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Hi all, I've recently started to paint again and I seem to be really struggling to paint cloth such as cloaks. I've started painting a Shade and I'm not happy with the result so far and have no idea what to do next. The photo I've attached shows the same model twice, but the second image is with the flash on - it highlights one of the problems I'm having (the rough texture). The next problem is I have no idea what to do next - on previous attempts I've drybrushed a lighter colour but it looks pretty bad and dusty. I've also tried layering on dark purples but it never works out

So far I have done the following;

Primed in black
Coated in Vallejo Gunmetal Grey (very dark grey, not metallic)
Washed with purple ink from the 90s Citadel Expert Paint Set
Recesses washed with Nuln Oil
Looked at it and felt sad

I've got three questions here

1) I might not have left enough time between steps for the paint/ink to dry, would that explain the rough 'sticky looking' texture?
2) Instead of using grey then purple ink, would it be better to mix chaos black and druchii violet as the base colour?
3) What would the next step be? I'd like the cloak to be black with subtle purple highlights.

Thanks in advance!

It is very hard to achieve a nice purple tone using ink over a very dark color.
Inks are highly transparent and that means that although they can cover an area the color beneath them will pop right through. You can easily use this to your advantage since a high contrast area, lets say a black cloak that is heavily drybrushed with white or a very light grey and then is covered with an ink will cause the ink to produce a nice effect. It will be darker in the recesses (almost black) and brighter and closer to its original color over the brighter surfaces.
Needless to say the ink from the 90's isn't the most suitable one for this technique. A GW purple shade (druchii purple) or a vallejo one will help you a great deal with what you are trying to do.

Now to your questions:
1) Vallejo Gunmetal Grey is a metallic color... It leaves a rougher finish. Also GW inks from the 90's take much longer to dry (they are kinda sticky) so this can explain the rough texture.
2) When you want to make a color darker you don't actually have to use black to achieve that. Blacks takes the color out of everything. Using the complementary color will darken your paint without making it less vibrant.
Use this site to find complementary colors, which in case of purple is... yellow.. So yellow will darken your purple and applying it over black will cause it to leave a very faint purple tone. http://colorschemedesigner.com/
3) Prime black, heavily drybrush grey (NOT gunmetal grey), drybrush white and wash with druchii violet. Otherwise you have to start highlighting in order to bring the purple out.

Hope I helped and if you have more questions just ask .

Thank you thank you thank you! I bought Gunmetal Grey hoping for paint similar to my old Boltgun Metal and was very disappointed, I didn't even realise it was metallic.

Looks like I'll be buying more paint then! I need a grey (unless it's fine to just mix black/white) and I'll get a purple wash and some others as well. I only have Reikland Fleshshade and Nuln Oil for washes. I also don't have any greens at all, though so far that hasn't been a problem

Mixing black and white is the safest way to make grey . Druchii purple shade is all you need. Drybrushing with grey and then white is very easy and don't worry getting over the other details. Drybrush with white only on the edges of the robe and try to keep it minimal. Remember to have a completely dry brush (even a small amount of moisture can ruin the effect), get most of the paint off on paper towel and always go against the details. You might need to apply more than one coat of druchii purple in order to get the purple tone you want.

Post a pic when you are done .

Cheers, will do! I'm about to order the Druchii Violet, if you don't mind me asking could you tell me if I'm missing any other 'essential' paints for a Dark Elf army? I'm guessing it's the washes where the biggest gaps are, I'm hoping I can mix paints to achieve the missing layers. I have the following;

Skin tones
Bugman's Glow base
Reikland Fleshshade wash
Cadian Fleshtone layer
Kislev Flesh layer

Metals
Balthasar Gold base
Auric Armour Gold layer
Vallejo Gunmetal layer
Mithril Silver layer (but it's so old it's more like the new drybrush paints!)
Golden Griffon dry
Nuln Oil wash

Clothing colours
Xereus Purple layer
Genestealer Purple layer
Calgar Blue layer
Lothern Blue layer
Evil Sunz Scarlet layer
Flash Gitz Yellow layer

Other bits
Chaos Black
Ceramite White
Skrag Brown
Red, Yellow, Brown Expert inks from the 90s

Do you have any reference pics of the color scheme you are trying to achieve?

I have never painted dark elfs so a picture will help me suggest colors.

I've got around twenty Darkshards and Bleakswords painted up in this blue/gold colourscheme. I'm not happy with the shield textures (gunmetal grey strikes again!) and whilst the armour is in my eyes 'ok' the metal of the swords looks pretty bad to me. I don't mind sticking to the dark blue/gold for core units but I'd like to go down a purple route with everything else (hence my attempts at the purple cloak on the Shade!). Thanks for your feedback so far btw!

You are doing really well till now . If you are to go the purple way then you can use some more colors like a bright green for hair and a pink for edge highlighting.

Vallejo model color metallics have thicker pigments than the old GW colors (boltgun metal was an amazing metallic color with superfine pigment). You can try some vallejo air color metallics if you are looking for nice shiny metallic paints.
In order to achieve better results with your gunmetal grey you have to thin your paint more. This color is quite thick out of the bottle and the 90's ink isn't helping at all.
What process you are using to paint the blade? There are many ways to achieve nice effects but from what I understand you would like the blades a bit darker. I would suggest also getting a blood for the blood god color since dark elf are full blood splatter .

Cheers for the tips, I really need to start watering down my paints. I'm using it straight from the bottle/pot at the moment...

The blades were just painted mithril silver over a black undercoat than splashed with nuln oil. Really ugly - they look like silver styrofoam toys :(

I'll give the air color metallics a try and stop using the inks. Using green for some hair is a good plan too, I really don't like my brunette dark elf Blood for the blood god will definitely be on the shopping list at the same time as I get some witch elves!

Thanks for the feedback, I'm really enjoying painting again after so long!

Ok for your swords you can pick the following colors.

Vallejo model air (VMA) 71.073 MM GUN METAL. It is a really dark metallic color that you can use as a first layer on your black prime.
VMA 71.063 SILVER. It is a bright metallic with very fine pigments. You can use it to define the edges or drybrush the blade after applying the previous color.
Vallejo game color (VGC) 72.094 Black Ink. Usable to armor and blades.
VGC 72.091 Sepia Ink. Usable to face and gravel bases.

Now mixing the above two inks 1:1 creates a great weathering color for metals.

Below is a pic of Coteaz wip. If you notice the hammer is painted with the the above colors and weathered with the mixed inks. It's not anything special but it looks good for tabletop.

Glad you are in the mood to paint mate and happy I could help you .

Thanks for the tips, the metal in your photo looks really good. I've ordered some more paint (purple ink and metallics), I'll see what I can do with the Shade I initially posted

Your advice was very useful, took a while for me to test it out as I've been ill and only really started painting again this week. My first attempt at a Shade is much better than my previous ones, the back of the cloak turned out a hundred times better than before using your technique of drybrushin with greys then glazing with druchii wash



I need to finish the gloves, but after that it's going to be as good as I can get it for the time being. I still have so much to learn, looking at the face I can see I'm using the paint too thickly and not blending properly, plus I haven't got the hang of highlighting the right areas of the face.

Top of the kit wishlist is now a decent desk lamp (preferably with a magnifying glass and clamps) - until then I'm going to blame everything on poor lighting. Especially my inability to realise Vallejo Gun Metal is actually metallic paint!