This is my take on Necrotales.com ‘s Blue Crab color scheme. I really love the organic look that he achieved. The main difference is that my recipe uses Citidal’s washes rather than mixing custom ones from paints. The original scheme was created before the premixed washes were available, so I figure he would take advantage of them if they had been available. My version is a bit simpler with fewer steps on the main flesh parts. Even so, there are quite a few steps which can test your limits when batch painting a unit of 40 hormagaunts.

1. Zandri Dust Prime the model. I chose this over white because it is so close to the following base coat that if I miss any part of the model in the next step it won’t show.
2. Tallarn Sand Base coat the model’s flesh areas. This is a layer paint, but because we used Zandri Dust to prime and base coat the model you can get away with a single coat.
3. Reikland Fleshshade Shade the flesh areas you just base coated.
4. Carroburg Crimson Shade a small band of the flesh where it meets the carapace, in the limb joints, and the skin vents.
5. Prussian Blue Paint the top third of each carapace plate. For full plates paint the inside third. This is the first layer, so it doesn’t matter if you cover more. The next layers will overlap in streaks so a bit more coverage is probably for the best.
6. Kantor Blue Paint the next third with Kantor Blue using an irregular pattern of streaks.
7. Dark Sea Blue Paint the last third using the same technique as before. Don’t worry about getting the last bit by the edge covered as we have one more color to go.
8. Ushabti Bone Trim the edges of each carapace plate with short streaks. At the same time paint the teeth.
9. Ushabti Bone Abaddon Black Dryad Bark Place tiny dots of the three colors on each carapace plate, being conservative with the lighter color. This brings us to the height of the “ugly phase” for the carapace.
10. Coelia Greenshade Apply a green filter over each carapace plate with Coelia Greenshade. This will unify the various blues, black, brown, and bone into a harmonious whole.
11. Dryad Bark Apply small dots of the brown on the flesh just underneath each carapace plate
12. Abaddon Black Paint claws, hooves, and talons black.
13. Armageddon Dunes : Base with Armageddon Dunes
14. Seraphim Sepia Shade the base.
15. Tyrant Skull Dry brush the base
16. Steel Legion Drab Paint the rim of the base
17. Screamer Pink Pink Horror Paint the tongue in Screamer Pink and highlight with Pink Horror
18. Ceramite White Bloodletter Paint the eyes white and then cover with the red glaze to get them to glow.
19. Skavenblight Dinge Stormvermin Fur Highlight the black with the first, then the second in a smaller area.