Painting the Bounty Hunter Gang Leader

When I got my first few sample copies of the Bounty Hunter Gang Leader, I couldn’t resist painting one. I took photos along the way, so I thought it would be fun to talk you through how I painted him. I usually strive for a “great table-top quality” paint job, by mostly painting in solid base colors, followed by a wash, and the followed by drybrushing for highlights. You can click the images below for a larger version.

Step 1

The first thing I did after I glued him together was to prime the model white. I usually prefer a white base coat, since that will help brighter colors shine through nicely. The primer I used here was just generic Rustoleum white primer that I got from a hardware store. You can also try colored primers if you like, Army Painter makes some really great colored primer.

Step 2

First, I painted his coat with Vallejo Game Color Leather Brown. Then, I painted his scarf Blood Red. Next, I mixed the 2 together to paint the scabbard for the knife on his right leg.

Step 3

Next, I used Vallejo Game Color Dark Fleshtone on the belts, gloves and boots to give them a darker leather look.

Here’s a shot of him from behind as well.

Step 4

Next came the face. I used Vallejo Game Color Elf Flesh for the skin, a little bit of black for the eyepatch, and the hair was done with Citadel Color Codex Gray.

Step 5

Now things are starting to shape up. I painted his shirt with pure white, to cover up and spots where I painted “outside the lines”. Then, I used Vallejo Parasite Brown on the shotgun’s stock, Citadel Boltgun Metal on the barrel and the pistol. Last, I used Citadel Asurmen Blue wash on the pants to make them jeans. His base coat is now done!

Step 6

Now it’s the fun part. Using Citadel Badab Black wash, I coat the whole entire model except for the face, and for the face I washed that with Citadel Devlan Mud instead. The washes are really great, they fill in the cracks and add in all the little details.

Step 7

After the wash was totally dry, I did a quick and light drybrysh of Citadel Bleached Bone along the edges of the coat and shotgun stock to pick out some of the details. Then, I painted the top of the base black so that the white won’t show through when I add the flock.

Step 8

To make it look like he’s standing in rocky ground, I use a 50/50 mix of Woodland Scenics Railroad ballast, half fine and half coarse. I get the kind that’s already black, it makes a nice base color for dirt. First, I coat the top of the base with watered down white/PVA glue, then I dunk it in the ballast mix.

Step 8

I let the model sit in the ballast for a minute or 2, then I shake off all the excess. After that, I take more watered down white glue and paint it over the ballast. I let this site for several hours until it’s totally dry, and it will seal in the ballast really nice.

Step 9

Right about now is when I made the royal decree that all of my miniatures would ship with 30mm bases instead of 25mm. I like the rounded edge that the 30mm bases have, I feel like they make the models look a lot nicer. So, I ripped off the old base (carefully) and then glued the model to a 30mm base instead. Then, I redid the ballast same as above. After the 2nd layer of glue was dry, I drybrushed the ballast with Leather Brown, followed by a lighter drybrush of Bleached Bone to pick out the highlights. Lastly, I painted pure black around the edge to clean up all the splotches I made when I drybrushed the dirt.

Step 10

For this last step, I put little dabs of white glue in random places over the dirt, and then added a few pinches of Citadel Grass, and that’s it!

Done!

I’d love to see how you’ve painted yours too! Feel free to share some pics here or on the message board!