Painting Veins the Easy Way

Crackle medium . . . what all can it be used for?  .

Greetings fellow wargamers!  Caleb with White Metal Games here!  And today I have a quick tip for you!


Over the holidays GW Released their Agrellan Earth technical paint, a crackle medium paint.  Mediums like Crackle, Frost, Pearlized, etc don't have a major place in our hobby and I've never entirely been sure why.  My theory is that until the major paint vendors like Privateer Press, GW, Reaper, Vallejo, and others release their own version of these mediums, most of the consumers remain in the dark about them.

Well personally, I don't have time to wait around for their okay to proceed.  I like to test out things for myself.  Crackle Medium is very cheap and easy to obtain.  I picked up a bottle at Walmart for $5 bucks!

I've been trying to think of uses for Crackle Medium for a while now, and suddenly the other day I got a burst of insight.  Veins!  Veins on wings (and anywhere else you want veins) no longer have to be a pain.  Now, I'm not saying I am the only person that's ever had this idea, but a quick Google search didn't reveal a lot of findings, so I felt like a post dedicated to the technique could be valuable.

Okay, so here's how it works:  Firstly, grab a wing.  I'm using an old pewter Gargoyle wing below from the Tyranid range, however any leather wing would do.  Prime the wing, preferably in a light color like white or grey.  I'm using Vallejo light grey primer below.

 Next, grab your crackle medium, a color for the veins (I'm using VMA Scarlet Red), and a color to go over the veins for contrast.  Since this is a training tutorial, I went with a simple flesh color.  This is actually a sample paint from reaper, but it's fleshy enough for my purposes.

 Once your primer is dry, apply red.  I was generous here and applied a nice, even coat using an airbrush.

Author's Note:  I realize veins can be a variety of colors, including blue, purple (for old veins), etc.  However, the same technique can in theory be applied to any underlying color.  And a clever painter might even blend together a few underlying colors, like blue and red to create some dark purple patches, so that the final effect is more rich and interesting.  

 After it dries, apply a generous amount of crackle medium to anywhere you want veins.  I did it in the inner part of the wings, the leathery membrane.  It goes on clear, so you'll just have to trust me that this happened.

Now, let that dry.  For the final stage, thin your flesh paint down a little bit.  What you want is a nice, even top coat, not so thick you can't shift it around on the model.  If applied correctly, then the crackle medium will start to do it's job in mere moments!  So hold your breath and wait for the magic to happen!

 And that's it!  Simple, yet effective.  What?!  I said this was a tip, not a book report.  Honestly I could have made this a three word article:  Crackle for Veins.

Even though this tutorial is brief, we could encourage readers to try crackle medium to achieve other fun effects.  Try some of these!

Wood Grain:  Black base coat with Brown Overcoat




Marble:  Black base coat with off white/bone white top coat





Lightning:  White or pale blue base coat with darker blue top coat

To see more of what's going on at White Metal Games, like this interesting Ork Ghost Ark (wtf?) below, be sure to check out our facebook page for all the most recent happenings!  And give us a like if you, well, like what you see.

And until then, PUT YOUR MINIS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!

If you found this tutorial useful, be sure to check out more of our work on our homepage, or at the very least, like us on facebook!   We also have a new podcast called Warcouncil where we share other cool hobby tips!  And you can see more tips through our Youtube channel!  

Caleb, White Metal Games