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Welcome to my painting blog, The Ramblings of and Eldar Painter (Get it?!)

I decided to start this after some great advice and feedback from inevitable_faith who was helping me out on the colour scheme for my Eldar army and advised I start a blog to chronicle the progress as well as a base to gain comments, advice and tips from the amazing DakkaDakka community.

So a little bit of background about where I've come from. Table top gaming all started way back in the 90s with Hero Quest, Space Crusade and Space hulk, not only did I love playing the games but it was here where I started dabbling with painting (at a very very basic level). As a teenager I started collecting Warhammer Fantasy, building up a high elf army, this was when I caught the painting bug and although I never completed the army I loved painting the individual models. From Fantasy I then moved on to Epic 40k and blood bowl before stopping the hobby in 1998 when I left home for university. Below you can see my three favourite models that I painted during my teens.







So from 1998 17 years passed. Life happened. Marriage and two children later and the hobby grabbed me once more. One of my very best friends and gaming buddies from way back brought over a dark vengeance box. As soon as I opened the box and saw the new standard of plastic models I was hooked once more, this time to the world of 40k. After learning the rules and having a few games with my friend I knew that at the ripe old age of 35 I was back in the hobby.

To me starting 40k later in life is rather rewarding. I only meet up with my friend 5 or 6 times a year, when we do meet up its normally for a full weekend and consists of some intense gaming (it was Magic the Gathering and MMORPG before hand) and not much sleep. This is good for me as it means we don't get bored or over saturated playing the game too much and allows us time in between to plan organise and most importantly of all paint our armies. Also with children, work, sport and social things going on, time to hobby is very limited, but I have found that painting in the evening is a good way to unwind and a lot more constructive than watching television!

After much deliberation and research (watching battle reports etc) I decided to continue my elven routes and start an Eldar army. Going from a base of 1000 points, to 1500 and finally to where we are now at 1850 points. Must admit Eldar are awesome, love the models, the play style and the fact they are so varied. So this blog is going to follow the painting of the full army. As you can see from the text below it all started with me deliberating on what colour scheme to use, hopefully these pages will help others looking to start out and draw on the experiences and friendliness of the amazing community spread out all over the world.

Thanks for reading and happy hobbying!


This was how it all started… a question posted on the Painting and Modelling forums...

Have decided to paint my army in the Iybraesil colour scheme and need a little help with the steps.

So far I have undercoated in Chaos Black (wanted grey but didn't have a spray) and base coated in Sotek Green. Where do you think I should go from here? Was thinking if the following

Shade: Nuln Oil
Top coat: Sotek Green
Edge Highlight 1: Temple Guard Blue
Edge Highlight 2: Lothern Blue

Or something a little lighter…

Shade: Coelia Greenshade or Drakenhof Nightshade
Top coat: 1:1 sotek green & Temple Guard Blue
Edge Highlight 1: Temple Guard Blue
Edge Highlight 2: Lothern Blue

Also for the Wraithbone weapons I'm looking at the following.

Basecoat: Karak Stone
Shade: Seraphim Sepia
Top Coat: Ushabti Bone
Highlight 1: Screaming Skull
Highlight 2: Ceramite White

Any Advise at all? Thanks in advance!

I prefer the idea of the second, lighter paint scheme. My personal feelings on my tabletop models is it's better to err on the side of brightness so that they pop out nice on the table and when lighting in your gaming room is less than spectacular it makes darks models just drown in shadows and show no details. Just my opinion.

I'll pipe up about the wraithbone bit. I do a lot of wraithbone bits for my Eldar (all the weapons and a bunch of details everywhere) and my technique is this:

1. Base Coat Rakarth Flesh

2. Layer up Ushabti Bone (usually takes two layers, watered down for smoothness)

3. Wash of Seraphim sepia over the whole thing (go crazy here, don't let it pool in places too thick much make sure you get good coverage and darken the tone)

4. Drybrush on Ushabti bone (I do this because I'm tyring for a less clean look, drybrushing helps to "randomize" the application of the paint a bit. On flat areas it allows the darkened sepia areas to shine through and on the edges it gives me that edge highlight. Go very conservative with this application over the whole piece, inspect then apply more until you're satisfied with how much you've brightened it up. Try not to drybrush inside crevices too much, leave those the darkened sepia tone.)

5. Drybrush white scar (do this around all the raised hard edges and I like to give the odd faded streak on a flat area. Once again be very conservative with how heavy you drybrush this. Inspect after you do a pass and go again if you want it to be brighter still)

6. Seraphim Sepia wash in crevices (Do a very light sepia wash using a smaller brush but only target the crevices that got lightened up by your drybrushing. Go very light with this so as not to darken the areas too much, I also like to do a ring of this around soul gems and other protrusions)

If you want to see what my wraithbone looks like (that should be a pickup line...) you can click the link in my sig and it'll take you to my project log here on Dakka. On page one you can see some good examples of it used for the rifles on my rangers, page two has some vehicle weapons and the undercarriage of my vypers (I'm proud of those lol) and page four has my armies on parade entry and a wraithseer I'm working on so you can see it on a larger model and how it looks on the tabletop. I apologize in advance I don't take good photos, it's something I really need to work on :(

Anyways I hope this helps and I look forward to seeing your work!

Thanks inevitable faith... Your detailed response is much appreciated.

Yeah I was thinking the second, 'brighter', colour scheme. Wanted the eldar to stand out and shine. Guess you have to do some tester models but wanted to get people opinion on whether I'm going about it the right way. Not sure what ink to use either.

Your models look fantastic, indeed way better thank what I could hope for and I love your wraithbone. Was thinking of a cleaner look to be honest but I will experiment with your method and see what it's like in the flesh.

Anyone else with any other opinions before I get down to some experimentation?

If you want a cleaner look you can replace step 4 with layering on ushabti bone instead of drybrushing it and just being careful to leave the wash in the recesses and around the details.

I think with the brighter scheme Coelia Greenshade should give you a very nice look. I'd worry that drakenhof would be too dark.

And thank you very much for your compliment, I'm glad you like my models. Much of how I got them painted was from having help and advice from other Dakka members. I'm happy that I could help out and continue the tradition.

Well I had a quick experiment and please excuse the rush job!

Here the left one has a sotek green top layer
The middle has inly the shade
The right has a 1:1 sotek and temple guard mix


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Then I thought about adding the 1:1 mix as a second layer to the sotek green one. Not sure if it's worth the time to do this or just stick to the 1:1 mix top later before moving on toes he highlights.

Thoughts?

Ps sorry about the terrible photos
Pps I'm new at this so please excuse the quality of the painting

GW's Celestial Vindicators tutorial looks like it could work for Iybraesil.

Liking the guy on the right the most. I'd say stick to that scheme and just give him some edge highlighting and you're golden. The video Ghaz linked is actually pretty appropriate for your colour scheme too, that's a good find there Ghaz.

Very nice work on the test models, I think you're on the right track.

Thanks ghaz... Great find indeed! Good to see how they do it, although how they get things so neat I don't know! Plus they used nuln oil... Much difference to my green?

Inevitable faith do you think its worth looking at it slightly differently and instead of the shade build up the layers from the base coat. As in...

Base coat: sotek green
Layer 1: 1:1 sotek green & temple guard blue
Layer 2: temple guard blue
Wash: thinned down greenshade
Edge: lothern blue

Now I have never used a wash but would this achieve better results?? Take longer??

Xeones7 wrote:
Thanks ghaz... Great find indeed! Good to see how they do it, although how they get things so neat I don't know! Plus they used nuln oil... Much difference to my green?

Inevitable faith do you think its worth looking at it slightly differently and instead of the shade build up the layers from the base coat. As in...

Base coat: sotek green
Layer 1: 1:1 sotek green & temple guard blue
Layer 2: temple guard blue
Wash: thinned down greenshade
Edge: lothern blue

Now I have never used a wash but would this achieve better results?? Take longer??

I'm a huge fan of washes and what you suggest here is in a nutshell what I do for my Eldar infantry. The only difference is after the wash I edge highlight with my brightest layer I had before going to one shade lighter for the final edge highlight. So after the wash you'd edge highlight with temple guard blue then one very thin edge highlight (primarily by the top areas where lots of light would hit) with lothern blue. Just my personal method but what you suggest would work well too, you'd just have a more sudden contrast between your layers and edge highlight. This method would take a bit longer but not really anything to worry about. If you're doing up a squad of guys at once it'll be good because your biggest wait is for the drying time on the wash (I like to wait at least 20 minutes) so while one guys wash is drying you can work on another guy (unless you're assembly lining them in which case they'd all get washed at the same time).

Here is the finished model that I did a couple of days ago...





This was done with the following method

1. Black undercoat
2. Sotek green basecoat
3. Coielia Greenshade shading
4. Sotek green layer
5. 1:2 sotek green : temple guard blue layer
6. Temple guard blue edge highlight
7. Lothern blue edge highlight

Now I'm very please with the results even though it took some time (I'm slow) I'm sure I'll quicken up. What would adding a wash do to the model? What's the technique for thinning/applying it to the model? What was should I use (I have all the citadel paints)?

Thoughts on the colour scheme or the painting on the model much appreciated and thanks inevitable faith for your comments and suggestions, you've been really helpful!

When I talk of washes I'm referring to the shade range that GW carries, Coielia Greenshade is one of them. Depending on your desired effect you can apply them in different ways. For something like this with so many recesses to work with you'd just load it up on your brush (I don't even thin it) and paint is across the whole model making sure to push it into the recesses and brushing it away from anywhere you don't want it to pool. Afterwards you just build back up some layers to brighten your model back up to what you want. Looking at what you did for this model it seems you did exactly that. If you wanted as a final step you could mix some lothern blue with a bit of white to brighten it up and do one last edge highlight at top points that will really pop but that's really going the extra mile and I wouldn't do that for linesmen, only HQ's or characters would get that treatment to make them stand out.

This model is fantastic btw, I absolutely love it, the colour is nice, the transitions are smooth, I don't see any wonky brush work (clean edge highlights). The white is clean and smooth and that gem is gorgeous.

Speed comes with time and practice, I still take far too long to paint a model in my opinion but I'm easily twice as fast as I used to be, just practice. Ultimately though this is a model I think you should be proud of, I like it a lot and would be happy to have it across the table from me facing off with my forces.

Haha this shows my age now... Losing my mind... Meant glaze instead of washes!!! Obviously I know how to use washes, silly me, sorry for wasting your time on that one...

Would glazing improve or change anything???

Stahly of Tale of Painters fame is a world-class painter and he has chronicled his Iybraesil army on the blog. There is even an in-depth tutorial for how to do the color scheme. Check it out:

http://taleofpainters.blogspot.se/search?q=iybraesil

Xeones7 wrote:
Haha this shows my age now... Losing my mind... Meant glaze instead of washes!!! Obviously I know how to use washes, silly me, sorry for wasting your time on that one...

Would glazing improve or change anything???

Ah that makes more sense lol. Personally I haven't used glazes much so I'm no expert there but I did use them on one model and what I did was edge highlight with white but then used the glaze to "tint" the white edge highlight to be more of a bright blue. By controlling how much glaze I used I was able to control how much of the highlight was "tinted" and where. Not sure if this is really then intended purpose of a glaze but that's what I did. Sorry not much more help here.

Mymearan posted a good link, I took a quick browse through it and I'm sure you could probably get some good ideas from there.

Just want to thank everyone for their input. I'm really happy with the colour scheme and how its turned out. Some things to note.

1. Ended up going with the following… Sotek Green (U) / Greenshade (S) / Sotek Green (L) / Temple Guard blue (L) / Lothern Blue (E) / Barroth Blue (E)

2. Over the large areas and the front of the bike wet blended. Turned out ok for my first attempt!

3. Happyish with the wraith bone… think i'll get better with more practise. Think I need to start with a lighter colour to begin with.

Massive thank you to everyone who contributed especially Inevitable_Faith, your input and advice really did help

Magnificent work Xeones7! I love the model you did, the wet blending on the canopy came out amazing and all your colours pop very nicely. I'm really stoked that you nailed down your scheme and are happy with the results

I'm glad I was able to help in any small way. If you're interested I'd love to see you make a project log here on Dakka so I could see the rest of your force as it grows, you've got a lot of talent here and I'd like to see where it leads to.

At any rate great job on this bike, it looks terrific.

 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
Magnificent work Xeones7! I love the model you did, the wet blending on the canopy came out amazing and all your colours pop very nicely. I'm really stoked that you nailed down your scheme and are happy with the results

I'm glad I was able to help in any small way. If you're interested I'd love to see you make a project log here on Dakka so I could see the rest of your force as it grows, you've got a lot of talent here and I'd like to see where it leads to.

At any rate great job on this bike, it looks terrific.

Thanks for your kind words inevitable faith!

Love the idea of keeping a log of my painting. Would really keep me motivated as have a Whole 1850pt eldar army to paint up with 1850 adeptus mechanicus waiting in the wings! At my rate will take 10 years to complete so let's hope I get a little faster!

How and where do I start a project log? Any tips on the best way to photograph the models too?

Xeo

Start a thread in the Dakka P&M Logs area and name it whatever you like. Here's the direct link to the P&M logs http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/forums/show/56.page If you go to your very first post and click edit on it you can edit your subject line of the thread, I do this every update so people know exactly what my current project is.

It's an absolutely wonderful way to stay motivated and to be able to easily take a look back at all you've accomplished. I also use mine as a sounding board for ideas for how I should accomplish my paint schemes and anyone can drop me a line with tips and tricks there. I'll often post my work in progress so people can tell me what they think and if there is anything I should change before I go too far.

As for taking photos I'm quite possibly the worst person in the world to ask, I wholeheartedly admit I take some of the absolute worst photos of my minis. A quick google search for "how to take good pictures of your miniatures" will garner quite a few good hits but here's a simple one that I like for beginners to photography. http://www.miniwargaming.com/content/6rtcOGmmu7DU

I hope this helps.

Again thanks inevitable_faith!

I'm definitely going to start a blog. I'm back into the hobby after an 18 year absence and will be gaming only occasionally so the forums will keep me going! So so good to get such good advice from the world wide community! As soon as I get some time I'll sit down and start it. Before I do though I have a question (that would be perfect to start the blog off but want to plan a little)

I'm painting up a farseer skyrunner to join the jet bikes as wanted him to stand out from the crowd, so he didn't look like a standard jet bike. Was going to go down the full turquoise route but then I thought adding a little more wraithbone would be apt as it would help him chanelling the warp. The pic below shows what my initial base coat is looking like, everything will lighten up obviously but what are everyone's thoughts?

1. Does the wraithbone front look odd? Was thinking of doing the whole canopy that but went against it!

2. Unsure on the wraithbone top to his helmet and the fins on the back of the bike. Should they be in white?

3. Originally I painted the farseer cloak wraithbone but it looked rubbish so went with the turquoise. Any other improvements or changes before I shade?

Again thanks for your thoughts and opinions and I'll move things over when the blog starts!

The whole canopy being wraithbone would be too much IMO, what you have there is very tastefully done.

I feel the fins on the back of the bike would look best white. The fin on the back of his helmet I am 50/50 on, both ways will look good, it's up to your personal preference.

For the farseer I would do his shoulder armour in white to differentiate it from his robes. Also I sugest doing some quick google-fu for farseers with runes painted on their cloaks, some white runes painted on his robes would go a long way to further allowing him to stand out.

Otherwise he's looking really good, I look forward to seeing the finished product

Can I get a mod to move this to the blog section as there are some great input that I don't want to lose!

Thanks!

Moved!

And, looking good too!

Inevitable_Faith wrote:The whole canopy being wraithbone would be too much IMO, what you have there is very tastefully done.

I feel the fins on the back of the bike would look best white. The fin on the back of his helmet I am 50/50 on, both ways will look good, it's up to your personal preference.

For the farseer I would do his shoulder armour in white to differentiate it from his robes. Also I sugest doing some quick google-fu for farseers with runes painted on their cloaks, some white runes painted on his robes would go a long way to further allowing him to stand out.

Otherwise he's looking really good, I look forward to seeing the finished product

Think I agree with you! Going to change the fins to white and was thinking his shoulder pads in black or maybe green? Wouldn't mind adding a different colour in. I'm more and more thinking of starting my own Eldar faction so moving slightly away from the Iybraesil colour scheme would be good.

Alpharius wrote:Moved!

And, looking good too!

Thanks! Must admit its quite motivating posting pictures and receiving help/comments!

Anyone else with any thoughts on the Farseer… still not sure about the bone front?!?

Orange is a nice colour if you're looking to add a new colour to your Eldar. I like orange... so... much... orange.

Sorry got distracted there lol. One good place to start is looking up complimentary colours, google images will show you lots of colour wheels that will help you there. This will ensure that by picking a complimentary colour it'll be more naturally pleasing to the eye. Oddly enough when I looked this up many colour wheels showed blues complimentary colour is... orange. Straying from that however a deep yellow should look good as well. I like the idea of green but it'd have to be the right shade of green, I'm thinking Sybarite green maybe? Not too sure about black, I'm having a hard time picturing it, could look good though, black does go with everything.

I look forward to seeing what you do.

Haha colour wheels and my colour blindness are a bad mix!!! Lol

Love orange too but thinking it might just be a little too bright... Am going to test out kabalite green with a sybarite green highlight.

My thinking is that the green will match with the turquoise of the blue... Thoughts?

I like your Morg'Thorg ogre guy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Colors seem just fine on him.

 kestral wrote:
I like your Morg'Thorg ogre guy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Colors seem just fine on him.

Thanks Kestral! I'm fine when I have the names of all the colours and a colour chart showing what goes with what but if I'm given a whole colour spectrum then I find it difficult with some colours, get greens and browns confused and blues and purples… In an art exam I painted a scene with brown leaves and grass and green trunks!! Haha

Did a quick tester…. Thoughts?

Yup I like that colour, matches nicely with the seat too. I know your pain about colour blindness, my room-mate is red/green colour blind and I use him often to tell me if he likes a model I painted and if there's something I should change. Sometimes he just looks at it then asks me if I intended to just make it one or two colours with no highlights. Then I'm reminded that he can't quite distinguish all the colours I use and many of them blend too much together and it all looks the same to him.

I did art class with him in high school many years ago and he'd always ask me if the colours he was using were right cause he'd often use the wrong colours. He did this awesome picture of a scene with he ocean once. Too bad he made the ocean purple...

Back on topic: Looks great, I think that green works well.

As you probably can all tell by now I'm not the most decisive person! Only had half an hour tonight so thought I'd experiment we red and orange to see how that looked…

Heres the Orange, Looks very flat in the photo but has 4 layers...


Red?


Both together..


Or Stick with the green..
[url=http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/783788-.html][/url

Once again thanks for the input on this!