Showcase: Soulblight Gravelords Fell Bats (inc. painting guide)

When I wrote my recap of last year, I realized I haven’t painted anything for my Soulblight Gravelords and Nighthaunt collection in ages. I had a box of the new plastic Fell Bats sitting on my shelf for ages, so I thought I would give them a go. I got a Vargskyr from Cursed City, which I also want to paint at some point, so these Fell Bats are kind of test models for the scheme I planned for it.

I wanted to paint the Fell Bats all black, but to make the models more “readable”, I chose two different shades of black and grey. The wings and fur became a cooler hue of black, while I used a warmer grey for the more fleshy parts such as the noses, ears, hands, and limbs. At the beginning, I wasn’t sure if my concept would work out, but now that they’re finished, I’m quite happy with them. To make painting as efficient as possible, I drybrushed the whole models to establish the details and texture of the wings, and then added manual highlights and blocked in all the details. Here is how I did it:

How to paint Soulblight Gravelords Fell Bats

Prime with black primer of your choice, I used AK Interactive Fine Primer Black.

Bases
Basecoat texture: Mechanicus Standard Grey
Basecoat rocks: TAP Ash Grey
Drybrush texture and gravestones: Corax White
Wash: Mix of TAP Dark Tone / Strong Tone Wash / Contrast Medium 1:1:1
Basecoat dark green statues: Orkhide Shade (OOP)
Drybrush/Stipple dark green: Kabalite Green
Drybrush green: Sons of Horus Green
Drybrush green: Death Guard Green
Drybrush green: Deepkin Flesh
Trim: TTC Death Doom Black

Tree stumps
Basecoat: Wasteland Brown
Multiple washes: Wyldwood / Contrast Medium 1:2 mix (build up a gradient by applying multiple thin washes)
Drybrush darker parts of the wood: Gorthor Brown
Drybrush lighter parts: P3 Beast Hide

Black bodies, wings, and fur
Drybrush: TTC Cold Corpse Blue
Drybrush: Dark Reaper
Drybrush: Thunderhawk Blue
Drybrush: TAP Uniform Grey
Layer: TTC Death Doom Black (just paint over any areas where the drybrushing left visible streaks
Edge highlight: TAP Uniform Grey

Fleshy grey bits
Layer: Mechanicus Standard Grey (leave recesses dark)
Layer: Dawnstone
Soft highlight: Dawnstone / Grey Seer 2:1 mix
Dot highlight: Grey Seer (just on the most prominent features such as the nose, corners of the ears…)
3x glaze: Carroburg Crimson / Contrast Medium 2:3 mix (build up a gradient by applying multiple thin glazes

Claws and teeth
Basecoat: Wraithbone
Wash: Wyldwood / Contrast Medium 1:6 mix
Highlight: Pallid Wych Flesh

Glowing eyes
Paint eye sockets: Sotek Green
Paint eyes: P3 Arcane Blue
Highlight eyes: VGC Verdigris

Abbreviations: VGC = Vallejo Game Color, VMC = Vallejo Model Color, VMechaC = Vallejo Mecha Color, P3 = Privateer Press Formula P3, TAP = The Army Painter Warpaints, RMS = Reaper Master Series, TTC = Two Thin Coats

This wraps up all the recipes for these models. Hope you like my Fell Bats, and hopefully, I won’t take two years to paint another unit for my Soulblight / Nighthaunt army!

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