Painting Grimdark Dungeon Horror with the Bile Guardian

Hello! My name is Katy, katyfeartwitch online. I am a relatively new miniature painter having only started the hobby a few months ago, but I have always had a passion for everything grim, dark and macabre. I absolutely fell in love with the style of the Bestiarum miniatures, particularly the Crimson Grove range and the Bile Guardians. Their lumpy flesh, layered armour and bell details all really spoke to my creativity and I have loved painting the range.

When it came to painting this miniature I wanted to create something that looked rotten and old but also like he is an important figure in this fictional prison. I did this by mixing brighter metals with worn looking cloth and toad-inspired skin.

As for the prison, I wanted it to look old, dark and well used. Through weathering techniques, shading and special-effects-like blood, this was accomplished.

I first primed the Bile Guardian in Colour Forge's Raven Black, a matt soft black. Once that was dry, I started painting the skin. I always like to work on the skin first as it takes up the most amount of space on the model and once I get the skin down, the rest of the model falls into place.

• I started by first doing two thin coats of Army Painter's Gargoyle Grey (most acrylic paints I used were from The Army Painter and will appear as AP from now on). 

• While the second coat was still wet, I mixed some of the Gargoyle Grey with AP's Blighted Green to create a green gradient shade. 

• Using a small brush, I placed this grey green gradient shade in the recesses and blended it into the Gargoyle Grey.

• To highlight the skin I mixed Gargoyle Grey with some of AP's Ivory White to make a lighter shade. With a drybrush, I lightly brushed the highest points on the skin and the lumpy flesh bits until I had a nice gradient from light to dark all over.

• To make the skin look more toad-like, I took a tiny detail brush and used the Blighted Green to create pock marks in select places. The effect works rather well and makes the skin look mottled, sickly and toad-like.

Next, I worked on the armour and bells. I really like mixed metals on a model and the Bile Guardian has a lot of layers to his armour which is perfect for this. 

• For the breast plate and chains, I mixed up a custom brass colour using AP's Emperor Gold and Tainted Gold. The Tainted Gold has a nice green undertone to it which mixed well with the flesh tone, but I wanted just a bit of warmth to contrast with the cool tones to make the armour stand out.

• For the shoulder armour, ankle braces, arm braces and bells I mixed AP's Tainted Gold with Vallejo’s Metallic Gold, again creating a lightly warmer shade.

• To add wear and weathering to the metals, I mixed up AP's shade Talisman Teal with water until I had an almost translucent mix to apply to the recesses of the metals giving it a patina effect. The same colours and effects were applied to his sword and helmet.

• For his shawl and cape I wanted a rich colour that would contrast well with the green, so I went for AP's Blanched Berry from the John Blanche collection. The deep purple/red colour works really well against the deep green flesh. 

• Once the Blanched Berry was dry I went in with The Grimdark Compendium's Villainy Ink enamel wash All is Dust to mute the colour further and add weathering.

Now that the Bile Guardian was finished, I moved on to the base.

To prepare the base, I sprayed the whole model with Colour Forge's Matt White and let that dry.

• I then took a large fluffy brush and drybrushed all the walls and flooring with AP's Gargoyle Grey mixed with a bit of AP's Matt Black to add some depth.

• To add some variation to the stone, I mixed more Matt Black into the leftover Gargoyle Grey to create a slate grey colour and painted some of the door frames, window frames and some random bricks.

• For the torture devices, the rack, stock and the various buckets I first based them with AP's Banshee Brown. 

• Then, with the leftover Banshee Brown I mixed in some of AP's Sunburst Ochre and lightly dry brushed all the brown items.

Once that was all dry, it was time for some weathering and special effects. 

• I started by applying AP's Grim Rust effect with a dry brush to all the metals on the model like the iron bars and various metal chains. 

• For the barrels and torture devices, I decided to apply a fresh wet blood effect to them with AP's True Blood effect, making them look recently used.

Once all these layers were dry I went in with The Grimdark Compendium's enamels and texture products to create even more variation and weathering.

• First, the whole model got a unifying wash of equal parts Vile Tinge Green mixed with Ichor of the Damned to pull everything together and add some depth. While this was drying I used an old rough brush to stipple texture into the brick work.

• To add more gore, I used GDC's Carrion Crimson where I had applied the True Blood before and on the ground around the barrels, chest and torture devices.

• To finish the ground, I used AK's Muddy Ground Terrain around the outside and on select bits of the floor inside along with Krautcovers A Tale of Grimdark basing material sprinkled on.

• For some weathering on the wood and brick to make them look old and worn, I used a thin brush and GDC's Decay of Death to add some streaks and mossy looking patches.

Overall, I am very happy with how the model and diorama turned out. I really enjoyed pushing my abilities as a newer painter by trying different techniques like wet blending and using basing materials for the first time. I think my favourite part of miniature painting is I never know what I'm going to end up with and am always surprised by the end result. 

I know a lot of people online say there is a correct and incorrect way to paint, but honestly I've found that my style best suits painting from pure vibes and what I'm feeling in the moment, as well as experimentation. 

I hope you found this tutorial helpful and enjoy the end results as much as I do. Thank you very much to the Bestiarum for this opportunity!

KatyFear - @KatyFearTwitch