Resident Evil 2 TBG Part 2: Leon S Kennedy

"Hey, it's up to us to take out Umbrella!"

Welcome back citizens of Racoon city, to part 2 of this legacy painting series covering the contents of Resident Evil 2 the board game. In this part we will be covering everyone's favourite rookie cop Leon S Kennedy, all 4 versions!

As this was an old painting guide, it has been made mostly using more traditional painting techniques with the use of normal acrylic paints. If I can think of good contrast paint alternative I'll try and squeeze it in at the relevant step. Also a massive sorry for the quality of some of the images as these were done a long time before I had access to a decent camera and an adequate lighting set up.

1. The undercoat, I prefer using Games Workshops Chaos Black spray can primer, I have had the least the amount of issues with Games Workshops own brand, but if you have a brand you trust then stick with that. If I was to have used Contrast Paint, I would have either gone for Greyseer (warmer base coat) or a Zenithal undercoat of Black first and then Greyseer done at an angle to give us a base setup of light and dark areas.

Skin areas (all models)

2. So first we will paint all the skin areas in Rakarth Flesh. This is where we will talk about the first concept of "thin your paints." The reason we thin our paints, is so that we don't pile our paint on too thick and blot out detail.

To do this we can either use water or games workshops Lahman medium or Vallejo's thinner medium (I prefer using vallejo's thinner as it comes in a dropper bottle).

So to get a good result we will need to paint 2 or 3 thin layers of Rakarth Flesh as we are painting over a dark base colour, this will give a nice smooth finish.

*Contrast alternatives:

Guillmen Flesh over Grey Seer and highlighted with Kislev Flesh (warmer tone, use Wraithbone white as a base for a slightly colder tone).

As you can see here, the detail on the face and arms are nice and clear as we have used several thin coats, instead of one thick coat.

3. We will now paint the majority of the raised areas of the muscles and face in Kislev Flesh (2 thin layers should do it), while avoiding the recesses where the muscles meet or parts like eye sockets, around the base of the nose etc.

Looking closely you can see that areas painted is Kislev and the recesses have been left in the base coat of Rakarth Flesh.

4. Next comes the easy part where we apply a wash/shade over the skin using Reikland Fleshshade. This adds shading to our miniature as well as blurring the lines between the Rakarth and Kislev areas and thus making it look more natural. Shades take the longest amount of time to dry so use this time to start painting the skin on the other Leon's.

And now we get the magical effect of washes/shades.

*Extra note* When I say "wash," this means we cover an area completely in a shade or glaze colour. Shades and glazes are very watery paints that pool up in the recesses of models giving the effect of depth to a model. A great shortcut is to paint a model white and then just use a wash over that which gives a very effective result (so effectively Contrast Paints before they became a thing).

5. As the shade has darkened the Kislev Flesh, we are going to apply a new layer of Kislev Flesh using 2 thin coats and reducing its total surface area. As we are using the same paint as before, this will give a better transition between the raised and recess areas of the skin areas.

This is kinda similar to what we did at step 3 except we paint a smaller area on those raised areas.

6. To finish off the skin we can add a slight highlight of Flayed One Flesh to give the effect of light hitting the skin. A highlight would be a slight line on the bridge of the nose, lip and eye brows and a small blot on the muscle. I myself don't have this colour so I just made it using Kislev and a white or light grey, trying to aim for something in between.

With skin out of the way, we can apply those steps to the other Leon's and we will jump into painting classic and bandaged Leon.

Classic & Bandaged Leon

7. Paint the majority of Leon in Kantor blue (2 thin layers) leaving the armour plates, gloves, boots and arms black.

*Contrast alternatives:*

Talassar Blue (lighter blue result) over Grey Seer and highlighted with Lothern Blue or Celestium Blue (darker blue result) over Grey Seer and highlighted with Altdorf Guard Blue.

Extra note, you can apply these same steps to the trousers of Biker Leon

8. Paint the belt/hair in Doombull Brown and the firearms/buckles in Leadbelcher, as this is a metal pigment paint do not thin it with water, just wipe off some of the excess paint on a pallet as we don't want blops of paint on the brush. Paint 1 or 2 thin layers on the gun and 1 thin layer on the buckles.

*Contrast alternatives:*

For the hair:Gore-Grunta Fur over Grey Seer and highlighted with Skrag Brown and Bestigor Flesh for a slight sheen highlight.

For Leather: Wyldwood over Wraithbone and highlighted with Baneblade Brown.

For steel: Basilicanum Grey over Grey Seer and highlighted with Administratum Grey.

*Extra Note* Painting metals, always paint metals over a black to get the best result as they are a lot more translucent than you think*

9. Paint the hair and belt in Rhinox Brown (2 thin layers) and for the hair try to leave some of the Doombull Brown in the recess of the hair parting.

10. Paint the arms (not shoulders or elbow pads), small bumps on armour and RPD lettering + logo in Administratum Grey (2-3 thin coats).

*Contrast alternative:*

Space Wolves Grey over Grey Seer base coat and highlight in Dawnstone Grey.

Don't worry about making mistakes as these are easily covered by our base blue or black.

11. Next comes a new reduced layer on the blue, if you have access to a slightly brighter blue then use that, as I don't I made a 60/40 mix of Kantor Blue and Thunder Hawk Blue. We are just painting raised areas and avoiding painting any deep recesses on the clothes using 2 thin coats.

Trust me when I say I cringe at my own stuff when I take pics this close, try not to let it bother and stick to the plan.

12. Apply a wash of Nuln Oil to the majority of the models blue and grey areas.

Ahh good ol' Nuln Oil, thankfully no pots where spilled during the making of this tutorial.

13. Painting the shoulder badges, these are best done as a layer of Jokaero Orange (2 thin coats), then Yriel Yellow (2 thin coats), followed by a slight red trim of Evil Suns Scarlet on the banner (1-2 thin coats).

Don't worry too much about getting all the detail on the badges, as these are so small.

14. To bring those colours together and depth, you can give them a wash of Casandora Yellow.

15. Next up we are going to reapply a new layer of Administratum Grey to the previously inked grey areas. Being carefully to just hit the raised areas (1-2 thin coats).

We have passed the point of cringe and things are starting to come together.

16. Add a final highlight of Ulthan Grey to the grey areas (1 thin flick). *Flicking or feathering is just a quick swipe motion using not the tip of the paintbrush but the edge of the brush.

17. Take the previously made concoction of Kantor and Thunderhawk Blue and use that to start layering the raised areas on the previously washed blue areas (1-2 thin coats).

18. To finish off the blue add a light highlight of Thunderhawk Blue (1 thin coat or flick).

Even more blue!? what a madman!

19. Apply a layer of Doombull Brown the belt and hair. For the belt we are layering this on, leaving some of the previous Rhinox Hide/Nuln Oil visible. For the hair we going to use the previous flick motion to paint just some of the strands of hair (1 coat).

One thing you gotta love about these models as they have a surprising amount of detail, given how small they are.

20. to finish the hair just do a slight highlight of Tuskor Fur (1 coat), but we are just doing a sheen effect to one side of the head. To this we paint a line that goes round one side of the head made out of flicks, we can also apply a highlight of Vallejo Platinum Silver to any metal areas.

21. To finish off the black areas we going to do a slight sheen/edge highlight using Mechanicus Standard Grey, although you can use brighter grey's if you like. For these we are just adding a small edge highlight to the shoulder pads, the top of the boot etc (1 thin line).

*Contrast alternative:*

Black Templar over Grey Seer base coat and highlight with Eshin Grey.

22. Base to preference, here you can do anything you want like textured bases and the such, personally I'm just going for a simple gold trim for player bases as they are too small for me to really do much with.

23. Varnish the model, to protect this in the long run. I prefer using Vallejo's Matt Varnish as it doesn't effect the colours and it doesn't matter if you accidentally lump it on too thick.

Bandaged Leon

24. For the blood on Bandaged Leon, you can use Blood For The Blood God. It's a pretty awesome paint which works well thin but it also can be built up on itself to give the effect of chunks by doing multiple layers, this is best done after the Matt Varnish as Blood For The Blood God, has it's own gloss .

Commando Leon

25. With the Skin done already start with painting the vest Naggaroth nightshade and the trousers Caliban Green (2-3 thin layers for both).

*Contrast alternatives:*

For the green use Dark Angels Green over Wraithbone and highlighted with Straken Green.

For the Purple use Luxion Purple over any standard white, followed by a highlight of Genestealer Purple (The Luxion Purple might need a 2:1 mix of paint to medium, as it's quite dark).

26. Layer over these colours while avoiding recesses, Xereus purple (2 thin coats) and a mix 50/50 mix of Caliban Green and elysian green (or use a green in-between if you have access to one) (2 him coats).

27. Paint the hair Rhinox hide and highlight Doombull brown (1-2 thin layers).

28. Apply Administratum grey to the text on the hat and the rim, this can be highlighted Ulthan grey (1-2 thin layers).

29. Apply a wash of Drakenhof nightshade to the purple areas and Athonian Camoshade to the trousers.

30. Apply a new raised layer of Xereus Purple to the shirt and the green mix to the trousers (1-2 layers).

31. Apply a highlight of Elysian Green to the trousers (1 layer).

32. Highlight blacks using Administratum Grey and paint base same as before.

Biker Leon.

33. This will be the easiest to paint as you can use the same blue method that we used on classic Leon for the Jeans and paint the blacks in the same way too.

34. For the text on the jacket I just used Administratum grey and for the lines and skull I used the Vallejo platinum silver (lightly painted to avoid masking any detail.

35. For the shotgun I used Rhinox Hide followed by Doombull Brown for all the wooden parts and then washed the whole gun in Nuln Oil to better blend the two colours, followed by one final highlight of Doombull Brown.

With Leon done the next one has to be Claire or Ada right? Any who! I hope this has helped people with their own painting and if anyone has any thoughts or comments feel free to leave them below.