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Hi guys, I have been painting wh40k stuff for about two months and settled on doing a Eldar army but I have fiddled with different paint jobs and could not seem to find one that I truly liked I guess... So in a state of despair I found this gem while browsing Cool Mini or not.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/239771?browseid=7569516

YES!! That is the one for sure! But I have tried to figure out how this was done and it turns out either too darn dark or just terrible looking, I cant quite to seem to get it right at all.

Here are the different things I have tried

1. Primed grey > Airbrushed Macragge Blue > Did a few washes with Badab Black to try to get the dark areas just right but the washes did not dry the same way each time so it looked terrible > Stripped

2. Primed grey > Painted a base coat of Macragge blue + Chaos Black 1:1 > Highlighted with Macragge Blue > Second Highlight with Ultramarines Blue > Extreme Highlight with Skull White, dark as can be so... > Stripped

3. Primed grey > Base coated with Chaos Black > Using Useless Wizards guide on painting a glazed highlight I did Ultramarines Blue > Then increased the brightness by adding Lothern Blue to the mix > Still too darn dark > Stripped

I cannot figure out how this guy managed to make this model so dark but at the same time so bright... Any suggestions or guides on how to tackle this beautiful scheme would be GREATLY appreciated.

Understanding light sources and color theory, and non metallic metal theory will help. Also either wet blending or feathering. And a tremendous amount of practice. that mini probably took between 12-20 hours to paint, perhaps more. building an army with minis painted at the standard is pretty unrealistic. Id say if you like the colors, paraphrase the steps so you can get those colors faster and have a nice looking army in the scheme you like. Its the difference between army painting and display / competition painting. hope thats helpful, start with tuts online if you want to paint like that.
cheers
BB

That honestly looks airbrushed. Or yes, it took forever.

That is a bummer... Even I spent nearly 2-3 hours trying to get that effect each time and did so poorly so if that took a professional 8+ hours that would be days for me lol...

Although I would not mind having those skills some day so if anyone has a good place for me to start I would appreciate it.

I do watch Lester Bursley's youtube videos and UselessWizard's stuff but I would appreciate other resources that can help me educate myself on how on earth I can achieve those results. Then when I can get acceptable results I will focus on balancing speed with quality so I can get a playable army going. Thanks in advance!

Taldeer wrote:
That is a bummer... Even I spent nearly 2-3 hours trying to get that effect each time and did so poorly so if that took a professional 8+ hours that would be days for me lol...

Although I would not mind having those skills some day so if anyone has a good place for me to start I would appreciate it.

I do watch Lester Bursley's youtube videos and UselessWizard's stuff but I would appreciate other resources that can help me educate myself on how on earth I can achieve those results. Then when I can get acceptable results I will focus on balancing speed with quality so I can get a playable army going. Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately there's no magic bullet to become that good, it takes lots of repetition and devotion, and good tools. But don't get discouraged either.

To start with though, thin your paints and look into the wet palette technique. You'll never get good results heaping on paint straight out of the pot (although I find myself doing this all the time! ). Also, get some good brushes. You don't need to spend a fortune, but some good quality brushes will serve you well. And airbrushes are awesome tools.

Don't rely on washes. I think the best painters start with a mid tone, then blend it down to do shadows and up to do the highlights, all in very thin layers with paint the approximate consistency of milk. Some understanding of color theory is important to get the top quality paint jobs. There's colors you can mix to achieve more realistic, natural highlights rather than simply mixing in white into your red or blue. That was a hard habit for me to stop and I still find myself highlighting with white.

Other than that it's just going to take lots of practice and hard work, but it's not impossible to get that good and don't get discouraged if you're not pumping out Golden Demon winners inside of a year.

Thanks Cave Dweller, I actually already set up a wet palette and I actually have a bottle of a mix I made with some distilled water, flow aid and a pinch of drying retarder. (That Flow aid was a pain to find as the nearest hobby lobby did not carry it and the next closest was a Michaels that was like 30 minute drive away lmao)

But I have found some videos on NMM painting so I am going to study that and find a suitable test subject to attempt what I will hopefully learn... Oh I also have a airbrush but it is just a Badger Patriot 105 so it is not so good for anything besides priming or base coating, I have a Sotar 20/20 on my Christmas list I hope the wifey will be cramming under the tree for the 25th.

Try priming in grey or white and then painting some black in the dark areas only leaving white/grey towards the edges. Paint on your blue over the black and a bit into the white/grey areas. Go over everything in your secondary color thinned down to wash consistency. If you are going blue on blue, use a blue wash like Guilliman blue.

This is the method I used to make my alpha legion squad and the effect is similar to your example.

I'm by no means a great painter. I tend to shoot for the high end of table standard, but the advanced techniques elude me. The thing I have learned, especially since the new paint line is this. Never use washes out of your color range (nuln oil on blue or such) and when using your washes focus on the areas you WANT darker. The rest shouldn't matter because you will be painting you next shade over the rest. And after using shades, not washes mind you, I have decided not to use them. It takes all the luster out of my colors. I'll post a pic here for comparison. Left is without glaze. You see how the highlights are inperceptible on the right after the glaze? Also it is incredibly dull by comparison. I find the glaze has completely muted the colors, the right side model lacks any luster.
Also, I have begun using significantly more water in my paints almost 1:4 it allows you to "pull" the highlights. There are tons of great videos on youtube. Check out jawaballs, he is a great painter. Like rickfactor said. Repition is the only answer. Paint models, rinse repeat. Good luck!

Edit: After looking at that picture I noticed you can see the difference in the thickness of the paint. Waaaaay more water in the paint on the left model. It takes a few more coats but well worth it IMHO.
Also we could be of more help if you put up some pictures of your work.

Lol yea I guess I would be able to post some pics if I had not destroyed the evidence but I can try to get something up later tonight, if not for sure by tomorrow.

(I could post images of my earlier work from last month but those were before I realized that highlighting was necessary! Not too pretty lol...)

EDIT: How should I paint it? should I attempt a paint job like in the link or should I just paint whatever to see what needs improvement? I have always try a reddish dark scheme for eldar like along the lines of Angels Vermillion like here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDiaWCuUW04.... Now that I think of it if I were to change the red with blue I would get nearly the same results I am looking for. Also is it odd that I want to paint eldar in such dark colors instead of "I shall gain victory by blinding my opponent!" colors?

Edit #2: Also if I plan on doing snow bases should that effect what color I am going to go for with my eldar?

Just your most recent work would be great. Just to give us a baseline on your skills. The link you provided is professional level work, but it sounds like you aren't quite there yet, so there are tips and tricks for lower skill levels (I know because lower skill level describes myself). But I can still produce decent looking models by using techniques that suit my skill level. I'll post a few pics of my current stuff here.

Another pic

Nice I am loving the battle poses, especially the one where he is using the stone as cover! Ok got my spirits up, a model primed then based now lets see what a can produce in a hour or two.

Edit: Base coated not based yet lol, still hunting down woodland scenic snow flock...

GW makes a snow texture, I bought it but have yet to try it. I'm doing and urban theme on my tau but I may tackle an IG army next. What with the new dex due February. I figure they would look great in snow, all that armor covered in snow would look cool. And thank you for your compliment. With such large models I figured I could get some dramatic poses. The other tide is supposed to be looking over his shoulder at flyer coming in. I even made him a neck from green stuff. But back to you, let's see an update, pictures we wants them!

Ok it is still being worked on but here it is...



I first base coated maccrage blue then painted in the shadows with black in a 12:1 Ratio of water to paint then blended in the blue with ultramarines blue in a 10:1 ratio then added more water to the mix with lothar blue for closer to the edges... I think I nearly got it I just need to brighten the blue a smidge more then do skull white extreme highlights.

But I am having a hard time with the eyes, I based them with khorn red then tried to highlight them with blazing orange but I could not get the orange to dry non patchy so I mixed the orange into the red and that helped but its hard to tell if I even highlighted it at all. Any suggestions for painting the eyes? I read somewhere I can paint them yellow and then dab some red wash over them to get a gradient highlight but then the problem is painting the yellow.

Edit: I also need to touch up the pants where I got some blue on it...

Edit #2: Also I don't know about painting the gun black or grey, any suggestions on what to paint it?

*Sigh* The more I paint this the more I want to strip it and try something different... I hate to say it but my wife might be right in that I will not ever be happy with what I paint.
She has seen me strip this very same model at least 8 times now lol.

Maybe I should go for something unique but with eldar the only "unusual" color is browns and metallics...

It looks pretty good man. Dont be so tough on yourself. If you are trying to copy that OP picture youre just setting yourself up for frustration. That mini is the result of years of practice and study! You must learm the basics first then slowly youll add new techniques to your skill set. Try just painting models clean and neat at irst. In colors that you like. Thin your paints, get used to painting alot of coats for a smooth opaque coverage. With a great basecoat you can see alot more into the model. Just keep painting!

Thanks for the encouragement but I am looking at it and its not "bad" especially for someone of my level but I think it is because I have not found the paint scheme that I am in love with maybe... I am the guy that barely gets anywhere in Skyrim because I recreate my character 500 times because I didn't like it lmao (Same goes for ANY mmo type game).

But after looking around a bit I think I have found two paint schemes that I like that feels like its a bit different from the usual so now I have the task of choosing one now. (This will take me like ten days I am guessing )

http://www.paintingclinic.com/operations/guestarticles/banshees.htm

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/09/40k-masterclass-painting-banshee-purple.html

Note I am not expecting the same results that these two guys got but trying to imitate it must help to increase skill I am thinking.