Cawdor are the largest gang range in Necromunda and the most rewarding to paint badly on purpose. Everything about them is patched, scavenged, stained and mended: robes over rags over armour, weapons welded from three other weapons, brass icons wired on with whatever came to hand. Neatness is not the goal here. If a wash pools, that is grime. If a highlight is uneven, that is a worn patch. The scheme absorbs mistakes the way a Van Saar bodyglove absolutely will not.
They are also almost entirely cloth, which means one recipe covers most of the model.
The signature look
Dirty ochre - a warm mustard-brown, never a clean yellow - across the robes, with two or three contrasting patches per fighter so the cloth reads as a patchwork. Faces are hidden behind masks and hoods, so the mask becomes the focal point. Metal is scavenged and rusted rather than maintained. Brass icons, candles and burning censers give you the small hits of light that stop a brown model going flat.
The ochre robes
Undercoat black for a deeper, filthier result, or Wraithbone if you intend to take the contrast route below.
- Basecoat Zamesi Desert, two thin coats. Over black this will need the second coat, and possibly a patchy third on the folds - do not fight it, the unevenness helps.
- Shade heavily with Agrax Earthshade and let it pool in the creases. Where a robe hem meets the ground, let it pool harder still.
- Add a second, smaller shade pass of Seraphim Sepia into the deepest folds and around the hem. This warms the shadows and stops the brown going grey.
- Layer Zamesi Desert back onto the raised folds, following the direction of the cloth.
- Highlight Karak Stone on the top edges of each fold, then Ushabti Bone on the sharpest creases and the shoulders only.
For the patches, pick two or three panels per fighter and paint them a different colour entirely: Rhinox Hide, Steel Legion Drab, or a faded red in Khorne Red shaded Agrax Earthshade. Different panels on different models. This one step is what separates a Cawdor gang from a pile of identical brown monks.
Vallejo painters can run Yellow Ochre shaded and highlighted with Dark Sand; Army Painter Fanatic offers Prairie Ochre with Pale Sand on top.
The fast route
Undercoat Wraithbone and give the robes one coat of Snakebite Leather contrast. It is almost exactly the right colour and it settles into the sculpted folds beautifully. Aggaros Dunes gives a dustier, paler result if you want a sun-bleached ash-wastes look, and Skeleton Horde is paler still. Highlight the top edges with Ushabti Bone and stop. The Army Painter equivalent is Ochre Clay speedpaint.
On a gang this size - and Cawdor gangs run large - this route is genuinely the difference between playing next month and playing next year.
Redemptionists and red
The Redemptionist fighters in the range share the house palette but push the red much further. Base Khorne Red, shade Agrax Earthshade, layer Mephiston Red, edge Evil Sunz Scarlet. Keep the red to hoods, sashes and the fire-bearing zealots so it still reads as an accent against the ochre rather than a second uniform.
Scavenged metal
Nothing a Cawdor carries was made for them.
- Basecoat Leadbelcher.
- Wash with Nuln Oil, then a patchy second wash of Agrax Earthshade over parts of it - inconsistent metal looks scavenged.
- Stipple Typhus Corrosion around rivets, welds and barrel ends.
- Drybrush Ryza Rust over the corrosion, sparingly.
- Bring back a few bright points with Runefang Steel on blade edges and the worn faces of hammers - the parts that get used stay clean.
Vallejo painters can use Gunmetal shaded and edged with Natural Steel.
Icons, candles and flame
The brass and gold devotional pieces are the eye-catchers. Base Warplock Bronze, shade Agrax Earthshade, layer Sycorax Bronze, and put a spot of Auric Armour Gold on the very edge of the largest icon only. For a richer look on a leader, start from Retributor Armour instead.
Candles: Ushabti Bone wax highlighted Screaming Skull, with a thin Agrax Earthshade streak down one side for old drips. The flame goes Jokaero Orange at the base, Yriel Yellow through the middle, Flash Gitz Yellow near the tip and a tiny White Scar core. Gloss varnish the wax drips and leave the flame matt.
Parchment scraps and prayer strips: Zandri Dust, Agrax Earthshade, Ushabti Bone, Screaming Skull - the standard Imperial recipe, and Cawdor are covered in them.
Tips and common mistakes
- Let the washes pool. On most gangs pooling is a fault. Here it is exactly the texture you want.
- Break up the ochre. Two or three off-colour patches per fighter. Without them the gang reads as one flat brown mass at arm's length.
- Mask, then everything else. The mask is where the eye lands. Paint it carefully even if the rest is speedpainted.
- Do not clean the metal. Uniform, evenly-highlighted steel is the one thing that will make Cawdor look wrong.
- One light source per model. A candle, a censer or a lantern - not all three. The glow only reads if it is the brightest thing there.