Painting Reaper’s Bones Goremaw – Looking for Feedback.

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I’m kinda stuck on Goremaw here. After seeing Dave Kay’s painted up as part of Painting Decembruary, I decided to get mine prepped for painting by getting it assembled, then “priming” it in watered down Liquid Greenstuff to cut down on the horrible, sticky, tacky reaction that Bones PVC seems to have with model paints as well as spray primers. So now that’s finally done. Then there’s working out what to do with it – using the stats for the Forge World Dread Maw in Age of Sigmar and perhaps the Spined Chaos Beast for 40k seem reasonable.

As well painted as the official Spined Chaos Beast is in the above photograph, it’s a pretty awful model, so I have no particular desire to purchase one or track one down. So Goremaw will fit that nicely enough. So we’ve got the use and stats sorted, but how to paint? I’ve already done Purple Worms. I’m very happy with them but don’t wish to revisit that scheme with Goremaw.

I could go Nurgle-themed, which would be green carapace with yellowish-ochre underbelly and purplish-red mouth. Broadly similar to the Shadows of Brimstone Burrower. Also has the benefit of looking somewhat naturalistic. Maybe.

Khorne? Deep red or orangey-red, again with a yellowish-ochre underbelly and either crimson or purplish-red mouth. Also quite a “dragon-y” look. I guess the green one could also say that to an extent. Maybe.

Tzeentchian? Blues.. nah. Too close to the purple that I already want to avoid. Slanneshi? Some sort of pastel look? Pink? Nah.

“Undivided” so I can run it in any/multiple force? Black on the carapace and fleshy underside somewhat like my (still unfinished) version of Be’Lakor?

I think either black/flesh for Undivided, or green/ochre for Nurgle or red/ochre for Khorne. But I’m still not sure. Anyone else have any thoughts or arguments for any of those three? Any way-out ideas? (be warned, I’ll probably disregard most of those, but I am open to ideas) if so, please do leave a comment, though be aware, it’s not a poll!

29 thoughts on “Painting Reaper’s Bones Goremaw – Looking for Feedback.”

  1. Looking at your Undivided idea, there are a lot of neutral color options that you have not mentioned. Dave Kay’s is a light brownish gray and I’m sure it would look good with darker version of that color that would provide more contrast with the ivory teeth/spines.

    I quite like the wing membrane colors on your Be’Lakor. Perhaps something like that color with a lighter belly color, or a darker brown carapace and belly painted like Be’Lakor’s wing membrane. Instead of a black carapace, perhaps a very dark brown?

    If the neutral colors are colorful enough, try a purple of green wash over the final colors to add a little color.

    Re Bones tackiness: Try using Army Painter spray primers. These seem to be the only sprays that work on Bones stuff.

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    • Well, it would take a (thick) book to mention all of the neutral choices I haven’t mentioned. It’s a reflection on the ones I’m considering rather than every combination that exists. 😉

      I’m not interested in anything *too* neutral, so that’s a lot of the natural options like sand, greys, etc right out. I want the model to walk that fine line between popping while still looking vaguely feasable (if not realistic). Sorta like the Purple Worms or the SoB thing I linked above.

      When I mention Undivided, I’m really just thinking of following the Be’Lakor scheme as a direct link to that model, rather than one of the many dozens of options for Chaos Undivided. The “black” in the Be’Lakor-inspired scheme would have to involve some other dark colours for highlights rather than just painting the thing flat black. So it could be greys, though if I go for the black/flesh scheme, I want to avoid the black being too rich as I don’t want the model to be especially clean like the archetypical Space Marine Tank that looks like it’s fresh from the factory, so while I could still highlight with something like dark blue, dark turquoise, dark red/cadmium red/chestnut/etc I’d be taking the edge off it with some weathering, both some sandy drybrushing and use of dark brown weathering powder. Maybe some mottling would work for the carapace once I decide on an overall scheme.

      Thanks for the tip on AP sprays. I’ve got a couple of their cans, and while I’m generally not a fan of them needing to be treated like special snowflakes I’ve already got both dark green and red, so I’ll happily give one of them a shot over the already painted LGS if I go for either of those schemes.

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  2. Acrylic airbrush primers from Vallejo and Stynylrez also work on Bones. Regarding colors, I’m just throwing this out there, because it helped kick up my painting game quite a bit. I will let my main man Kenny Boucher, competition miniatures painter, explain some color theory – just to help out any aspiring painters that might like it…

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    • Yeah, I’ve not had a lot of success with Vallejo Acrylic primers painted on. The tackiness still seems to come through. I’ve had figures with LGS as a base coat painted with normal Vallejo/Citadel Acrylics become tacky despite the coat of LGS. Shit, I’ve had painted Bones figures that are totally dry to the touch become tacky once varnished. I’d try airbrush priming with VA, but I honestly don’t care enough about your average Bones model to bother setting up the airbrush.
      Thanks for the link to Kenny. I’ve watched some of his videos but he seems to be generally more of an airbrush guy. I understand colour theory fairly well myself these days (and have a number of “proper” art & digital art books on it and related topics such as palette swatches, etc) but I’m sure the link will be useful.
      The problem with this model for me is simply deciding what to do with it in terms of making it match one army or another, since it’s not a model where a strong “vision” for it has come to mind so I’d like to have it work well with some of my existing models.

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    • Hey, that’s good to know about the airbrush primers and Reaper Bones. I have both those brands of primer and an airbrush, so I’ll have to give it a go next time I have some Bones minis to paint.

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    • That’s a nice, deep red on that burrower. Darker than I’m thinking for this thing, but definitely something for another model I have planned.
      When I talk about red with a yellow/ochre underbelly (for “Khorne”), I’m talking about something that’s very reminiscent of that classic Dungeons and Dragons Red Dragon type of thing, but with some “I live underground” weathering and wear added – and the spikes and teeth a bit more bone with the underbelly a bit more yellow for differentiation.

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      • Yea, I was looking for some inspiration from nature. But after I posted, thought that I should have searched for fantasy dragons instead. You were one step ahead, of course.

        I like the first dragon image you found. The second, even though Larry Elmore is a great artist, looks a little too orange for your mini.

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      • I’ve always seen the second piece of art as the dragon being “lit” by fire (or the gold), so agreed – my version would be less brightly saturated and less orange. Just getting across the “placement” of red, ochre/yellow, purplish mouth and bone for teeth and spines.

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  4. Well this is not my theme of expertise by a long way but it looks like this thing is coming out of the ground. If that’s the case nothing comes out of the ground looking nice and clean so to my mind it needs a dirty look which perhaps lends itself to the darker colours of black and brown with something a little brighter like red to break things up?

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    • To me it’s a bit too all over the place. Like the proportions are messed up and the model almost looks like segments were designed independently of one another. It’s “The Homer” of monster designs.

      Of course, I understand it’s *chaos* and that aesthetic tastes vary. It’s just not to mine.

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  7. I’ve seen a few different Goremaw schemes I’ve likes, including an ‘ice’ scheme with light and dark blues. I have yet to see Goremaw painted in warms reds and oranges, but I suspect there is a good reason for that!

    One thing I did think was maybe a ‘Balrog’ style with very flat dark scales and a bright yellow open maw, with maybe some bright yellow ‘bits’ here and there to show the ‘glow through’ like he’s all lava on the inside.

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  8. Oh just wanna add that Vallejo and Stynylrez primers can be brushed on as well. They work great brushed on too! Cost might be a factor if you’re doing a whole Bones army, but… also I’ve heard that cheap primers don’t work well on Bones anyways… In any case, I look forward to final MAW color choices! 😀

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    • Oh, the Vallejo primers are my go-to when brushes are involved. The black primer is my main black paint for that matter! Love the Vallejo stuff!
      For other figures I tend to use spray cans, either cheap black/white/grey or occasionally the Tamiya/Gunze cans.
      Then custom cans for many of the coloured basecoats, but I like to have a prime coat down first.
      For me, the Bones models are more of a bit of a simple add-on or quickpaint for variety to keep me interested. The odd larger one like this guy can make for interesting and fun alternative centrepiece models. Plenty of unpainted citadel (and other) models to make armies out of!

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