Stop, Hammerstein! Stage by Stage Painting Guide

One of the great joys of working in the Warlord Games HQ store is that I get to help paint all the armies that get used on our intro boards or lent out to anyone who wants to pop in for a game – getting to paint miniatures for a living, who could complain?! When I was asked to paint the new ABC Warriors demo set, I spied an opportunity to use my quick and easy metallics recipe, and the folks in Marketing liked it so much they asked me to share it with you all – so here it is!

Step One:

Before you start painting, there’s a very important first step – have a bath! I should clarify that, while good personal hygiene is important, in this case I’m actually talking about washing the miniatures in warm, soapy water! This removes any mould release agent that might still be on the models from the casting process (it’ll look like a sheen, powder, or film!) and means your paints will adhere properly to the model! The rubber duck is optional, but I always like to have mine to hand!

The first thing to do is make sure you pick the right primer for the job! This allows you to knock one of the steps out already by having most of your base colour for the model sprayed on in the very first step! With this in mind, I went with Army Painter Gun Metal spray as this was the perfect base for the next steps to work over. Make sure the whole model is covered evenly – you may want to do two passes, but make sure the can isn’t too close to the model! 

Step Two:

Next, dry brush over the entire model with a 50/50 mixture of Army Painter Gun Metal and Army Painter Shining Silver, this will highlight all the raised edges of the model so they ‘pop’ when you do the next step. For a shinier, ‘just off the assembly line’ look, you can do this step twice!

Step Three:

Once the previous coat is dry, water down and mix equal parts Army Painter Speed Paints Raging Sea and Lizardfolk Cyan, and paint over the entire model except the gun and feet. For a darker finisher, you can repeat this step until you get a colour you like, but remember it’s always better to do multiple thinner coats rather than one thick one!

Step Four:

Once the Speed Paints have dried, paint the gun and feet Army Painter Matte Black, and then dry brush the whole model lightly with Army Painter Shining Silver. Lastly, pick out the ‘ABC’ badge with Vallejo Liquid Gold 791 and give it a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone Ink once dry. From there, to finish off you simply need to choose how you want to base your Hammersteins, and if you want to go the extra mile you can also apply your favourite weathering techniques – they’re robots, after all, so vehicle weathering techniques work really well!

Get your Hammerstein Mk Is, (and their venerable leader, Sergeant Hammerstein, no less) within the ABC Warriors starter set, Increase the Peace!

This starter set contains scenery, tokens, Tarot cards, character & auxiliary cards and all the rules you need to play, including rules for combat missions, an immersive campaign system and profile lists to create your forces as you take control of the ABC Warriors or their Volgan counterparts. Will Volkhan, Ikon of Ikons obliterate all in his path or will the ABC Warriors, led by Hammerstein, succeed in standing firm during the chaos of the Volgan War?

ABC Warriors: Increase the Peace starter set contains: