Codex: Fighting Tigers of Veda (pg 10)
Pages
1 <> 2 <> 3 <> 4 <> 5 <> 6 <> 7 <> 8 <> 9 <> 10 <> 11 <> 12 <> 13 <> 14 <> 15 <> 16 <> 17 <> 18 <> 19

Painting Fighting Tigers: Introduction 
Painting Fighting Tigers of Veda is a challenge not lightly undertaken, and definitely not for those players who want to slap on a quick coat of paint and start gaming right away. Properly painting Fighting Tigers tests one’s skill, artistic sense, and above all, patience. No, I am not kidding: Fighting Tigers are not for beginners. It has taken me literally YEARS to paint my 10,000+ point army (of course, the distractions of a wife, two kids, and a full-time job might have something to do with that).

The very first thing one has to learn in painting Fighting Tigers is how to properly paint a tiger stripe.  “Simple,” you say? Not really. Take a long, careful look at the photo below of a real tiger, and you’ll see that tiger stripes are not “simple.”

Stripes run vertically across the back and down the sides of the animal and have varying thickness and spacing, with a slight curve to them as they taper off to a fine point. Stripes may split in two and even rejoin. The tiger can have a few very small stripes that resemble spots, but these are usually found around its face. 

It’s important—especially when you’re painting Tigers of Kali—not to paint zebra stripes. While on a superficial level they might seem similar, tiger stripes and zebra stripes are very different:
 
 

Characteristic
Length	varies	usually long and even
Width	varies from thin to thick	thin; usually the same width
Spacing	varies	very close together
Curve	slight curve	usually straight
Number on Animal	varies	lots

You’ll find that the more stripes you can paint on your Fighting Tigers, the better they’ll look. Of course, it’s possible to go overboard, but in general, the more the better. Give yourself plenty of time and be prepared to make and correct mistakes: as you’ll find, it’s no simple task to slap on a few stripes and have a terrific looking figure.

Once you’ve studied tiger stripes and practiced for a bit, you’re almost ready to start painting the basic Fighting Tiger Space Marine. As you'll see, Fighting Tigers use four different schemes, all variations of the same pattern. You'll be restricting your color palette to the following:
 

Armor	Stripes	Weapons
Fiery Orange	Chaos Black	Boltgun Metal
Bubonic Brown	Bestial Brown	Bwarf Bronze
Skull White		Chaos Black
Chaos Black
Bestial Brown

"They're supposed to look like tigers," I hear you say, "so why aren't they just orange and black?" Well, that's a long story...
 

Next page (pg 11): Tips on Painting Fighting Tigers  Previous page (pg 9): Fighting Tiger Heavy Support

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 

Top