Holy Grail For Ethnic Skin on Minis: Beginner Friendly Paint For Brown & Black Skin

[@MichaelHarrel]

Paints mentioned: P3 - Idrian Flesh P3 - Brown Ink P3 - Kossite Flesh Wash P3 - Caspian Flesh Wash P3 - Khardic Flesh P3 - Umbral Umber P3 - Rucksack Tan P3 - Menoth White Base ("Ivory") Very helpful video, thanks for it!

[@Scheisskopf79]

P3 does make some solid paints but I love my Citadel washes. Some tips I've picked up from multiple videos. African skin (dark) Dryad bark base, violet wash, touch back up with DB leaving shaded area, mix DB with a lighter brown with yellow hints to highlight 3 to 1 parts. African skin (lighter) Gorthor brown or Idrian Flesh, violet wash with mixing medium 2 to 1 mix, touch up with base color, highlight using base brown with a part of a brown with warmer colors in it to highlight, use again with more of the same warmer color. Hispanic or tropical Asian skin, Steel Legion Drab, wash 1:1:1 Reikland Fleshshade, Agrax Earthshade and mixing medium, mix SLD with Cadian Fleshtone 3 to 1 to highlight progressively stepping it up. ALWAYS thin your paints while highlighting, mixing medium will help flow and slow down dry time but the effect is worth the wait.

[@alexc2626]

This is deeply appreciated, thank you!

[@derpstick5467]

Old as hell comment but huh, I got steel legion and I do have agrax, just not reikland, man idk if I’ll ever be able to recreate my own skin tone lol, i know might seem narcissistic of me to say but man, it seems like Hispanic skin tones are never brought up in these discussions, I mean i know it’s because we’re all not one tone of brown or brown at all but huh you’d think it’d be an easy skin tone to achieve.

[@tnatstrat7495]

I appreciate the tip Teri. I've tried a few times and as a POC mini painter I'm always hunting for a better recipe.

[@wakcedout]

Assuming youve tried this already, would you know if vallejo or citadel colors could be swapped. P3 isnt closely available to me but vallejo and citadel colors are. Im planning this for only 1 or maybe 2 pilot models of p51s and it will exclusively be the face. And ill be doing my best to replicate the tones of the pilots whose planes i put decals on for.

[@cruzgodinez9928]

I really appreciate this video, even 4 years later, its hard to find dark skin tone, especially diverse dark skin tone tips. So many paint tutorials i see end up with a very lifeless cool brown that makes the skin look more like a stained wood than melanated skin. Thank you so much.

[@thehorridperson]

Reaper has me pretty well covered for African and Asian complexions with their Dark and Olive skin triads. The three stages values in each of the triads give a nice shadow, base, and highlight that you can extend with tinting. I've been playing around with the dark highlight as a shadow value for the olive triad to try and produce an East Indian or Middle Eastern skin tone which hasn't turned out too badly. Where I can't get anything right are Native American skin tones. I haven't been able to find a colour that looks quite right. Thanks for this video. Some of the figures you shared have a tone that looks better than what I've come up with so I should take a look at the P3 range.

[@Bathorite]

Awesome, I am looking to make my Necromunda gangs diverse so this is right on time. Thanks!

[@jonhammersley1529]

One shortcut to consider would be to use the inks to thin your paint instead of water (same viscosity with a higher pigment). Vince Venturella mentioned this in his review of FW inks and I've found it works vey well. FW makes a (caucasian) flesh colored ink and they have a wide range of browns to work with that might compliment your paint of choice. The other upside of artist inks is that you get 29.5 ml in a bottle for what you'd pay 1 or 2 dropper bottles of other branded inks.

[@thatterigirl]

I have a few FW inks but the ones stocked by my local stores are all metallic/glittery so I haven't had a chance to play with the flesh toned ones. Which ones do you recommend I pick up?

[@jonhammersley1529]

Teri Litorco Sepia, Flesh Tint, Purple Lake, Crimson, and Burnt Umber are what I'm using now. I want to pick up a White, Orange, and a dark Blue color on my next trip. I didn't read the labels and picked up some pearlescent colors on my first trip...wow are they glittery. You can add some mart medium and water to these to make washes (Likes APS youtube channel has a video on how to do this which got me interested in inks).

[@Gemma_Rashida]

Awesome vid, I have been struggling for ages to find just the right combination that doesn't take too long!

[@majorbloodnock4281]

Incase no one else has mentioned it Vallejo do skin paints and shades as do scale 75 that are aimed at painting the tones of most if not all races it saves a bit of messing around mixing your own tones for those of us who can be a little lazy, I would also only use off white for eyes especially for darker skinned figures it helps to stop the cartoon startled look using white can cause

[@ArvandusTheStoryteller]

This was really helpful for me thanks. just got my idrian flesh and umbral umber pots and they work great!

[@crowlong6190]

I hope it's okay I shared this video to a Instagram post from Miniac! I think this would be super helpful for everyone to create a more diverse range for all our badass minis

[@kalosprismatic]

Still love this video. Thank you, Teri.

[@johanmilde]

Love the guide, especially since I’ve tried diversifying my Chaos horde lately. It would have been really practical to have a write-up of which paints and inks you used, so we don’t have to pause and squint to find out, though.

[@thatterigirl]

I can throw them up on Instagram for you, if that would help!

[@wakcedout]

Doing it simplistically for any level painter makes this a great how to. Ive shyed away from ethnic tones because they just seem difficult to pull off properly without them looking like essentially, leather. And besides tabletop wargaming in 40k which avoiding the difficulty is easy with either necrons or just slapping helmets on allll my space marines, ive never had to tackle this. Until getting back into scale models mainly due to work being forced to cut back because shutdowns, and now ive opted for painting a p51d in the iconic res tails pattern. And since i want it in flying position chasing a bf109g i plan to build next, well a plane in.flight without a pilot just looks silly. And red tails being the first all African American pilit crews, i now find myself needing to tackle this. And feel i will be adding a painting skill set to my abilities after.

[@scotsbillhicks]

Thank you Teri. Now just a question of tracking down some P3 paints.

[@scotsbillhicks]

Done! I found P3 Idrian Flesh…in Kiel (Gandalph’s emporium)

[@Kahnthelongshot]

S/o you for this. Def subscribed. I plan on getting into 40k real soon and I need ppl to know that even in the grim darkness of the far future, we still gonna be there!

[@Roll4Initiative]

Awesome video, looking forward to hearing about more of your favorite things! Idrian Flesh is now on my shopping list.

[@beast8559]

Would love to see a paint tutorial using these paint methods

[@Tazirai]

Thanks for this. I plan to do dark skinned Eldar for 40k, this helps a lot.

[@TheBadadj]

Most informative, I would hope that at some point I will be able to employ this technique, my hobby time seems to be constantly filled with painting either Orks or Ultra Smurfs, .....but, could be an interesting look. I really need to try this.

[@tinkey2562]

I know this video is old, but thank you. I've been trying to find videos on painting darker skin!

[@chrisw5077]

mixing and matching GW rhinox hide or GW mornfang brown with VMA earth and VMA rust to get the tone using GW sepia wash... layer in a VMA Khaki to the mix and any final highlights with a bit of VMA bonewhite... use of mediums, dry retarders, and the help of a wet pallet will also do wonders... just have to play and see what works. (if you have a old pot of snakebite leather it also makes a good starting colour for your mixes) if you feel daring, make your own washes. (9 parts matte medium, 1 part a mix of flow aid & distilled water (1:10) as a base, then add drops of ink to tint. note: a little ink will go a long way)

[@greenarcangel]

I would love to know which would be the equivalence on Vallejo or Citadel.

[@andrewweber958]

My ethnic skintone are horrid I really need help. I'm going to buy these and try all of them.

[@ryandesjardins1228]

Oh sweet! I'm definitely going to use this on some DORFS!

[@Caradepato]

Thank you for this video, will use your advice on the Numidian allies in my Carthaginian army.

[@foxalven]

Great video! Very informative and great tips. Can't wait to try it out. I also love your enthusiasm and way of presenting things. Your passion shines through. Very inspirational!

[@Gomai]

I'm really glad to see this! Thanks so much for pushing a bit more diversity in wargaming.

[@dinahsanders4147]

Photographer Angelica Dass's Humanae Project is another great place to see the incredible variety of human skin tones and facial shapes.

[@jademerrydown2943]

Oooh my Gods I've been looking for a video like this for a while now, thank thank you!

[@classicdamo6042]

Just subscribed. Thank you so much for that. I've always had a secret struggle with painting ethnic flesh tones.

[@chrisdemeule3777]

Thanks for the tips Teri -- I will try to give this a shot :)

[@Heath86]

I have always been a little intimidated to try more diverse skin tones on my minis. I didn't want to mess it up (I have enough problems with Caucasian skin tone looking silly). I am really looking forward to try your holy grail idrian flesh.

[@thatterigirl]

Please come back and let me know if you like it!

[@paulsavas2394]

How do we get Army Painter to add these skin tones in their basic sets?

[@macewen1]

It's a few years later, is this still your go to process?

[@TheMightyJerd]

Thanks for this! Been doing a lot of darker skinned minis of late and trying different methods paints. I will give the Idrian a shot!

[@thatterigirl]

Let me know what you think of it!

[@TheMightyJerd]

Teri Litorco Will do. I am giving Reaper’s Dark Skin triad a go with this next batch of minis...

[@ForgeMaciejewski]

Seriously? Someone didn't like this video? The nerve... Thanks for a great video Teri. I love watching and learning new tips and tricks. I will be applying these skills to my own projects. Thank you.

[@scotsbillhicks]

Sigh...guess which P3 paint I don’t have. What I take away from this is using ivory first. That I do have. A few brown inks in my collection and an intriguing pot from Coat’d arms.

[@scotsbillhicks]

I think I know the pot you mean. I have a pot myself. Of course what I’m missing is Idrian flesh

[@shadowjestereves]

Would definitely love to see a video of you actually painting the skin tones. 😁 Picture worth a thousand words and all that.

[@dansemacabre5123]

It looks close to the old GW Bugmans Glow, maybe with a browner tone rather than a pink hue.

[@pubsociology2945]

Thanks so much for this. It was super helpful.

[@zakhoskins6404]

Really dark skin tones have noticeable amounts of purple in the shadows. Might want to consider mixing some of that in next time if you want to go for a more realistic look rather than just something quick and easy. Scale 75 African Shadow would be a good paint to consider. Your Friendly Proudly Non-Diverse Painter

[@dakarimane395]

Thanks for the tips!

[@sems7827]

Thank you! I'm painting my catachan jungle fighters and they're meant to be based off of American action moves which means every 5th or so model needs to be black and I just couldn't work out how to do it

[@LynessRogers]

HoAve you found any female minis with afros? The heroforge one isn't what I'm looking for in the character I want.

[@thatterigirl]

What kind of game/setting?

[@Blacktemplewarrior]

Are you going to paint some Kingdom Death miniatures

[@kacperdlugosz3114]

Really helpful vid, thank you!

[@lienadrenraw]

Thank you

[@netizenkane]

Very useful, thank you 👍

[@bethanygraham427]

What was the third wash you mentioned? Showing the bottle, like you did the first ones, would have been more useful than just shaking it at the camera.

[@torymiddlebrooks]

She said it out loud but it was super quick. Caspian flesh wash

[@bethanygraham427]

@@torymiddlebrooks Thank you. I do not have great hearing and I could not catch it.

[@torymiddlebrooks]

No worries! Here to help

[@Blueqoose]

Is this paint still around? I see that P3 turned it's name into a new one and all that jazz? when I search for it i cant find it.

[@thatterigirl]

It's come up for me: Idrian Flesh for Formula P3 from privateer press.

[@Blueqoose]

Teri Litorco my dumb self didn’t have my glasses on. I was typing in “Indian Flesh” I found it! I purchased one bottle of it and two bottles of the other you recommended. I just want to say thank you so much for making a video on this because I have been struggling to represent correctly people of color with miniatures that would have people of color in their group/units or what have you and it’s important for me because in my opinion representation is everything and if I am going to make a miniature a person of color or maybe a historical unit that was strictly black or Indian or Native American I want to get the skin color tones correct I don’t want them to look like mammy dolls I want to do it right I want to do it so it looks good and it’s not offensive. So once again thank you so much

[@mephiston1216]

Great tip!

[@spektr313]

This is so badass. Thank you for this. I am doing ethnic skin tones on some of my primaris to piss off any racists I may play. Mind you I'm a pasty ginger. Also gonna head over to patreon and become a patron! Keep on being bad ass! Edit* Looks like your patreon is down. :(

[@pinay56]

So what is Filipino skin tones like? I see that you're Filipino,

[@victorbruun]

Shoshie sent me!

[@Ghost3210]

Not gonna lie, I love really dark skin tones on my miniatures, but for a lot of fantasy races I'm scared that people will get it the wrong way and try to connect it to the negative aspects of these fantasy races. For example: nobody minds brown skin tones on elves and dark elves. But brown Orks create a huge backlash. Which is why I went for dark grey skin on my Warhammer Ogre army now. It works similar in terms of contrast to the armor, but at least I won't not to fear anyone feeling offended by them. I just think they are some cute and cool minis, very chonky.

[@magimon91834]

I'm making a Mexican army for the Franco Mexican intervention and every other skin tone guide is either for Caucasian skin or for skin that's too dark for what I'm hoping for. Thank you

[@SuperWaistcoat]

Would rather have seen you paint them instead of talking about it.

[@thatterigirl]

Totally fair, and I'll be doing a breakdown of how I painted the Shadespire Bloodreaver (shown in that video) top to bottom so you can see how that flesh went on.

[@Blacktemplewarrior]

Teri Litorco yes please and thank you.....

[@hishamaziz3282]

Just saw this video.. good ideas... I apologize for this off-topic comment.. but you are as cute as Hell :)

[@jimashdown2887]

Very helpful! thank you.