Spyrers step by step.. or using washes the "wrong" way

I've always been a fan of washes. With the latest GW washes I've taken it a step further in many cases check out my Raptors space marines or my LOTR/WHFB orcs & goblins if you are interested in seeing more.

I've had a couple requests for step by step on my Spyrers, which I'd call more of a staining method than anything else.  I wanted a similar style to paint all my Spyrers but wanted the various "suits" to have an easily recognizable colour.  I decided to try stealing a technique I'd seen used in 'Eavy Metal by Mike McVey for painting horses.  This was basically a grey/black undercoat, with a heavy white drybrush and a couple coats of brown ink to stain it the correct colour.  It handled all the highlights and shadows, looked solid and above all seemed really easy!  I thought it would work well on the Spyrers due to all the texture to the models (armour plates, tubing, etc.)

Step 1: Basecoat

This will define the overall look of your finished mini.  I went with black & red mainly because I wanted my malcadons to be reminiscent of spider-man (and I'd chosen to use a blue wash for them)

Step 2: Drybrush

Here you can see I basically just drybrushed the entire model white.  It picks out all the detail, and looks like crap - until...

Step 3: Stain (aka wash) #1

Ta-da! You can see it starting to come together here with the first coat of purple wash.  The black takes on a purplish hue and the white is quite easily stained to a light purple colour.  I go quite heavy and literally just splash the wash all over (told you it was quick!)

Step 4: Stain #2

Here the effect has really come together.  Without close inspection you can't tell the highlights were originally white and drybrushed on, they end up looking quite natural since the wash is used (quite liberally!) all over it pulls all the colours of the model together with it's unique tone.

I usually like to do some small details with proper paints, I find instead of being glaringly obvious (the difference between the washed parts and painted parts) when used correctly it can really bring the mini to life and makes the staining method even less obvious.  For the Spyrers I painted their weapons silver with a black wash and painted their faces.

I hope this inspires you, be sure to let me know if you try out any crazy painting with washes techniques!