# Silver Skulls Advice



## Liamo (Jul 16, 2008)

About five years ago, when I was at school, I used to play Warhammer 40,000 with Silver Skulls chapter Space Marines. At the time, I was more interested in playing then painting and didn't put a whole lot of effort into my models (all I did was spray the models chaos black then boltgun metal and painted the eyes, guns, belts, etc.). I found these minis in my loft/attic and I'm planning on salvaging them. They'll need some remodeling (I left the handles on the guns and tried to hide them behind the hands...) and a fresh coat of paint but other then that they're in a pretty good condition. 

My question is, how can I make them look more interesting? If you're not familiar with Silver Skulls (there's a picture below), they have boltgun metal armor and brighter silver helmets (possibly mithril silver, I haven't decided yet). This isn't so bad on tactical squads and other troops, but on larger models - such as a dreadnaught I'm working on - it looks a bit dull, as they're all one colour. I thought some washes to add a little colour, or battle damage and rust might work, plus a few oil stains on any vehicles, but I'm not sure. Also, because they're metallic paints, I don't know how I'd highlight it (although I suppose metallics highlight themselves) and think I'd need detail some other way. Any ideas?


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## ToxicBunny (Sep 6, 2008)

Highlighting Metalics is the same as any other paint - use a mixture of a lighter colour to give you a lighter colour to get that extra "glimmer" I would suggest using a nice dark wash to bring out the recesses of your model decently to show the deeper details that would otherwise be lost.

Further detailing depends on how your fluff runs - if they see alot of battle and not much in the way of a repair station then battle damage pocks and "battle field patch jobs" would be the way to go. Alternatives are to use a coloured hue to wash your metal to give it a slight colour tone over the silver body, wether that be a purple gleem or a rusty brown/orange blending with the armor is up to you though


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## Veritax (Sep 20, 2008)

Also you can add squad markings on shoulder pads for a little brake-up of color.
Company markings on knee pads. Little things like that will add color and keep things diffrent from squad to squad.


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## morfangdakka (Dec 31, 2006)

GO with the bolt gun then wash it to dull it down a little. Instead of mirtil silver go for chainmail and use the mirtil to do the highlights with that. 

You can use color in the squad markings or campaign badge as well as a little battle damage.


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