How To Paint Racenguard Skin

In ourHow to Paint Everything series, we accept a look at different armies of the Warhammer universe, examine their history and heraldry, and wait at several dissimilar methods for painting them. With the release of the new Codex Supplement for Raven Baby-sit, we're taking a look at the XIX Legion – who they are, their history and heraldry, and how to paint them.

The Raven Guard

Although the Raven Guard are a First Founding Chapter, similar several notable capacity from that founding they wouldn't receive their kickoff mentions in the fluff until the release of 2d edition, commencement appearing in White Dwarf #166 alee of the release of the 2nd edition boxed prepare for Warhammer forty,000 when all of the First Founding capacity were finally named. This led to some interesting quirks where Cherry Fists and Raptors existed before their own founding chapters. And while Raven Baby-sit and their Primarch Corax finally received mention in the 2d edition release of 40k, they wouldn't receive rules until most a decade later in December 2002, when they finally saw rules in their own Index Astartes article in White Dwarf #276. These would essentially be replaced by the 4th edition Space Marines Codex, which released with a model for the Raven Baby-sit's Captain of the Third Company, Kayvaan Shrike. As the XIX Legion, the Raven Guard were primarily used for infiltration, recon, counter-insurgency, and suppression missions on behalf of the Emperor. This changed somewhat when the legion was reunited with its primarch: Corax purged the legion's Terran commanders and placed a greater emphasis on stealth and quick strikes over terror tactics and cruel suppression.

The Raven Guard served the Imperium faithfully during the Great Crusade, taking office in covert operations and regularly employing guerilla tactics to attain their goal. When Horus turned traitor, the Raven Guard were one of seven legions sent to Istvaan V, joining the Fe Hands, Salamanders, Iron Warriors, Word Bearers, Alpha Legion, and Nighttime Lords to put an cease to the Warmaster'due south rebellion. There they were betrayed, every bit four legions turned on them, decimating the loyalist legions virtually immediately. In the fighting that followed, Ferrus Mitt was killed, Vulkan was captured, and Corvus Corax barely escaped with his life. The Raven Guard had always been the smallest of the Marine legions, simply after Istvaan V, their fourscore,000 legionnaires were reduced to barely iii,000 surviving veterans. Seeing the devastation of his legion and understanding the demand to reinforce them quickly, Corax fled to Terra, where he confronted Malcador to inquire for the secrets of the Emperor'due south factor-tech. After much arguing, the Emperor granted him the secrets, and he took them back to the Ravenspire, where he used the cistron-forging technology to effort and breed a new generation of reinforcements for his legion, a blend of primarch and Marine that would be bigger, stronger, faster, and return his legion to fighting strength in time to save Terra. He began piece of work on his new legionnaires and at first the results were promising. But trivial did Corax know, the Alpha Legion had stolen his tech and sabotaged his gene-seed with daemon blood. This caused Corax'south new legionnaires to become hideous, plain-featured monstrosities. These mutants fought ferociously in battle, but were warped across all humanity and reason. The Raven Guard were able to fight off Alpha Legion and Word Bearer attacks during the Heresy, merely never recovered from their losses on Istvaan Five, and had to get to great efforts to cover up the shame of Corax's twisted gene-sons.

The Primarch brooded in his tower over this for a full twelvemonth following the Heresy. When he emerged, he had a haunted await, and fled for the Heart of Terror. He has non been seen since. Later their initial rules in Alphabetize Astartes, the Raven Guard featured in the quaternary, 5th, and 6th edition Space Marine codexes. They did non receive separate new rules until seventh edition, when the release of the Kau'yon and Mont'ka campaign books re-introduced rules for them forth with rules for White Scars and T'au. These were further expanded in the Angels of Decease supplement, which added relics and warlord traits for the chapter. With 8th edition, the Raven Guard rules were scaled back to a Affiliate Trait in the first Space Marines Codex earlier being expanded significantly again with the Raven Guard Codex Supplement. In addition to their rules, Raven Guard have admission to a number of bang-up upgrade kits and models in their Forge World range, and merely received a Primaris upgrade sprue that has shoulder pads, multiple helmet/head options, and sergeant guns.

Where to Read More

The new Codex Supplement is the best identify to beginning – Raven Guard have long been under-served fluff-wise, and the new volume adds a ton to them that hasn't been seen before or sums up what happened to them in other books. If you desire to read fifty-fifty more about the Sons of Corax, there are a few dissimilar places where yous can read about them:

Warzone Damocles: Kauyonis a 7th edition campaign supplement that details the Damocles Gulf campaign. Specifically, the part the Raven Guard played in the activeness, and details the circumstances that would lead to Kayvaan Shrike becoming chapter principal of the Raven Guard.
Like all the other primarchs, Corax has his ain novel serial. The best way to read these is to potentially kickoff withCorax: Lord of Shadows, which starts during the Great Crusade.
After that, selection upwardly the Corax Album,which collects three novellas and iii short stories virtually the primarch and the Raven Guard during the Horus Heresy.
Deliverance Lostis the Horus Heresy novel that details Corax's failed efforts to rebuild his chapter using genetech.
The Sons of the Emperoris an anthology series with lots of short stories well-nigh the primarchs, including one that reveals Corax's present-24-hour interval whereabouts.
Space Marine Legends: Shrikeis your go-to if you want to know all about the Chapter Primary and his transformation from Shadow Captain.
If yous notwithstanding desire more afterward all that, check out theSons of Coraxanthology, which has more stories well-nigh the Raven Guard doing covert stuff.

Playing Raven Guard

Warhammer 40,000

If you want a full run down of everything in the new Codex Supplement and how it interacts with the base book and the 8th edition meta game, check out the Goonhammer review of the Raven Guard supplement here. Raven Guard excel at killing characters thanks to their Surgical Strikes Chapter Doctrine, effectively cut off the enemy's head and throwing their army into disarray. In game, that looks more like removing all your opponent'southward auras and character buffs, allowing the rest of your army to take reward of their reduced effectiveness and sudden lack of strength multipliers. Different some of the other infinite marine chapters, who tend to require going "all in" on a strategy, the Raven Guard can go a lot of mileage out of a piffling fleck of extra attending, taking a few squads of Eliminators and using the Target Sighted stratagem to pick out characters volition let you accept total advantage of this Doctrine long plenty to cripple your opponent'due south regular army, while a mixture of infantry and heavy vehicles make short work of the rest.

Kill Team

Space Marines are slap-up in Kill Team, and Raven Guard get 1 of the more powerful chapter traits, counting every bit obscured from enemy models (and thus incurring the -1 penalty to be hit by ranged attacks) when they are more than 12″ from the enemy model shooting at them. This won't help you with injury rolls (those require you be within i″ of a piece of terrain and that terrain be between you and the firing model), only it volition let you lot to more safely position your Raven Guard Marines in the open up, or cross open up spaces on the board without fear of losing the major benefits of cover. So play them like Space Marines who aren't every bit afraid of being out in the open up.

Apocalypse

Raven Guard are pretty much just Space Marines in Apocalypse. They take two unique Control Assets:

Shadow Masters – Used in the Activity phase to make a Raven Baby-sit disengagement count as obscured (-1 to be hit) for the phase. Alternatively, it can be used to re-roll a hit roll for an assault made past any Space Marine unit of measurement. This is a useful ability, and powerful because it applies to an entire Disengagement. It'southward worth including in your Asset Deck if you're playing Raven Baby-sit. Just note that its major downside is that it doesn't stack, so yous tin can't use it to give an opponent -ii to hit a Detachment Warlord.
Strike From the Shadows – Used in the Action phase to selection up to 3 Raven Guard Infantry units in your army. Until the stop of the phase. melee weapon attacks for those units automatically hit if either the attacking unit or its target is garrisoning a Defensible Terrain characteristic. Like all the other chapter-specific assets, it can also be used to re-scroll a hit roll for any Space Marines. This one is more situationally useful, and you may find yourself using the secondary mode more oftentimes if you haven't ready the table with lots of Defensible Terrain to garrison.

Painting Raven Guard

Raven Guard are one of the three main Space Marine chapters which are essentially wearing all blackness armor (the other two existence Iron Easily and Deathwatch). So when painting Raven Guard, the real things y'all have to consider are going to be:

How are you going to paint (and properly shade and highlight) the black armor?
How are you lot going to pigment (and properly shade and highlight) the white parts, such as helmets, guns, arms, and shoulder pads on veterans?
What spot colors are you going to use to make the models "pop," so they don't look monochrome?

Dan "SexCannon" Boyd

I've been playing Raven Guard since 2007. It all started later on I had finished my 1st army, Grey Knights. I was looking for a new project and saw pictures of black-armored infinite marines in the 4th Edition Space Marine Codex. Being an edgy higher student, I immediately warmed to their way. As a life-long bird-watcher, too, I was excited to read that they were named afterwards my favorite (at the time) bird, the raven! Indeed, their primarch's proper name is Corvus Corax, which is literally but the scientific name of the common raven. It was as if Games Workshop had created a Infinite Marine Affiliate only for me! I loved the idea of lightning assaults and heavy apply of jump packs, so I went about painting (so) Captain Shrike, Shrike's Wing (an sometime unit of lightning claw-armed veterans that Shrike could pal around with), some tacticals, sterngaurds (when the 5th edition codex dropped) a couple of vehicles, and 5 drop pods. This army was a ton of fun! I would null deploy and try to go second, with everything arriving by driblet pod, deep strike, or outflank (Shrike gave his infiltrate ability to other squads and I Will NOT Exist TAKING QUESTIONS ON THIS). This, naturally, really messed with my opponent'southward battleplan, and thus began my long association and love of shenanigans .

When eighth edition came out in 2017, I was excited to endeavour and revisit my Raven Guard ground forces. I loved the look of the Primaris Marines, and I wanted to do a pure Primaris Marine ground forces. I had toyed with the idea of coming dorsum to my goth roots in the past, and the gorgeous new models gave me the opportunity to exercise only that. I also wanted an excuse to "level up" my painting. Instead of drybrushing, I would edge highlight. Instead of solid colors, I would try blending and shading. And instead of unadorned scrolls, I would try my hand at script. Taking this mindset and running with it has been bang-up for me, as my painting skills have profoundly improved, and I am more than proud of this project than I am of anything I've worked on earlier. Now that we children of Deliverance are getting our own codex supplement, I'm actually looking forward to all the gnarly things I tin can do to my opponent, especially where the lives of their fragile characters are concerned. It seems equally if the Raven Guard will once again be the chapter of shenanigans, misdirection, and surgical strikes, and I could not exist a happier bird bro!

Dan's Method

My favorite color combo is black and white. I adore loftier levels of dissimilarity on a mini or in a squad, and I wanted the areas betwixt black and white to skew in the management of gray, not bluish or light-green like many people do with black. I wanted to highlight (get information technology) the dazzler of pure black by sticking to neutral grey highlighting on my blacks and neutral grey shading on my whites. Red would be my accent colour, breaking up the black and white, and and then some details would involve green, in dissimilarity to the reddish. I plain didn't want to do black leather on summit of blackness armor, so I went with brown for my leather. The brown and scarlet details tend to give my army a warm "theme" and, while this was unintentional, I'm happy with the effect.

The Procedure:

I do not paint 1 color to completion similar some folk practice, but instead I pigment in "like layers" because I am not adept or steady enough to non splatter pigment all over my finished highlights. Information technology goes similar this:

Prime black (obviously)
Basecoats
Affect-ups
Lighter basecoats for colors that need it (white and cerise, mainly)
Touch-ups
Shading
Touch on-ups
Highlights
Bases
Transfers

The longest step is the highlights pace. Black is a hard color to paint well, and my recipe involves three-stage edge highlighting. It remember it works well and actually allows the model to pop, merely man oh man,is information technology time-consuming. The final product is worth information technology, though.

The Recipes:

I utilize Citadel paints and I do non own an airbrush, and so become ready to make fun of me or whatever. Black

Abaddon Blackness basecoat.
1. I do actually pigment Abaddon Blackness over black primer. They both finish differently, and whatever bear on-ups in Abaddon are noticeable. To me, at to the lowest degree.
Eshin Grey edge highlight.
1. This 1 can exist a little thick.
Stormvermin Fur edge highlight.
1. This one should be thinner than the previous layer.
Administratum Gray edge highlight.
1. Simply at the corners and raised areas on the model, not all over.

White

Mechanicus Standard Grey undercoat.
Ulthuan Grey basecoat.
Nuln Oil recess shade.
White Scar edge highlight.

Skin

Rakarth Mankind basecoat.
1. Raven Guard are canonically very pale, and Rakarth Flesh is a keen base for an unhealthy pallor.
Reikland Fleshshade recess shade.
Druchii Wiolet recess shade around the optics.
1. A very light shade, hither, just for increased depth.
Pallid Wych Flesh highlight.
Abaddon blackness eyes.
1. Canonically, all Raven Guard take black pupils, irises, and sclera, and so coloring the eyes in with black is both easy and canon!

Leather

Mournfang Brown basecoat.
Agrax Earthshade all-over shade.
Gorthor Brown border highlight.
Runefang Steel highlight on any buttons, snaps, or buckles.

Red

Khorne Carmine undercoat.
Evil Sunz Scarlet basecoat.
Agrax Earthshade all-over shade.
1. On cloaks and ruddy material I keep the shade to the recesses.
Wild Rider Cerise edge highlight.
Troll Slayer orange corner highlight.
1. I usually don't become all the way up to Troll slayer on regular dudes, simply reserve information technology for characters with a lot of carmine on them, similar chaplains and captains.

Bones and Scrolls

Zandri Dust undercoat.
Screaming Skull basecoat.
Agrax Earthshade all-over shade.
Rhinox Hibernate writing.
1. If applicable. On purity seals I practise squiggly lines, just on scrollwork I try to write a give-and-take that suitable Raven Baby-sit-ish. My favorite bit is from my Primaris Ancient.
White Scar corner highlight.

Silver

Leadbelcher basecoat.
Nuln Oil all-over shade.
Runefang Steel edge highlight.

Gold (I attempt non to use a lot of gold, because dissimilar Ultramarines, my guys are trying to be sneaky!)

Retributor Armor basecoat.
Agrax Earthshade all-over shade.
Liberator Gold corner highlight.

Eye Lenses

White Scar horizontal line, done with a very tiny brush.
Bloodletter glaze.

Rifle Scopes and Vehicle Eyes

Khorne red basecoat.
1. Utilise to half of the area on the diagonal.
Evil Sunz Crimson highlight.
1. Go along a line of Khorne Reddish however showing.
Wild Rider Cerise highlight.
1. One time again, keep some of the previous color showing.
Troll Slayer orange highlight.
1. Final time, only keep some of the previous color showing.
White Scar dot opposing the cherry-red gradient.
1. Makes it look similar shiny glass.

Greenish Bits (screens, glowing things, etc.)

Caliban Light-green basecoat.
Warpstone Glow highlight.
Moot Green highlight.

Blueish Armor (for Librarians)

Kantor Blue basecoat.
Druchii Violet recess shade.
Alaitoc Blue edge highlight.
1. This one can be a lilliputian thick.
Teclis Bluish edge highlight.
1. This one should be thinner.
Baharroth Blue corner highlight.

Camo Cloaks (outside)

Mechanicus Standard Grayness undercoat.
Stormvermin Fur basecoat.
Administratum Grayness geometric shapes.
Eshin Grayness geometric shapes.
1. These overlap and intersect the lighter shapes.
Nuln Oil recess shade.
one:1 mix of Stormvermin Fur and Ulthuan Grey highlight.
1. For the raised portions of the Stormvermin fur.
1:1 mix of Administratum Grey and Ulthuan Grayness highlight.
1. For the raised portions of the Administratum Grey.
1:ane mix of Eshin Grey and Ulthuan Grey highlight.
1. For the raised portions of the Eshin Grey.
Ulthuan Greyness border highlight.
1. But on the extreme raised areas and the border of the cloaks.

Camo Cloaks (inside)

Mechanicus Standard Grey basecoat.
Nuln Oil recess shade.
Stormvermin Fur highlight.

There yous have it! Hopefully this inspires you to paint some bird bros, but it probably simply makes me expect like a crazy person.

Serotonin

I'd not played 40K since the Rogue Trader days, so as a returning player picking upward the 8th edition Dark Imperium set, I had no thought how I wanted to paint my Marines other than that I didn't desire to do Ultramarines, and I really didn't fancy painting red, then Blood Angels were out. I'k not the nearly competitively focused role player, so aesthetics is everything to me when it comes to collecting a strength. I really wanted to paint a Marine ground forces in black armour, but my friend who is a long time player already had Black Templars. I came across the Raven Guard on the forepart of the old Kill Team box and immediately loved the look and the chapter emblem. When I read about them and realised they were a stealthy, surgical strike style force, it really appealed to me. The challenge I had was that I wanted to paint blackness, but I as well wanted them to look distinct from my friend's Black Templars. Looking at photos of Ravens and other corvids I decided I wanted to capture the blue sheen sometimes seen in their feathers, then I did my best to discover paints that worked for that purpose.

Serotonin's Method

I start with a black base coat, and so zenithal highlight the model with an airbrush and P3 coal black. Then I encompass that with a fifty/50 coal blackness and Vallejo game air wolf gray mix. Launder with thinned Secret Weapon blue dorsum wash. I'm not sure there's a direct GW match to coal black, but Wolf Greyness is basically Fenrisian Greyness. Handle the metal parts, plasma coils, and shoulder trim withal you need.

Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

I don't play Raven Guard. At least, non formally. But my method for painting Deathwatch Raven Baby-sit is exactly the same method I'd use if I had to practice an entire ground forces of them. Then, this seemed appropriate to include.

TheChirurgeon's Method

The Armor: I start by priming the model black. Then I basecoat the black areas with Abaddon Black. I concur with Dan — this makes a big difference, and gives the model a darker tone. Then I do a serial of edge highlights with Kantor Blue, followed by another, smaller set of border highlights using The Fang, and a third set using Reaper Snow Shadow, but hitting corners and the tops of things. Feathers:Those are a basecoat of Celestra Grey, washed with Nuln Oil. Then I use Reaper Pure White to pick out the feathers again. Lightning Claws:Basecoat with Incubi Darkness, work upwards to Sotek Green, wash with Drakenhof Nightshade, then border with Lothern Blue. Metallic bits (except for the arm):Leadbelcher, washed with Nuln Oil, edged with Fe breaker. Gold:Retributor Armor done with Agrax Earthshade.

Alfredo's Method

For this project I wanted to get some really strong black/white contrast so I chose to pigment a phobos Marine converted to a Vanguard Veteran Sergeant with white arms and white helmet. In order to keep everything absurd, I used blues in my shadows besides as my highlights.

Raven Guard Vanguard Veteran WIP Credit: Alfredo Ramirez

Reivers make for a fantastic Vanguard Veteran base. They have some corking dynamic poses and their stripped downwards armor helps convey the agility you'd expect from melee shock troops. I used the running torso (D) from the multi-part Reivers kit and then took a pair of lightning claws, jump pack and helmet from the Vanguard Veterans kit to complete the conversion. An important consideration is ensuring the arms work with the torso. There are three sets in the kit and I felt like the set I used best complemented the running pose, equally if the Marine is captured mid-stride.
I primed and sprayed the model mostly disassembled since I wanted the arms and helmet to be fully white while the torso was black. For the white I used my typical cool white approach of spraying Reaper Snowfall Shadow and then highlighting with Ghost White. For the black armor, I basecoated in Scale75 Flat Black and so applied zenithal highlights of Abyssal Bluish followed by Anthracite Grey. As always, exist careful with the highlights to avert "greying out" the model. I too wanted the lightning claws to be a source of spot color so I basecoated them metallic and so airbrushed Tamiya Clear Blueish to get a nice blue effect.
There were few other colors to apply later on that, mostly Dark Rust for the leather to suspension upwardly the blackness, some silver and gilt, Vallejo Buff for the scrolls and then Flat Red for the cables to add another spot color. Red and blackness work nicely together so a brown ruddy for the leather, reddish gold and cerise all work together on the model.
For shading, I used a mix of Cobalt Blue and Lamp Black to make a cool black wash and applied it as a pin launder everywhere except the gilt and scrolls, which I done in Dark Umber. I'd originally considered doing a much softer wash on the white but decided I wanted to extend the dissimilarity as much as possible from black to white and in general I like having my shading be consistent beyond the model.
Finally, some border highlights to really make the model pop and a subtle bit of sponge weathering. For the white I'm just using a pure white to highlight, any will practise. For the black I've chosen to go a bit more than blue than I might normally in order to accentuate the satin finish of the armor and also to get something reminiscent of the blueish sheen of ravens' feathers. I've used Scale75 Cantabaric Blueish, Bering Blue and Arctic Blue for the iii stages. Finally, I've chosen to satin finish the model rather than my usual matte finish for Marines, mostly considering it helps keep things looking black and it as well is reminiscent of the satin cease of a bird's feathers.

And here we are:

Raven Guard Primaris Vanguard Veteran Credit: Alfredo Ramirez

Terminal Thoughts

The Raven Guard are a rewarding regular army to pigment and play, overall – the new Codex makes them significantly more powerful, only doesn't put them over the top in such a way equally to be ludicrously abrasive in the new meta like say, Atomic number 26 Hands. Y'all'll make more friends playing Raven Guard, is what I'm maxim. Painting black armor is a double-edged sword: It'south piece of cake to paint on the whole, and requires less work than brighter colors, but information technology'due south as well difficult to make an army in black armor look skilful, stand out, or photograph well. That said, if you lot have any tips or tricks for painting Raven Guard, want to show off your own models, or take any questions, feel free to drop u.s.a. a line at contact@goonhammer.com.