Today I’m going to share my recipe for painting pale Space Marine skin tones. This is a technique I’ve honed over the years, taking in advice from different painters – like Darren Latham and Apologist – until I was consistently pleased with the results. Whenever I share a painting recipe, it’s partially for the benefit of those who are interested in reproducing it, and partially for my own benefit so I don’t forget how I did it!

Citadel Paint List (click to view)

Chaos Black Undercoat, Alaitoc Blue, Bugman’s Glow, Cadian Fleshtone, Corax White, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Kislev Flesh, Lahmian Medium, Reikland Fleshshade, Rhinox Hide, Screamer Pink, Yriel Yellow, Hoeth Blue (stage 14, optional), Runefang Steel (stage 15, optional), Carroberg Crimson (stage 16, optional)

1. Bugman’s Glow painted over the entire face, apart from the inside of the mouth.

2. Reikland Fleshshade applied as a wash over the areas painted with Bugman’s Glow.

3. Bugman’s Glow reapplied on all areas of the face except the deepest recesses.

4. A 50:50 Bugman’s Glow, Cadian Fleshtone mix on all raised areas, such as chin, cheekbones, nose, eyebrows and scalp.

5. Rhinox Hide painted over both eyes. This will provide a frame for the actual eye colour later.

6. A 25:25:50 Alaitoc Blue, Bugman’s Glow, Lahmian Medium glaze on the lower jaw, lower cheeks and around the mouth. This will give a blueish tint to the lower face and gives the impression of ‘five ‘o clock shadow’.

7. A 25:25:50 Evil Sunz Scarlet, Bugman’s Glow, Lahmian Medium glaze on the cheeks, nose, and around the eyes. This will give a reddish tint to the centre of the face, which is often the case in real faces due to the good blood supply to the cheeks and nose.

8. A 25:25:50 Yriel Yellow, Bugman’s Glow, Lahmian Medium glaze on the forehead, eyebrows, and scalp. This will give a yellowish tint to the top of the face, which is often the case in real faces due to the thin skin here.

9. Screamer Pink on the tongue and in mouth.

10. Corax White on the eyeballs and teeth. It is better to use Corax White, which is slightly off-white, rather than White Scar, as the latter is too bright and will tend to draw the eye, making the eyes and teeth appear very stark against the skin.

11. Rhinox Hide dots on the centre of the eyeballs for the iris and pupils. A dark brown like Rhinox Hide is better than Abaddon Black, as it’s less of a stark contrast against the skin.

12. Cadian Fleshtone highlights on all edges, such as nose, eyebrows, cheekbones, and expression lines.

13. A 50:50 Cadian Fleshtone, Kislev Flesh mix fine highlight on the edge of all the areas highlighted in the previous step. This helps to accentuate the expression.

14. A 66:33 Hoeth Blue, Bugman’s Glow mixture thinned to a glaze with Lahmian Medium and applied to the scalp. This is my preferred mixture for showing five o’ clock shadow, but this time on a shaved scalp. You can skip this step if your miniature has a full head of hair, but you may also find it useful for painting the area around partially shaved heads as well.

15. Runefang Steel on service studs, if your Marine has any. If you’ve accidently painted over these in any of the previous steps, then you may find it gives a better result to repaint these in black before painting the Runefang Steel.

16. Carroburg Crimson shade around the service stud to give the impression of scarred or damaged flesh.

So, there we have it, one finished face! I hope you found that useful. That’s it for today, but I’ll be back soon with some more LED miniatures. As always, thanks very much for reading, and remember you can also follow my work on social media at Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X and Mastodon. That’s all for today, see you again soon!