
• VMC Neutral Grey (Second Highlight, 40% Coverage)
• VMC Light Grey (Third Highlight, 20 % Coverage)
• VMC White (Extreme Highlight, 5-10% Coverage)
• Edge Highlight with Neutral Grey, Light Grey and White

Teal Lights

These colors are sprayed not just onto the lights, but are also over-sprayed onto the surrounding areas in successively smaller circles to simulate the glow of the light.

• VMC Blue Green 
• VMC Sky Blue (First Highlight, 50% Coverage)
• VMC Glacier Blue (Second Highlight, 20% Coverage)
• VMC White (Extreme Highlight, 5% Coverage)
• Edge Highlight (brush) the adjacent panel lines with Sky Blue, Glacier Blue, and White (to simulate light catching the nearby edges). The brightest highlights should be closest to the light source. Edge Highlight the lights themselves with Glacier Blue, White.

Emerald (Tiles)

• VMC Emerald
• SC Carribean Blue (First Highlight, 40% Coverage)
• VMC Light Sea Grey (Second Highlight, 15% Coverage)
• VMC Bronze Green (Shade, 15% Coverage)
• Edge Highlight with Carribean Blue, Light Sea Grey

Red (Tiles)

• VMC Cavalry Brown
• VMC Hull Red (Shade, 15% Coverage)
• VMC Amaranth Red (Highlight, 30% Coverage)
• VMC Sunny Skin Tone (Extreme Highlight, 10% Coverage)

Orange (Tiles)

• VMC Orange Red
• VGC Orange Fire (First Highlight, 50% Coverage)
• VGC Gold Yellow (Second Highlight, 15% Coverage)
• VMC Light Yellow (Extreme Highlight, 5% Coverage)

Bronze (Fountains)

• VGC Leather Brown
• VGC Leather Brown (60%) + VGC Bonewhite (40%) (First Highlight, 33% Coverage)
• VGC Bonewhite (Second Highlight, 10% Coverage)
• VMC German Camo Black Brown (Shade, 20% Coverage)
• VMC Black (Shade, 5-10% Coverage)
• VMC Blue Green and VMC Emerald added to tone and patina the bronze, mostly where the shadows meet the main color
• Edge Highlight with Leather Brown, Bonewhite and White

Stone (Fountains, Benches)

• VMC Deck Tan
• VMC Stone Grey (First Shadow, 50 % Coverage)
• VMC Dark Bluegrey (Second Shadow, 15% Coverage)
• VMC Ivory (Highlight, 15% Coverage)
• Edge Highlight with Deck Tan, Ivory and White

Process

With the many layers of detail of the Alcazaba collection of terrain, especially when it comes to the floor panels, some thought to our painting strategy must be taken to make the process as efficient as possible.

We begin by airbrushing the small, decorative tiles on the floors.  As they are the smallest areas of color, it means we will have the least amount of masking to do if we start there first. These are then masked off (most efficiently with a Liquid Masking product), and the next smallest area of color is airbrushed - often that will be the gold trim - and then it, too is masked.

When painting the Concrete, we airbrush and then stipple (as described in the recipe, above) before masking it off. Here is a good opportunity to use some Delicate Masking Tape to cover the large areas of concrete, and then use the Liquid Mask to precisely finish off the edges.

Note that the edge highlighting will all be done after all the masking is removed; We are only taking each area through all the airbrush stages before masking.

By taking the time to think through an order of operations before you begin, you can save yourself a lot of time. Please show us your finished results of painting the Warsenal Alcazaba Terrain!