How to paint Chaos Warhounds as Flesh Hounds of Khorne

Introduction

I gave these miniatures a red and black coat over a white primer some time ago. Now, I finished the paintjob. I'll do the bases later, when I can get my hands on some more home-made putty.

Curious about the painting process? Carry on reading.

Assembly - pretty straightforward, not detailed here

Priming and initial basecoat

To make these miniatures stand out on the tabletop, I gave them a basecoat with a bright contrast: black manes and red skin.

Taking up the work again: improving the basecoat

The initial coat was somewhat rushed; not all the fur was covered in black, and not all the skin was covered in red. Make sure everything is covered, including the inside of the mouths, patches of fur around the legs, etc.

Finish the fur

Note that the initial black coat for the fur was bit on the light side. This enables a reasonable gradient, as follows: overall grey drybrush, then generous black wash, then a light grey drybrush. This will create pools of black in the grooves, up to light grey on the end of the fur.

Note the hound on the left end: my first attempt at conversion! I wanted to make him stand out, and use him as Karanak.

Some details

Before going further, I worked out some of the details.

Light grey claws. Dark brown scorpion tails. Pink for the inside of the mouth and tongue. Bonewhite for the ribs that jut out of some of the bodies.
Gunmetal undercoat, then bronze for the Khorne symbol on Karanak's head. Bonewhite for the skull.

For the fangs and horns, I applied a two-brush wet blending of brown and bonewhite, with brown at the base and bonewhite towards the tip. Then a slight edge highlight with bonewhite on the end of the tip for assured contrast.

Overall black wash

Apply it over the entire model, with the exception of the mane and the horns/fangs.

An excellent step towards popping out all the details.

Highlights

The mane and the horns/fangs are already covered. I gave everything else a first highlight of its original color: bonewhite for the ribs, grey for the claws, and red for the body. This red highlight is like a wide edge highlight, all along the defining lines of the muscles and body parts.

Follow up with a lighter orange edge highlight for the body.

Make sure to give extra attention to details, such as these scales.

Apply the same technique to the scorpion tales, but using an ochre brown.

Painting finished!

The orange highlight makes all the difference. It's most visible on these scales, but I applied it to almost every model.

I highlighted Karanak's monstrous tail with the same orange.

... and here's the assembled pack.