How to Paint Aquamarine/Jade Stone
Hello hobby friends!
Welcome to another step-by-step painting tutorial from Ulverbite Miniatures. In this guide, I’ll show you how I painted the aquamarine/jade stone effect on my Dweghom Stoneforged from Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings.
This technique is all about building texture before adding colour. Instead of trying to paint every vein and variation by hand, I use a toothbrush and torn sponge to create a natural, irregular pattern, then bring everything together with transparent turquoise and blue glazes.
Paints Needed:
Primer: Citadel Chaos Black
Texture: AK Interactive Grimy Grey
Texture: AK Interactive Grey Green
Colour Glaze: Citadel Contrast Terradon Turquoise + Contrast Medium
Highlights: AK Interactive Pastel Blue
Final Glaze: Citadel Contrast Aethermatic Blue + Contrast Medium
Step-by-Step Process:
Prime the Miniature: Start with Citadel Chaos Black to create a solid dark foundation for the stone.
Add the First Texture: Water down AK Interactive Grimy Grey, load it onto an old toothbrush, and gently spray it onto the stone from the sides and above. Don’t worry about making the pattern uniform — the random speckling is exactly what we want.
Add the Second Texture: Repeat the same process using watered-down AK Interactive Grey Green. Layering the two colours creates more variation and starts giving the surface a natural stone-like appearance.
Build More Texture: Tear off a small piece of sponge and use it to lightly dab both grey tones onto the edges and flat areas. Keep the pattern irregular and avoid covering everything evenly. At this point, it should almost have a camouflage-like appearance.
Add the Turquoise Colour: Mix Citadel Contrast Terradon Turquoise and Contrast Medium in a 1:1 ratio and glaze it over the entire stone surface. The transparent glaze colours the stone while allowing all the texture underneath to remain visible.
Highlight the Edges: Use AK Interactive Pastel Blue to pick out the edges and most exposed areas. Keep these highlights controlled so they define the shape without overpowering the mottled texture underneath.
Final Glaze: Mix Citadel Contrast Aethermatic Blue and Contrast Medium in a 2:1 ratio and glaze it over the entire stone surface. This final layer helps unify the colours and gives the stone its distinctive aquamarine/jade appearance.
Conclusion:
And that’s it - your aquamarine/jade stone is done!
What I like most about this technique is that a lot of the texture is created naturally by the toothbrush and sponge. You don’t need to carefully paint every little variation - the irregular splatter and stippling do most of the work for you, while the transparent glazes bring everything together.
It’s also an easy technique to experiment with. Changing the colours underneath or using a different final glaze can give you completely different stone, crystal, or magical effects while following the same basic process.
If you try this technique, share your results with me on my Instagram page. I’d love to see how it works on your miniatures!
Grab this Conquest model from the Para Bellum eShop and use code ULVERBITE10 for 10% off. Using the code also helps support my work at no extra cost to you.
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