Codex: Fighting Tigers of Veda (pg 11)
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Tips on Painting Fighting Tigers 
Before you launch into painting some Fighting Tigers, take a minute to read through these tips. You'll find helpful suggestions that will save you time and make your figures look their best. After reading this page, you can go to the original or to the simplified  painting guides and get to work.

Prepare your figures like you would other Space Marines, trimming them carefully from the sprues, cutting off mold lines, etc. If you have older Space Marine figures, from the "Rogue Trader" or Second or Third Edition eras, it's perfectly acceptable to use them. The Fighting Tigers have been around for thousands of years, so it's very in character for their squads to have a mix of old and new armor styles.

Prime them with white paint: Fighting Tigers should look colorful, not dull. After you prime them and paint the armor pieces in their base colors, the hard part will be painting the stripes on the figures: here are some tips.

Helmets
Paint stripes vertically (running up and down the helmet) and paint eye lenses to match the stripes. For variety, you can paint eye lenses for Tigers of Kali in blue (Mahaduyana) or red (Ghuyarashtra) to make them more reminiscent of real “white” tigers. For Sternguard or Vanguard veterans, you can paint eye lenses in green (Mahaduyana) or red (Ghuyarashtra) to differentiate them from regular troops.

Shoulder Plates and Greaves
For shoulder plates, paint stripes horizontally (running from side to side across the plate). Because they’re relatively large, shoulder plates are the easiest place to paint stripes. Don’t just paint stripes in the middle of the plates; have stripes running off the edges as well. If you have old “Rogue Trader” Marine figures with the studs on the left shoulder plates, paint the plate Fiery Orange, Skull White or Bubonic Brown as appropriate, then paint on the studs with Chaos Black or Bestial Brown, as appropriate for the Marine’s jatis.

IMPORTANT! Fighting Tigers don't use company or squad markings like other Codex Astartes Space Marines. Instead, they use colors (for instance, Tigers of Agni are distinguished by black or brown left shoulder plates). See the Fighting Tiger Painting Guide for details. Don't try to put numbers or company/squad markings over the shoulder stripes or it won't look good.

For greaves (shinpads), paint stripes horizontally (running from side to side) and, whenever possible, have them wrap around from the back and almost meet at the front.

Backpacks
This will be the hardest part. Space Marine backpacks are not sculpted for elaborate designs. Many Marine Chapters have the top part of the backpack one color (Ultramarine Blue, Blood Red, etc.) and then the bottom parts Boltgun Metal.

Paint Fighting Tiger backpacks as one color (matching the helmet, shoulder plates, and greaves) and then CAREFULLY paint horizontal stripes coming from the outer edges of the backpack and meeting in the middle. You will find painting stripes over the textured surface of a backpack will take time and practice, so don’t rush. As always, use just a little paint on the brush or it will run all over the backpack and make a real mess.

Don't feel like you have to paint stripes on the backpack. You can just leave them the base color for the armor (Chaos Black or Bestial Brown). No one will blame you if you take the easy way out.

Weapons
Judiciously use Chaos Black and Boltgun Metal for Mahaduyanan Tigers; you will have to find a balance between using too much Chaos Black (which will make the figure look too dark) and too much Boltgun Metal (which can clash with the Fiery Orange). Use Chaos Black and Dwarf Bronze for Ghuyarashtran Tigers.

Highlighting
This technique is used to liven up figures that are mostly all one color; because Fighting Tiger color schemes are so complicated, you can skip this stage. For black armor, I usually drybrush on some Codex Grey and call it a day.

Varnishing
If you varnish or seal your Fighting Tigers to protect against paint chipping, use a glossy coat, not a dull one. Tigers should be bright and colorful. 
 

Next page (pg 12): Fighting Tiger Painting Guide (Original) Previous page (pg 10): Painting Fighting Tigers: Introduction

Related Pages
Painting Fighting Tigers: Introduction
Tips on Painting Fighting Tigers 
Fighting Tiger Painting Guide (Original)
Fighting Tiger Painting Guide (Simplified)
Painting Fighting Tiger Characters
Painting Fighting Tiger Vehicles

Fighting Tiger Gallery
Codex Main Page and Table of Contents
 

Last updated December 2008
Codex: Fighting Tiger logo (GW style) by Jason Foley 

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