Tutorial: Lava Armor

Today I will be showing a small tutorial on how I painted the lava effects on my Razorback. This Razorback is designed for my Sternguard Squad.

Supplies Used

• GW Blood Red
• GW Sunburst Yellow
• #0 Raphael Kolinsky Brush
• ForgeWorld Razorback with lascannon
• Resin upgrade kit. I got mine from Chapterhouse Studios
• P3 Black Paint
• Tamiya German Grey spray
• Krylon Camo Black spray
• Reaper flow improver

The first step is to assembling the tank and prime it. I used Krylon Black spray as the primer. I was able to get a nice base coat on the mode with German Grey, which I used for my other Salamander's tanks. The resin extra armor, doors and front armor plate are from Chapterhouse studios. There a great addition to my command tank, and I highly recommend them.


After everything is assembled, base coated and ready to go, the first thing that needs to be done is apply a nice yellow to the cracks. If your paint is thinned out, this step will be very easy. Try to cover all the cracks fully.

 Next you will make yourself a custom shade of orange paint. Take about 1:3 ratio of red to yellow and mix them together. This should make a nice shade of orange for this step. Take the orange and paint it into the cracks of the armor. Try to leave about a third of the yellow on the armor plates showing through.

After the orange paint dries, take your red paint and cover up some of the orange. A good spot for the red is around the edges of the plates. The reason for this, is the hottest lava will be yellow, and will turn orange, red and then black as it cools down.

 After the red dries, take the black paint, and paint the highest part of the armor plates. This will be where the lava has cooled the most, and well tidy up previous work. When this step is done, your done!  

 Congratulations! If you've followed these steps, you should have a lava like effect on your model in under fifteen minutes! If you want a set of army like this, please checkout Chapterhouse Studios.

... Mitch