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Red Corsairs Paint Scheme

A full Red Corsairs paint scheme, generated and ready to test: the armour ramp from basecoat to edge highlight plus metals, skin, lenses and basing — every colour matched to real paints from Citadel, Vallejo, Army Painter and 35+ more ranges, with live prices. Use it as a planner, tweak any colour, or take it into the full generator.

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The boxes we can price for this faction, cheapest first, and the paint sets that cover most of the recipe below.

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How the scheme reads on a model

Armour — base to highlight

Base coat
Shade
Layer
Highlight
Edge highlight

Additional details

Trim
Weapons
Leather
Skin
Lenses
Basing
Black shoulders & greaves
Looted plates
1

Base coat

Lay the foundation colour down over primer, slightly darker than the final tone.

2

Shade

Wash the recesses to add depth and separate the details.

3

Layer

Rebuild the main colour on the raised areas, leaving the shade in the cracks.

4

Highlight

Pick out the upper edges and surfaces that catch the light.

5

Edge highlight

Sharpen only the sharpest edges for a crisp, finished look.

Details & accent colours

Everything else on the model - metals, skin, leather, lenses, basing and this faction's signature accents.

Leather & pouches

Straps, holsters and bare wood. Mid brown, shaded, then drybrushed a lighter tan.

Skin & flesh

Faces and hands. Basecoat, a flesh wash into the recesses, then build the highlights back up.

Eyes & lenses

Lenses, eyes and energy. A bright spot colour that pops against the armour - dot it on and add a white glint.

Basing — earth

Groundwork. Earth basecoat, drybrushed bone, finished with your choice of grass, sand or snow.

Black shoulders & greaves

Pauldrons, greaves and inner plates in flat black. The hard black-on-red split is the warband, and it is what stops the red reading as World Eaters.

Looted plates

One pauldron or backpack left in another Legion’s colours, or in bare scarred metal - lore-correct, and the reason a Red Corsairs squad can be built from every leftover sprue you own. Vary it; two identical raiders is the only wrong answer.

Your paints

Tick off what's already on your shelf — whatever's left is your shopping list.

13 paints in this scheme

  • Wazdakka Red

    Citadel (Warhammer Paints)

    No price tracked yet
  • Seraph Red

    Vallejo

    No price tracked yet
  • Country Red

    Vallejo

    No price tracked yet
  • Mars Red

    Army Painter

  • Violent Vermillion

    Army Painter

    No price tracked yet
  • Ki-Rin Gold

    Army Painter

    No price tracked yet
  • Iron Wolf

    Army Painter

  • Owlbear Brown

    Army Painter

    No price tracked yet
  • Bestigor Flesh

    Citadel (Warhammer Paints)

    No price tracked yet
  • Turquoise 1

    Warcolours

    No price tracked yet
  • Graveyard Earth

    Citadel (Warhammer Paints)

    No price tracked yet
  • Petrol Spills

    Vallejo

    No price tracked yet
  • Skeleton Bone

    Army Painter

    No price tracked yet

Recommended Box Set

Combat Patrol: Chaos Space Marines
Combat Patrol: Chaos Space Marines

The fastest way to start a Chaos Space Marines army — a boxed force to paint with this scheme.

1× Master of Possession · 5× Possessed · 10× Legionaries · 10× Chaos Cultists

Best price

A$180.65Loaded Dice · eBay

priced 14 Sep · postage per seller

Buy at Loaded Dice · eBay

cheapest of 4 Australian sellers · save A$104.35 vs the most expensive · excl. delivery

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What's inside this box

More Warhammer 40,000 schemes

Want the recipes written out, with the pots priced? What paints do you need for 40k?.

Is Red Corsairs a big job? See how every faction rates for difficulty — model size, detail and what the scheme demands — or work out what an army costs per point.