Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have recently started building an Alaitoc eldar army. After picking up some models I have started to think in detail about my color scheme. I have a box of dire avengers to get the hang of painting these models. I have a lot of experience with arts and crafts in general, but I am new to some of the colors offered by some of these expensive acrylic modeling paints.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat160002&rootCatGameStyle=

I have been using this site to get an idea of how the colors look, although from what I have seen the "paint chips" they have are a bit on the pastel side. The colors I have seen fresh in jars are really quite bright and vibrant. After they dry I suppose they would look like the "paint chips" posted.

For my Alaitoc paint scheme I am hoping to make a metallic blue, using=
Dark blue (probably regal blue) for all armor (including vehicles and wraithlord)
I plan to make my own color using some silver mixed with a tiny bit of gray; I'll mix this with my regal blue to make a metallic eldar blue. I plan on making a very special blue for my wraithlord and HQ in general, creating a slightly more abstract "universe" paint job; focus on practicing my dry-brushing techniques for it's application to get several layers of "multi-dimensional (faceted)" colors. Emphasis on "living plastics" in my showpieces.

Light blue Used as a highlight for infantry armor. I may even skip this entirely and just dry-brush a second coat of the Dark blue for a reverse highlight. This should work quite well as I will be basing the models with white, possibly gray...

Bleached bone for some of the trim and "joints" in the crevices of arms, legs, and armor plates. I will use this "trim" color very subtly, and in as many as 3 shades depending on the given model. I was thinking about mixing a bit of yellow into the bleached bone, then getting different tones of the color with a bit of gray.

Silver will be used for gun barrels combined with blue and bleached bone trim (separate most likely) for the stocks. Weapons (such as swords) will most likely be silver as well.

For my rangers and harlequins I'll use the "special" blue I made from the Wraithlord and HQ, add some green or possibly just darken it and blend a bit with some subtle highlights. I want to make "cameoline" that looks futuristic, possibly even using custom washes and varnish (extremely light layers used to separate the ink wash) to make chameleon colors (like used on cars). If anyone knows of another way to do this I would appreciate it. I don't want a shiny coat I'm trying to keep it very non-reflective while having a 3-d aspect to it.

My harlequins are pretty special to me so I'll wait to finish them until the end of the army. So they can maintain a bit of independence from the rest of the army in terms of "presence".

If anyone has any insights to any of this I would appreciate it.

No responses at all? Really?
Hmm. Second of my first posts like this, am I not posting properly?

Well I think it sounds good.

Maybe you didn't get a reply because people thought you basically had everything sorted and they did not need to help you out with anything.

Heh, wordy posts take more effort to read, so you might find that responses take a while

With regard to the metallic blue issue, I understand that Tamiya make a metallic blue acrylic that you might want to look up.

Recently on these boards there was also a test of the effects of the different GW washes on a metallic base coat. I think the combination of a couple of layers of the Asuryan Blue wash over a Mithril Silver base gave a good quality blue metallic look.

In my experience the GW paints do dull down a bit after drying, but the washes can be used to replace surface effects.

Ty for your responses. I do remember seeing a test where washes were used to show the effects on paints. I'm not sure if that is what you are talking about. I will look into the Tamiya paint line, and do a bit of testing. Perhaps a blue wash for my blue/silver, and a brown wash for my bleached-bone yellow?

Would a gray base-coat be nonsensical? Could it make the blue a bit more metallic looking? I was planning on a white but I think it may mess with the metal-blue.

In my experience metallic acrylics cover the base coat really well. I think what will happen is that regardless of base coat the metallic will look metallic. Its the wash that will be your best friend here.

I've posted some sample pics of my paint scheme in my pics folder. I'm very happy with the metallic blue with the wash. I used vallejo gunmetal blue. The pictures really don't pick up the cool tones, but they are pretty accurate. I am not entirely happy with the yellow. Perhaps I should skip this color? I'd prefer keeping a different color for the calf, fore-arms, face (not helmets), and parts of the gun.

very nice. love the metallic look. enjoy painting all those gems!

If you can get a hold of the first edition Game of War, Look up the Altoic in the Army choice. The old edition allows you to zoom in to be able to look at a figure full page. The second edition allows a less zoom capability. The color schemes on the graphics are outstanding. I updated mine with the winter campaign and it automatically reset my game to the second edition and I lost that big zoom capability.

The old Craftworld book had some amazing Alaitoc models in the mid section. The camo Cloaks were fantastic. Let me see if I can dig up a picture of the page.

The metallic blue looks spot on! It seems you got away from your bleached bone with a bit of yellow for the legs and armor plates you wanted to do yellow(ish) and went with a much brighter method. To me the yellow is a little too loud compared to the subtle cool-metallic you have going on the armor. I still think that a yellowish/bone color with some sort of darker tinted wash to shade it might go well with your metallic blue scheme.

I also really like the gem color choice on the armor. Looking forward to see what else you do next!

I also think the yellow would be better replaced with a bone color. Other than that, the model looks fantastic. I'm not really a fan of the metallic armor for Alaitoc, as I really like the standard blue, but that's more of an aesthetic choice that says nothing about the model above.

Kudos!