Paint Academy
WELCOME TO THE VOIDHIVE FORGE PAINT ACADEMY
Every creature begins the same way — unpainted, unfinished and waiting for someone to decide what it will become.
The VoidHive Forge Paint Academy has been created to help you take that next step.
Here you'll find detailed painting guides created around our models, alongside techniques, colour recipes and practical advice for painting the organic textures, layered armour, exposed flesh and unnatural details that define the creatures of VoidHive Forge.
Whether you're painting your first resin miniature or working on a large collector-scale centrepiece, the Academy is designed to provide guidance rather than rules. You can follow one of our studio schemes from beginning to end, borrow individual techniques, change the colours completely, or simply use the guides as inspiration for a Hive of your own.
RESIN ASSEMBLY, CARE & DISPLAY
From joining parts and filling gaps to protecting your finished centrepiece, explore practical guidance on sunlight, heat, dust, storage and safe display.
VIEW THE RESIN ASSEMBLY, CARE & DISPLAY GUIDE →
LEARN THE TECHNIQUES
We'll explore the techniques that work particularly well on highly textured biological miniatures — from establishing strong shadows and highlighting layered chitin to creating convincing flesh, bone, claws, weathering, slime, wounds and glowing biological effects.
Some guides will concentrate on a single technique. Others will take you through an entire model from primer to finished piece.
FOLLOW THE STUDIO GUIDES
Selected VoidHive Forge releases will receive their own dedicated paint guide, showing how a particular studio scheme can be recreated and explaining how different colours and techniques have been used to emphasise the creature's anatomy.
Where a dedicated guide is available, you'll also be able to move directly between the Paint Academy, its Codex entry and the model in the Catalogue.
MAKE THE HIVE YOUR OWN
The schemes shown here are not intended to dictate how a VoidHive creature should look.
Quite the opposite.
Change the armour. Alter the flesh. Introduce new markings. Create an adaptation suited to an ice world, toxic swamp, volcanic wasteland or something that exists entirely in your imagination.
Two painters can begin with exactly the same bioform and create two completely different creatures.
That's part of what makes this hobby extraordinary.
THE ACADEMY WILL KEEP EVOLVING
As new creatures enter the VoidHive Forge Catalogue, the Paint Academy will grow alongside them with new model guides, techniques, experiments and alternative schemes.
And as the VoidHive community grows, I'd eventually like this to become somewhere we can also showcase what other painters have created — because some of the most interesting evolutions of these creatures won't necessarily come from the Forge.
They'll come from you.
THERE IS NO SINGLE CORRECT WAY TO PAINT THE HIVE.
EVOLUTION DEMANDS VARIATION.
MODEL GUIDES — THE VEILED HUNT
Official studio paint guides for each member of the Veiled Hunt. Each guide covers the full painting process from primer to finished piece, including colour palette, paint zones, step-by-step process, technique focus and base recipe.
LONGFANG — THE DISTANT HUNTER
VIEW CODEX ENTRY → VIEW IN CATALOGUE →
GHOSTCLAW — THE SILENT STALKER
VIEW CODEX ENTRY → VIEW IN CATALOGUE →
SHADEFANG — THE SHADOW STALKER
VIEW CODEX ENTRY → VIEW IN CATALOGUE →
DREADMAW — THE RELENTLESS DEVOURER
VIEW CODEX ENTRY → VIEW IN CATALOGUE →
EXPLORE THE ACADEMY
LATEST GUIDESThe most recently published paint guides and tutorials. VIEW → |
MODEL GUIDESDedicated studio schemes for specific VoidHive Forge releases. VIEW → |
TECHNIQUES & TUTORIALSChitin, flesh, glowing effects, weathering and more. VIEW → |
COLOUR SCHEMESOfficial palettes and inspiration for evolving your own Hive. VIEW → |
VIEW CODEX ENTRY → VIEW IN CATALOGUE →
VOIDHIVE FORGE PAINT ACADEMY
SPECIMEN 002 — DREADMAW — HEAVY ASSAULT ORGANISM
DREADMAW — HEAVY ASSAULT ORGANISM
BRING THE SIEGE BEAST TO LIFE
Dreadmaw's enormous surface area makes it an excellent model for experimenting with contrast between armoured plates, exposed flesh, bone, claws and organic weaponry.
The official VoidHive Forge scheme uses a restrained biological palette, allowing the different materials and textures of the creature to remain visually distinct while maintaining the grimdark aesthetic of the Forge.
But this is a starting point, not a rule.
Paint the Hive your way.
THE VOIDHIVE FORGE PALETTE
ARMOUR
Dark charcoal → grey → bone highlights
FLESH
Deep purple → muted violet → pale flesh highlights
BONE & CLAWS
Dark brown → bone → ivory
ORGANIC DETAILS
Deep purple → pink/violet → selective highlight
BIO-GLOW
Dark green → vibrant green → tiny white highlight
BASE
Black/charcoal → grey drybrush → selective green biological effects
PAINTING PROCESS
01 — PRIME
Begin with a black primer.
Follow with a light grey zenithal pass to establish the major light direction and immediately reveal the extraordinary surface detail of the model.
02 — BLOCK IN THE MATERIALS
Keep the first pass simple.
Separate:
Armour → Flesh → Bone → Weapons → Organic Details
Don't worry about perfect coverage at this stage. Establishing the colour separation is more important.
03 — BUILD THE SHADOWS
Use controlled washes or speedpaint-style colours to push the deepest recesses.
Allow the shadows to remain dark beneath the armour and between the creature's major anatomical structures.
This is where Dreadmaw begins to gain its weight.
04 — REBUILD THE HIGHLIGHTS
Return to the raised surfaces with progressively lighter versions of your base colours.
Concentrate the strongest highlights on:
- Armour edges
- Claw tips
- Facial structures
- Major muscles
- Raised anatomical ridges
05 — BONE & CLAWS
Build the claws and bone structures from dark brown through bone to a final ivory highlight.
Keep the darkest tones toward the base of each claw.
This gives the enormous weapons a sense of depth rather than making them appear flat.
06 — BIOLOGICAL DETAILS
Pick out selected organic structures with purple and violet tones.
Don't highlight everything equally.
A few carefully chosen areas of stronger colour will make the creature's anatomy much more interesting.
07 — BIO-GLOW
Apply your green glow to the creature's eyes, vents and selected biological details.
Start dark.
Build toward vibrant green.
Finish with tiny points of near-white at the brightest locations.
Less is more.
08 — THE BASE
Keep the base darker than the creature.
Use charcoal and grey tones for broken ground, stone and debris, then introduce small areas of green biological growth.
This keeps the attention firmly on Dreadmaw.
VOIDHIVE FORGE FINISHING
For a display piece, consider adding:
Gloss: eyes, slime and wet organic areas.
Matte: armour and bone.
Satin: exposed flesh.
That variation in finish can make the model look dramatically more sophisticated without adding another layer of paint.
THE SPEEDPAINT ROUTE
Want to get Dreadmaw finished quickly?
Use the same basic sequence:
Prime → Block Colours → Wash → Drybrush → Details → Bio-Glow → Base → Varnish
With the amount of texture on Dreadmaw, a controlled speedpaint approach can produce a surprisingly strong result in a fraction of the time required for a full display paint job.
MAXIMUM IMPACT. MINIMUM TIME.
PAINT ACADEMY NOTE
Dreadmaw is deliberately designed to reward experimentation.
Try a colder flesh tone.
Change the armour colour.
Introduce toxic yellow instead of green.
Give the creature battle damage.
Create an entirely different evolutionary strain.
There is no single correct way to paint the Hive.
EVOLUTION DEMANDS VARIATION.
