so, here I am, returning to the world of painting and modelling after a loonnnggggg break - 17-18 years break! Here's some of the stuff I've done in the last few weeks - I know I have stuff to improve on, particularly in the basing area, so ignore that for now. Enjoy : )

Superb painting, very very nice

still figuring out the posting system... these didn't attach for some reason...


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many thanks P4NC4K3, I'm just relieved that I haven't totally forgotten what to do with a brush!

Unusual colour choices for the various kinds of eldar but no bad thing for that. Very nice technique and vivid shade and light.

Welcome back to painting!
I look forward to seeing your schemes.

Nice job painting

Super cool colours,different from the usual.

Very nice indeed. They look good by any standard, let alone an 18 year break.

looking grat so far , after such a long break looks like to me you still have your skills kinda like riding a bike .

The weird thing is I fingd whenever I take long breaks when I come back my work tends to be better than before .

slann wrote:looking grat so far , after such a long break looks like to me you still have your skills kinda like riding a bike .

The weird thing is I fingd whenever I take long breaks when I come back my work tends to be better than before .

You know that very same thing happens to me as well. Oh well, not really complaining

Very nice stuff... I'm very fond of those WIP Guardians. I really like that blueish colour. But as you said you need to work on the bases... It'll make your already excellent looking models look even better. Oh and final nitpicking: make sure to remove all those mold lines as they really take away from the overall look.

Great work on these ^ ^ I love the colors your using. Makes them stand out. Ill have to keep an eye on you ^ ^

Very nice work, finnan.

Only thing I'd consider, on the models with a recessed faceplate (such as the three Warlocks and the WIP Guardians) to to paint the recessed faceplate in a contrasting colour, in the same way you did for your Farseer - speaking personally, I prefer the effect it gives on your Farseer, but that's just me.

thanks for the comments : )

re: colour schemes. Basically I really like blue, so no great thought going on there, but I am using some images of beetles as source material, especially for the Warlocks - they're these amazing iridescent bugs with *tiny* bits of contrasting colour on them (hence the no contrasting faceplates)... I'm going to aim for deep iridescent blue with green highlights for the Guardians, and maybe a spot of colour on the helms... haven't quite figured it out yet! ; )

As for my Scorpion, my ocd got hold of me there and I reasoned that Scorpions aren't *actually* green, and red is a more kick-ass colour, et viola!

so, the Guardians are coming along - I've basecoated them all in thinned down Hawks Turquoise, a generous wash of Asurmen Blue, let that dry, then another generous wash of Asurmen to deepen the colour down.

On the left you can see the first Guardian that I've started on - I've cleaned him up with very thin coats of 3:5 Enchanted Blue:Hawks Turquoise and you can see how much darker the 'raw' Guardian is by comparison. That's just to re-establish the base coat, next come the highlights. I think I'm going to go for Hawks, mixing in a little Ice Blue each layer up, but not going too light, and then have some green as the highlight to make the armour look iridescent. That's the plan anyway...

I've also chucked in one of my other projects - a few Lizardmen never hurt anyone, and hey, anything that looks like dinosaurs has got to be cool. I'm basing the Terradon on a character from the Delgado 'Age of Reptiles' comic books...

Wow - I'm coming back in myself from a break (admittedly not 18 years, more like 2!) but as I'm also doing Eldar I'm astounded by this stuff.

I'm curious as to how you painted those fire dragons?

The Dragons basically: Golden Yellow basecoat, and then a liberal wash of Baal Red to get the shadows, let it dry and then work back up to yellow, then a bit of white mixed in as the highlight. Each one is different (a] couldn't decide what to do b] my reasoning is that each warrior had to make his own armour, hence the variations). Some were orange basecoated and red/purple wash.
The helms were codex grey(?) with a black wash and then worked back up again. Weapons wither gold or bronze with Devlan Mud/Black washes.
Hope that helps : )

Here's the next lot of shots - the highlights to the armour, and then working on the helm... it's turned out okay, but does seem to be lacking something. I did an extra layer of highlights (have yet to take shots of it), and then cocked up the faceplate by trying it white, so repair work is in progress!

more shots... extra highlight on the Guardian and the horror that is the faceplate at the moment...
Finally got around to basing my Farseer - needs some cleanup on the base and I have to redo the blade of the knife as I had an accident with the black ink!
Lastly, my work in progress attempt at a Dryad... not going great, but getting there. I'm kinda aiming for a birch bark look, not entirely sure it's happening yet.

never seen a shadowseer done like that. never even thought of doing it anything other than brightly coloured, but i really like it great work

Your work is awesome dude.

Looking at the way you've blended on sone of your models has inspired me to go back and try that on mine.

Thanks man!

hey, you're more than welcome : )

Heh. It's the Na'vi Craftworld orbiting Pandora! Anyway, great stuff. You blend blue really well.

Bravo btw the models look great.

Kveldulv - I thought about going to town on a Wraithlord with some of the banshee markings lol 'Art of Avatar' already purchased and being studied! I did think that if the armour was flatter I could go for something Na'vi-ish...

You're stuff looks fantastic! :-P I love the color choices. Only thing that bothers me is the one painted white. Looks like you did a sepia wash over it, and it just doesn't look right. Too dirty perhaps?

Also, what is the round bit the flying warlock is standing on? I know uner that is a weapons platform, but that peice he's directly standing on? Whats that? lol

I know what you mean about the white Avenger - I'm having a hard time getting a nice, crisp white - more practice needed!

The round bit is the top of a Tau drone... I foolishly thought I'd model the top out of greenstuff, but quickly ditched that and went for the easier option! You get a better look at it in this shot...

Very nice clean painting style. Keep up the good work looking forward to more. Also... planning on doing any vehicles?

i love love love your eldar colors!! awesome!! I also really really like the "branchwraith" very nice!

Very sweet paintjobs and color selection!

For tiny bits of contrast, I'd recommend painting the gems a non-complimentary shade to give a bit of pop - they'd stand out against the base shade and give the eye a bit of focus without detracting from the whole. Try red or green against the blue as opposed to orange, which is the complimentary shade for blue and was used on other parts of the blue models.

I've not seen a striking scorpion in red before - very "striking" indeed!

are you sure you havn't done any painting in the last 18 years?

lol very sure about my absence - I stopped when I went to Uni, or a little bit before, and I'm a youthful 36 now! I have to say that having a disposable income does make it all very much easier, although it also means that I now have unpainted models coming out of my ears as I have poor impulse control whenever I go into a Games Workshop store!

No plans for vehicles yet, I want to make sure I can get that nice, flat, crisp style down first as I don't want to mess something that big up. I'm barely restrating myself from buying a Wraithlord...


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restrating?
restraining

Im stealing your blue method.. its awesome.

... so just for fun, I thought to myself "The Wraithlord would look kinda cool with the Walwalker's legs... why hasn't anyone else done this?", so with Xmas money in pocket, off I trotted to the GW store and loaded myself up on goodies.

Here's the initial stages of... what? Impala class Wrathlord? Orion class? Satyr class?

The legs weren't tricky as such, but the ball joint on the loins needed a little trimming to get them on (plus lots of jam-it-on-nice-and-tight-and-hope-it-stays).
I'm aiming for an impression of speed (yes, it did pass through my mind to paint it red and call it Garrick class ) . It's goiing to have twin bright lances and the sword as weapoons, and then I'll add the ribbons which will hopefully help with the speed issues... then to paint the little bugger!

What a glorious Eldar army! I love your style.

So, I needed a little break from the Guardians (squad painting, soooo dull), and gave a Wardancer a go, and ta-dah: here we are - enjoy.
I was aiming for a more natural look than than the vibrant greens GW use, and I *think* it works. Maybe a wash of green over the leathers for the next one? Still haven't quite cracked the fleshtones I think...

Finished my Shadowseer (I'm putting off finishing the death Jester, don't really know why. I think I'm a little less than enthused about him to be honest. The Wardancers have caught my attention now lol)

a) I do not want to go back to work tomorrow
b) I seem to have gotten a little distracted from my Eldar by the Wardancers, which might not be a bad thing. Still haven't quite got the skin right though - Elf Flesh doesn't seem to do what I want it to do! Any suggestions?
c) the Harlequin: I accidentally discovered a neat trick - do a wash of black over the white basecoat, then apply a fairly thin coat of colour over it and instant, reverse shading! Kinda cool.

Very nice, very nice indeed.
If only I could get off my ass and finish my wood elf army...

lol yeah, I've noticed that starting an army is dead easy, but finishing it a slightly trickier task!

Ey! Give us more, it's been half a month mate :(

ask and ye shall recieve!
Only first three Guardians finished, and working on the rest. Not sure which I prefer, the white stripes, or the yellow...

Is it just me or is the chainsword on the left have a paler stripe?

White stripes for me - but they are all very well done!

I'd actually saw that the one on the left has the deeper shadow on the stripe, but the angle of the shot isn't helping, and I think it might be because it's thinner under the lip of the helm. Plus his eyes are red too, so that might be effecting how it looks. Maybe lol
Basically I can't decide which stripe I like best, so they'll all have different ones! More on my 'They're Eldar and therefore creative and have to make their own armour and they personalise it' rationalisation ; )
I think I'm going to give the next one a dark blue stripe, see how that looks...


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saw?
say

not to self: learn how to type

Another Wardancer, this time I'm trying flesh the way it's described in the WE Army book.
1 - base of Dark Flesh
2 - wash of Devlan Mud
3 - (after a quick re-coat of Dark Flesh) Dwarf Flesh highlights
4 - Elf Flesh top highlights (fairly minimal)

better than the other ones?

Keeping an eye on your flesh tones. Thank you for showing and explaining what you are doing. It'll be really helpful for me soon.

Wow, amazing!

Here we go, another finished Wardancer : )
Getting better at the flesh, and the tattoos!

Thank you for the positive comments, they're very much appreciated.

Very nice work.

I'd like to see more.

I especially like your wraithlord idea.

No idea why others haven't thought of this either.

Welcome back to the hobby.

I came back around 3 -4 years ago and loved where the models have went since I used to play (end of the rogue trader days).

thank you : )

I'm loving my return to the fold, and I can't really remember why I left in the first place!

I've finished assembling the WraithWalker, just got to clean it up a little before I undercoat it - I'll do a shot once I've done that.

Yep I'm also back after a long break (came back about 8 months ago) Your work is excellent.

Too bad you guys ruined the universe for everyone by being so decadent. Otherwise I'd get some eldar

Seriously, great job!

what I did with my day

WOOOOOOOD ELLLVVESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

I really love your Farseer! Not that anything else would be ugly, but that the Farseer is so unusual coloured (as are the Warlocks for the matter of fact) that it really catches the eye in a positive way!

thank you : )

Krellnus: well, it was just a matter of time before I started on the Wood Elves wasn't it lol
I'm resisting (barely) buying the Glade Riders.

nyyman: thank you - I think I posted further up that I based the warlocks on some photos of really bright, iridescent beetles. The Farseer just kinda happened, although at first I wanted him to be grey, but it just didn't look right so I started again, and I'm much happier with how he turned out!

Buy the Wood Elf hero on 'Great Stag'!

One the guardians I prefer a combination of white and yellow strips mixed throughout the unit. I'm liking your woodies too. On the flesh tone things I would suggest starting with Dheneb Stone as a base coat and working up from there. All together good work.

cool - thanks for the tip with Dheneb Stone, I'll have to give it a go : )

The miniatures I'd ordered recently arrived yesterday and I was more excited by them than I was by the whole of Christmas.
They're from Shpere Wars (have a look on Cool Mini Or Not, or Tor Gaming), and I thought that they'd be a pretty sweet addition to my Wood Elves as shapeshiter type guys. They're really nice models, and the photos do them no justice whatsoever, but I just wanted to show them off a little. They're just glued and cleaned up at the moment, I'll have to go in and clean up the joints with some greenstuff, then on with the painting.


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god, I need to proofread my posts.
shapeshiter?!
shapeshifter

Another Wardancer, so I have a nice little squad now. I'm thinking that the next five will have a more unified colour scheme... not sure. I'd like to have a go at a really light, bleached leather for the clothes.

I can now have a go at my shapeshifters though! lol Lynx guy is up first - yey!

Fantastic stuff in here!

I'm hoping my own long layoff from painting will yield similar results!

So, I know it is going back a ways, but can you tell me how you painted the Shadowseer in this stage:



It looks like just the solution I'm after for painting up black armor without having it look too flat, boring and dull...

Thanks!

Thank you : )

I *think* what I did was:
Codex Grey base (I'm not a huge fan of the Foundations - too thick), thinned down a little so it goes on nice and even. Then a couple of washes of Badab Black to get the shadows, letting each wash dry first - I've noticed that the washes dry a lot darker than when they go on.
Then a Codex + black mix (1:1 I think), thinned down a fair amount, and then slowly build up the highlights - because the paint is so thin, it's like doing a series of glazes and you build up the tone slowly. (I use a small brush and go *really* slowly so I can see the paint drying because it's thin)
Keep adding a bit of Codex to the mix to get the next tone up until you're at pure Codex, and then start adding Fortress to further highlight.

What I'd reccommend: the paint can't be too thin - that way you don't get sudden transitions. That's pretty much my technique for everything I paint - I don't do much drybrushing these days at all. Not the fastest technique in the world, but it works : )

I found black/dark grey really hard to do as it was hard to see the change in the colours because it was so dark - which is why I basecoat in white, so I can see what I'm doing!

Hope that makes sense and helps : )

Quick question for you, finnan, as I didn't see a mention of it while I was reading the thread - why are you basing your Wood Elves on round bases rather than square ones?

I just prefer the round bases, the square ones seem a bit too harsh... does that make sense? lol
(I'm not a gamer, so it doesn't make much difference. I don't know that it'd matter if I was a gamer...)

That's cool, finnan - if you were planning to use 'em in a game, it might cause an issue, but if they're just for display then that's fine.

Hmm - Wardancers as Exodite Harlequins.....

sweeeet. dong eldar me self, and i like your work.

I've always thought there was a fairly obvious link between Wardancers and Harlequins... I think the 'dancers just have the edge on the cool factor though ; )

Really nice stuff here mate, excellent job! A nice start after 17+ years

Love 'em. That Shadowseer is a gorgeous model.

finnan wrote:Thank you : )

I *think* what I did was:
Codex Grey base (I'm not a huge fan of the Foundations - too thick), thinned down a little so it goes on nice and even. Then a couple of washes of Badab Black to get the shadows, letting each wash dry first - I've noticed that the washes dry a lot darker than when they go on.
Then a Codex + black mix (1:1 I think), thinned down a fair amount, and then slowly build up the highlights - because the paint is so thin, it's like doing a series of glazes and you build up the tone slowly. (I use a small brush and go *really* slowly so I can see the paint drying because it's thin)
Keep adding a bit of Codex to the mix to get the next tone up until you're at pure Codex, and then start adding Fortress to further highlight.

What I'd reccommend: the paint can't be too thin - that way you don't get sudden transitions. That's pretty much my technique for everything I paint - I don't do much drybrushing these days at all. Not the fastest technique in the world, but it works : )

I found black/dark grey really hard to do as it was hard to see the change in the colours because it was so dark - which is why I basecoat in white, so I can see what I'm doing!

Hope that makes sense and helps : )

Thank you! That does help quite a bit!

Much appreciated!

I'm going to give it a whirl on my Raven Guard force, we'll see what happens...

I can tell that the painting on the shadowseer is very sophisticated, and I think the technique for the black is spot-on. However, despite it likely being just the effect you were going for, the fact that large parts of the shadowseer are black really makes the model look unfinished.

If you want to keep the dark palette, maybe you could incorporate some dark grey, or purple checks into the model?

I would give some diamonds a go - if I felt able to do them! lol
I'm not steady enough to get them even enough that I'd be happy with them at the moment, but maybe once I've practiced some more!

it's been a slow week - I seem to be in hibernation-mode and sleeping an insane amount, so little progress, but here's what I've done on Lynx Guy (have to think of a better name than that). Photos doing something a bit funny, he's not as dark as he appars in the last two shots.
More work to be done on the spots and the face, then onto the robe.

Wow you have done that model justice. Looks ace.

Wow, the hide and facial markings are really well applied.

It's nice to see your organic fantasy paintjobs alongside the colder 40K schemes in one thread. Gives a great perspective. Thanks for sharing!

Great stuff, I love your wood elves and you've really captured the character of the shadowseer. This is a blog I'll be coming back to...

Wow that is a cool model I will admit. Great work still so hopefully you will keep it up

thank you all for such positive comments, they're very much appreciated. Glad you like what I'm doing - more to come : )

That lynx warrior is awesome.....I really like the patterning

Its LYNXIE BOY!
Really good keep it up.

lol
I'm not sure Lynxie Boy is manly or hard-core enough for this dude! Come on, he's definitely Thundercat material ; )

Lionel - convert him a sword of omen and you're my new hero. Miss those cartoons. Love your work. Anyone able to speak to how similar/different eldar and wood elves play in their respective games? I started with eldar in 40k cause I loved the models so much, then now that I'm being pulled into fantasy finally I have always liked the wood elf models for many of the same reasons. My only thing is I think I would like an army that doesn't feel too much like the fantasy version of my eldar.

I'm liking Lion-El! I'll have to keep my eyes open for a decent sword...
I'm slightly ashamed to say that I've never actually gamed (in my head I keep saying that once I actually have a sizable army [of anything] I'll give it a go), but they do seem fairly similar - both fast, lightly armoured (why bother with armour if you don't intend on being hit?), and rely on specialists. I think the Wood Elves have a slightly different feel to them though... more direct perhaps, and willing to take risks.
Of course, I could be talking out of my bottom there...

Great job on the Eldar!!!!

Hopefully once i start with a normal income and not a uni one i plan to start an eldar army myself.

Something i picked up along your thread, the fleshtones.
I dark flesh first, then dwarf flesh and then elf flesh.
something ive picked up on that seems to make the face (in particular) is go for a 1/3 white to 2/3 elf flesh mix and highlight the utmost extremes such as the bridge of the nose, the upper area of cheeks, and the extremes of fingers.

ive only started applying this to my high elf recently after getting a tip from my local GW and ive found this to be exactly what i wanted to give it a bit more detail.

I shall have it a go Scaraman. I guess it's all a matter of judging when you've finished and when to add another layer (plus the fear that if you carry on, you'll cock up something you're happy with!).
Painting and modelling is DEFINITELY an easier addiction... er, I mean 'hobby' to manage when you have a disposable income and don't have to make that tough student decision of whether to eat or have fun lol


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can I be any more incoherant?
second try: I shall have to give it a go Sacarman

note to self:
proofread posts
learn to type


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arrgh!

third try: I shall have to give it a go Scaraman

note to self:
proofread posts
learn to type
follow own advice

Scherdy wrote:Lionel - convert him a sword of omen and you're my new hero. Miss those cartoons. Love your work. Anyone able to speak to how similar/different eldar and wood elves play in their respective games? I started with eldar in 40k cause I loved the models so much, then now that I'm being pulled into fantasy finally I have always liked the wood elf models for many of the same reasons. My only thing is I think I would like an army that doesn't feel too much like the fantasy version of my eldar.

The closest 40k army that plays like wood elves are tau, but that is by a bit of a stretch.

I'm kinda tempted with the Tau army, but I dunno... there's something about their designs that I really like, but I can't help thinking that they could be a little less squared off and more... beautiful. But that's the designer in me speaking!

That's because they theme for Tau draws heavily off Anime and Magna.

I can see that I guess... I just wouldn't say no to a few more fins, or elegance... I'd like to see the Tau version of the Bubblegum Crisis suits ; )

... so, Lynx Guy finished - it was a bit of a slog there for a little while, and while I don't think I've done my best, I'm fairly satisfied with how he's turned out.

another kinda slow few days, but Eagle Guy is done... photos not so good, but you get the idea. I always cringe a little when I take the shots because I notice things I want to change! On this guy I want to blend the really sharp shadow in his elbow more, and a bit on his beak too...

Also a shot of the WraithWalker... I do seem to be distracted by the Wood Elves at the moment, but the Eldar stuff is still there on my worktable, staring accusingly at me ; )

Great work, that eagle-man is really good, especially the skin tones.

... so I seem to be concentrating on my Wood Elves at the moment, so apologies to all those Eldar fans out there, but the WraithWalker does keep drawing my eye, so I don't think it'll be too long before I make a start on it.
For now, I've decided to make a concerted effort to get an actual army painted (famous last words), so I've started a unit of Dryads. Only basecoated and washed at the moment. I'm aiming for a fairly varied look, from healthy trees, to a dead one, to one stripped of its bark (exhibitionist Dryad?)
enjoy

I was kinda dreading painting the dryads, as I've had one on my desk for what seems like forever, staring accusingly at me for not finishing her off... as it were. The reason being that it was such a chore! I realise my mistake now though: I washed her too darkm and it was a pain to highlight her up again.
I have to say though, that the new lot seem to be going much better (having said that, I've only done one so far! lol), and much quicker, I've almost finished one. Better preparation, or >gasp of horror< I'm getting a bit better? Who knows.
Pics to follow : )

here we go, Dryad no.1 Not too bad for such a quick paint. Tried to do directional lighting/glow around her eyes, not sure it worked. It shows up more in the photo than it does when it's in front of me...

beauty, turned out good. The eyes aren't too strong, and I'm sure they look better in person, keep it up

I wonder if the eyes haven't come out too strong because it's on Bleached Bone/White...? hmmm
I have to say that my photography skills don't seem to be improving at the same rate as my painting ones!
Thanks for the positive feedback : )

I'd try a final highlight of a nice, bright yellow on the eyes, to see if it makes them pop.

I haven't highlighted the eyes, it's true, so might give that a go... for some reason I wanted to get this one done, so I did kinda hurry it.
note to self: be more patient!

Looking Good Keep It Up

The painting on those models is superb, keep up the good work!

thank you very much for the kind comments, they're very much appreciated.
I'm a little surprised to find that I'm enjoying painting the Dryads so much, not entirely sure why. The 'naked' (striped bark) one ended up as being more driftwoody, but I like it (happy accident! May more of them happen!).
I should finish two more tomorrow, so pics to follow, and one of them I really like (I never like my own work!! lol)

another two done. I know I'm not supposed to have favourites, but I do like the green one, particularly as it seems she's giving everyone the finger! Dryads with attitude! lol

Beautiful.

Amazing thing is that you get 4 of those fingers in every box.

Excellant stuff here!

Absolutely!

Your time away certainly hasn't diminished your painting and converting skills!

>blush<
thank you again for the kind comments, they mean an awful lot to me.

here are the next three - only two to go before the unit is finished, the plan is to get them done, but it's an awfully sunny day out thre, so I may be tempted out into the real world >gasp of horror< ; )

Really nicely painted

The green eyes really stick out (in a good way) on the one that is painted more reddish.

I want you to get back to your Eldar

The glowing green eye effect on the Dryads is striking...

But yes, more Eldar too please!

Last two Dryads done, plus finishing touches on the orginal one : )

More Eldar to come, promise!

You can be forgiven your lack of Eldar by how awesome your Wood Elves are!

>phew< thanks
I was aiming to put them in the Awesome Kindred when I fight them. Doesn't matter if they win or lose, they just look cool whatever happens ; )

Lookign good, looking forward to, more Eldar as well. I especally like the eagle guy, very nice painting!

Inspiring color choices.

Very nice, hows the WraithWalker?

the WraithWalker is still sulking at me because I'm not painting it lol
I've made a start on my Wild Riders though...

These look great! I really like the earthly colors!

your painting will never superior yours... :(

thanks for the comments : )

so here are the Wild Riders - not too much progress, but you can see where they're kinda headed. As usual, I'm using reference material so I can get the horses looking as realistic as I can. They're just base coated and washed at the moment, apart from the lead horse - he's highlighted up, although I think the mane and tail could do with some more work.

Also my fun wardancer convert... not too sure about the red. I was all set to re-undercoat her and start agin this morning, but stopped myself. Views?

: )

awww... I want wild riders :(
EDIT: the red looks good, because it is different to the yellows, greens and oranges wood elves normally get.

a little side project - fairly quick to do, but a nice result I think. The rider to follow : )

first Wild Rider done... he's okay, but I think I rushed him towards the end.
trying to get the hand of weathered bronze - I think I'm getting there. I wanted him to be a bit battered and worn, not too shiny and new.

Your painting skills make me want to cry, I wish I was able to paint like that... One quick question should I want to put a matte coating after my models are done?

thank you - but I don't want anyone to cry! ; )

I don't matte coat mine, but I've been thinking about it as I can just see me dropping one of them and getting it chipped and a hasty repair job will be needed. I've never used a varnish before, so I don't know how it'd go on... sorry I couldn't be of more help!

That is one pretty awesome Wild Rider, the weathered armour is again something different as people tend to think of elves as clean and shiny, nice job!

why thank you, kind sir

I really like the green tinge you have given some of the horses armour for realistic weathering. The freehand tatoos are also nice, as well as the multi-toned hair. The rider is great too.
Keep up the good work!

I used to paint my nids with floor varnish, extremely shiny whatever you use (matt, satin, gloss) but goes on easily, but thickly, and allows you to throw models AT the floor.

Trilobite wrote:I really like the green tinge you have given some of the horses armour for realistic weathering. The freehand tatoos are also nice, as well as the multi-toned hair. The rider is great too.
Keep up the good work!

MULTI TONED HAIR, how did I not notice that? It makes hair so damn realistic.

all I did on the mane and tail was to leave the white undercoat, wash it with Sepia, then highlight with bleached bone and the skull white in places...

Seems like ages since I posted anything... still working on the Wild Riders. They're not a quick job, although I think that's because I'm taking my time with the coats of the horses more than anything else. The riders themselves aren't too bad (when I get to them!).
Here's the next two that I've been working on at the same time, a palomino and a buckskin.

Also, here's the next great eagle - I'm having a little experiment with this one - not doing a literal golden eagle, but I want to see if giving it a basecoat of yellow ink and then keeping subsequent coats thin-ish will make it look more golden. If it works, hurrah! If it doens't, nothing lost : )

enjoy

The horses and the patina on the armor are amazing looking. Great painting all around. My only suggestion is that you paint more Eldar.

Looking good as always.

: )
thank you

I'll have to see if I can knock out an Eldar or two to appease those 40K fans out there lol

Welcome back from the hiatus.I to took a sabatical ,about 10 years.Good looking work,i will be following your progress.

so, here are a few update pix - the eagle... you can kinda see the yellow coming through. I put two pretty thin layers of Snakebite on it, and you could still see the yellow pretty clearly, and then this is with two layers of Devlan Mud on top of that. I'll probably go in with the Badab now and do the wingtips.

and, ask and ye shall recieve: started the WraithWalker last night. So this is it with a base of Hawks Turquoise and then a wash of Asurman blue - next are the highlights... but I want some areas to be bronze, so I'll figure that out first : )

I also took delivery today of some Gamezone wolves - I plan on doing some wolf Wild Riders! ; )

That eagle is made of pure awesome sauce buddy, although there is only one thing missing, but I can't quite seem to put my finger on it...

I'd say the eagle might be a bit flat at the moment, although the shot isn't helping that. I'm going to give him some markings on his wingtips and flight primaries, but fairly subtle, just using black washes, so it might take a while for them to build up... maybe a couple of washes of sepia to sort of burnish him up too... plus there's drybrushed highlights as well, so I'd say he's about halfway done : )

Finnan delivers! The eagle is a beaut and the wraithwalker looks so fast.

: )
I'm thinking turquoise/jade for most of the Walker, with bits in bringze and the head (heavily) weathered bronze, with a crisp, clean stripe on it left shiny bronze...

finnan wrote:I'm going to give him some markings on his wingtips and flight primaries

Now.

lol
I working on it! Just had a look at him, nad I can kinda see the markings, so more work to be done.

also, I'm trying to decide whether to do the third eagle as a golden eagle, or as a white-bellied sea eagle - white and grey. Might be nice for a change...? Thoughts?


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I'm also impressed that I made up a new word: bringze. Now that has a touch of awesome about it

What about a Bald Eagle?

...sick eldar are sickkk.
really nice painting...
the welves are looking prime too

I'm trying to avoid Bald Eagle... I think they look slightly cheesey...
Sea Eagle (in my head) looks: clean, unusual, bit mysterious... here's the image I'd be working off (and, handily enough, it's in the right pose for the model as well!)

updated pix of the WraithWalker : )

so, I wanted a nice clean stripe of bronze on the head, contrasting aginst weathered bronze - so I painted the whole head with a mix of bronze and shining gold, stuck a strip of masking tape where I wanted the stripe, then washed the head with thinned down turquise and then turquise with some green in it.

whipped the tape off and tah-da!
(cleaned up the stripe a bit where there had been some leakage)

not so sure about the weathered bronze now... I might just make it clean turquoise like the rest of the Walker, or put some bronze back in - there's not enough contrast at the moment. Thoughts? Comments?

Looks cool both ways

Meh, it makes it look both unnatural and that the wraithwalker is OCD about how he cleans his face
How about Steller's Sea Eagle?

hmm... Stellers could be done, but I always think that their beaks look honkingly out of proportion...

what makes what look unnatural?

c'mon - Eldar would be OCD about *everything* lol

did you paint or drybrush the eldar models , either way they look awesome

thank you
paint - I don't do too much drybrishing these days. Takes longer, but I like the results : )


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drybrishing?
drybrushing

Next eagle finished : )

awkward model to photo... hopefully you can see the markings on the wings...

Love the beak and the eyes on this model, very natural looking. nice work!

Like the wing tips, is very awesome

you can't see 'em too well - I might take some more shots

The natural looking blending of the wings is great, also I love the head.

Just noticed the beak, very nice blend/transition.

Your Eldar and everything else look awesome. I wish I could paint like this.

slightly better shot of the eagle's wing and tail markings, plus a WIP of one of the wolves I got the other day for my Wild Wolfriders - not quite this dark in the flesh...

Awesome stuff . I really like the blue ones the tourquiose my favourite colour

Looks like a Siberian Huskie.

Sorry for double post, but may we please have some updates?

Ask and ye shall recieve!
Sorry for the lack of postage lately - have had an attack of the Man Flu (although, I do suspect it was actually proper flu), so have felt decidedly rough for the last week and a half.

So, understandably, slow progress. STILL going on the bloody Wild Riders, almost two more done, here's one of the buggers:

Really cool job.

Very nice banner. I notice men only start getting man flu when they get a girlfriend/wife. Women always belittle our suffering

lol I have neither a girlfriend or wife (more money to spend on minatures!), so I don't even have that excuse!

zas ees no eldar!

But lovely none the less, particularly the horse and wolf! The eagle looks a little rough or stippled, don't know if that's what you were going for, but I would suggest a wash on the lower back above the tail because there is a lot of depth without too much color change.

More Eldar!

I like the blending done on the wild rider's horse.....

Can't wait for the eldars to start coming up again...really like your scheme on them.

Wow, awesome freehand on the banner.

Love your wood elves A LOT.

The natural leather colours look fantastic, much better than the GW standard.

These colours combined with the woad paint and the bronze weapons give the models an awesome old tribes of Britain feeling which I tihnk works perfectly!!!

Malice

as ever, thanks for the comments : )

I was/am wondering about the blades... I did a silver/steel blade for the first Wild Rider, but did very much like the bronze ones for the Wardancers... I may give all of them bronze weapons... hmmm.

More Eldar in the wings - I'm making a little progress on the WraithWalker, that'll be the next Eldar thing to be finished I think. Thanks for the patience : )

so I finally finished the bloody Wild Rider standard bearer, although I totally rushed it towards the end, not exactly my best stuff - I may put a pic up of it later.
I intended on concentrating on the WraithWalker, but got a *little* distracted and managed to paint Drycha as well. Really quick job, and a little bit of an experiment as well - all washes apart from the eyes, leaves and the Spites - not too bad. Wouldn't say no to the bark being a bit greyer, but there you go : )

Wow, the washes make a gentle overall tone. Looking good.

... apologies for not posting for a while. Still working on the WElves - started the Glade Guard. Am aiming to make each one individual and go for toned-down colours so that they blend with the forest environment.
Basecoats and washes : )

Very interesting start, looking forward to more.

If you showed up at my FLGS with either of these fully painted armies and asked me how to play, I wouldn't believe that it could possibly be your first game.

Regardless, they're looking good, I'm particularly curious as to how you painted the fifth glade guard, the one who's a washed out white.

finnan wrote:another kinda slow few days, but Eagle Guy is done... photos not so good, but you get the idea. I always cringe a little when I take the shots because I notice things I want to change! On this guy I want to blend the really sharp shadow in his elbow more, and a bit on his beak too...

Also a shot of the WraithWalker... I do seem to be distracted by the Wood Elves at the moment, but the Eldar stuff is still there on my worktable, staring accusingly at me ; )

I need to ask but what did you use to prime the Wraith White? I really like the way it looks and would like to suggest a white base for my friends Tau army.

lol believe me, I'm still very much a Warhammer noob.

The pale Guard I just washed with Gryph Sepia and then a few areas of Devlan Mud to get a range of tones - on a white undercoat.

Cutthroatcure: I used the white spray on undercoat - not a fan of the black - then I base coated it with Hawks turquoise and then a liberal wash of Asurman Blue.

Thanks..Ill have to get him to get some!

Great work btw!

I've actually found some motivation from somewhere... even if I did have the astonishingly lazy thought of "Oh, well, I could always complete painting [insert miniature here] and enter it for Golden Demon *next* year..." this morning.
Here's my Wardancer conversion, that I was never entirely sure about all the way through painting her, but all things considered, I think she turned out fairly well (despite when I was doing a little repair work the other week and managed to stab myself with my scalpel - *through* my finger and OUT the nail! Ow!).
enjoy : )

Last Wardancer completed to complete the squad (even though there's actually one more to come). Here she is, and then the whole squad.

I like the way you posed them!

GJ!

Love the eldar stuff. I was going to try the wraithlord with walker legs TBH but cahs flow a wee bit tight at the moment.

a couple of WIP things as I haven't done too much lately (what can I say? End of school year, I'm knackered).

First up is my Spellsinger. Just got the flesh and the staff to do... looks a bit messy still.

Then a Glade Rider - think I may have cracked white on this one! Dheneb Stone with a bit of Charadon Granite added and then watered down for the base. No wash which is unusual for me, and then straight in with the white highlight in very, very thin layers. I think I have a few more to do to get it up to pure white, but I'm liking how it's coming out : )

first five Glade Guard done... a little rushed perhaps, but they're okay. Next five to come!

Your wardancers and Glade Guard are amazing.

thank you very much : )

Eldar look sweet! Loving the blue/orange.

This:



Is the best pale horse I have ever seen! Consider the recipe snagged!

I really love your work.

Not just good painting -- but good art. Good aesthetics, nice colors, good choices.

Questions:

What brush do you use when you are doing the tattoos? The lines at the end of some of the spirals look like they were put on with a needle or something. I've tried using a regular needle, but they don't hold the paint very well (difficult to keep the line weight consistent). The guy who writes on rice uses a pen made out of a hypodermic needle, but hypos are illegal here.

How thick is your paint when you do the tattoos? Do use thin in multiple coats, or thicker and one swipe like a automotive pin striper?

The changing weight of the line as it goes around the spirals is really well done -- amongst the best I've seen. Do you draw the design out on paper first or just work it out on the figure?

SpacePanzee wrote:
I really love your work.

Not just good painting -- but good art. Good aesthetics, nice colors, good choices.

Seconded. I particularly like the colors on the Glade Guard above--those are the autumnal tones I want to go for when I'm finally done with my space marines and get around to painting the commoners in my Brettonian fantasy army.

I also second the commenter who liked the way you posed the wardancers--spectacular feeling for movement, really dynamic.

SpacePanzee and maerdymachus: thanks for the kind comments : )

Tattoos: I use a size 000 brush for the tattoos, not the greatest quality brush or anything. I've never really liked sable brushes, so it's a synthetic one, the watercolour kind.
I water the paint down, probably about 1:2 at least paint:water. I start with the point and just go really lightly, and like you said, just vary the stroke width. it generally takes a couple of tries, and believe me, they're not as fine as I'd like them to be! lol
I touch up mistakes to smooth out any bumbs with Elf Flesh.
I just work them out as I go along, so some of them are better than others! I have kind of tribal stuff in mind, but want them to be a lot more fluid.

For my next squad of Wardancers, I'm thinking black and red tattoos, and maybe more Haida looking stuff.

Very nice!

Just looked at the first few pics on page 1. Awesome! Really nice! The grav platform is a great idea

thank you : )

next five Glade Guard done - individual shots, plus groups ones so you can see the whole squad together.

Also the next Wardancer conversion - bit awkward as it's not balanced right and keeps falling over! I'll have to weight the base down. I cocked up filing down the spearbut, so I clipped off the spears from some Second Age elf spearmen and stuck them on - not great as it's not wide enough to pin, so I'm relying on superglue!

what a dork - forgot all the 'Guard!

next two Glade Guard done - going for a very clean, simple look for this lot.
A little bit rushed, and I can see some things that I'd like to retouch now I've taken the shots!

Wow these are all really good , the highlighting is perfect. I really like the progress on the shadowseer , cant wait to see more.

~UnDeAd~

Nice!

Best woodelves Ive ever seen! Really.

What about the Eldar, still doing those?


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The blades are exellent on them. May have to take influence from those!

Newt: thank you : )
Yeah, the Eldar are still coming along slowly, my attention has kinda been taken over by the WElves ; )

Yea Ive started on the Fantasy stuff too. Still trying to finish my 40k armies first tho.

Not even touching my blog till I get my whole army undercoated and apply the first layer of colour cuz Im so damn slow at painting! lol

lol I try not to think about in terms of an Army, just units, then it's not so intimidating ; )

I love your painting style - looks great!

Your work continues to impress - mightily!

Love what you've done with the bases too... fantastic!

Thank you tallmantim and Alpharius : ) much appreciated.

I need to have a go at bases I think... have ordered some basing sets that will hopefully spruce them up a bit ; )

I've been a busy boy: Spellsinger finished off, and a mounted Lord done! Admttedly I had done about half the horse a month or two ago, but it's still pretty good going : )
Onwards to more Glade Guard!
enjoy

finnan,
I really really like how you've done your eldar.

Just a quick question - do you use water to thin your paints or something else?

Keep up the good work and thanks for the inspiration

Hang

thanks Hangfire, very much apprecated : )

yeah, I just use water to thin the paints down. I even thin the basecoat paints down - I think they're far too thick.

Just over a year since I returned to the hobby, and although I haven't been in the mood to paint much lately, there's still a lot on my desk to be painted! (and I do have a bad habit of buying even MORE miniatures, even though I have half-painted ones to finish off)
here's a couple of cool minis from Reaper that were too hard to resist: Sea Elves and a nasty mermaid to plot their demise.

I hope my skills have improved in a year - I know that I can certainly blend better than I could, and my flesh has come on leaps and bounds. Here's to another year of painting : )

NICE!!!!

The colors on your models, in particular the blue is amazing! great work!

thank you guys : )

Snow Day Fun
So here I am, languishing at home and all depressed because I can't be a productive member of society and go to work because of the darn weather [shakes fist at sky]... and, goshdarnit, I *totally* forgot to bring work home with me... [snigger]

What else is a lad to do with his time but paint? So here's my little just-for-fun Snow Day Project. The River Trolls are really nice models, and I'm surprised I resisted them as long as I did. I originally intended to just have his head poking out of the water, but the back's a bit humpy, so had to have more of him, but that's cool, maybe that can be the next one. Details and shading left to do, and the weapon of course, and then it's time for the water effects, which I think I might have to be quite liberal with : )
Alway interesting that I notice the bits I have to clean up in the photos, but not while I'm painting the actual model!

enjoy : )

Good to see you back Finnan, it's been a while.

I gotta ask, your red Striking Scorpion back on page one. What red did you use and what colour ink did you wash it with?

Cheers buddy.

good to be back : )

I used Blood Red as tehbase, and then probably a wash of Baal followed by Leviathan purple in the recesses, then highlighted back up to blood red

nice. will watch this

here we go - (pretty much) finished Lagoon Boy. Still have to do one or two more coats of water effects (which you can't see too well in the photos) on the base, but the painting's done. A nice, fun lille project : )

Truly awesome. I wish I'd thought to be snowed in, but no, I slipped and slided to the station (falling on my arse once), went up to London and then couldn't get back. Painting trolls was clearly a much better way to spend the day.

Regarding the water effect, did you build it up gradually? I had thought of doing something similar with the High Elf dragon (thought the rock would look cool rising up out of the ocean).

I've only done the one coat of water effects so far - I'm going to build it up. It comes out quite thick, which looks quite good, but then dries really flat, so I think multiple layers will do the trick

Beautiful painting

Thats awesome dude.

Is that the GW River troll model? Looks really original.

thank you : )

yeah, it's a GW river troll

it's been a little while since an update, partly due to laziness, but mostly due to various illnesses!

Back to the Wood Elves - I power-painted a squad of 10 dryads over the Xmas break, and now onto the Glade Riders.
I'd originally planned to have them all be on white horses (nice and elfy), but then reconsidered after only doing one! It's come out well, but doing white does take ages! So they're all on different colours. I'm particularly proud of my total cheat with the brown - basically black with a brown muzzle! ; )
Two browns, a chestnut and the white done, the bay and the dun are going to be tackled today : )

Tried to push ahead with my Glade Riders today, but it feels as if I didn't get very far (the joys of unit painting!), so I decided to start on my Hornet (despite wanting to save it as a treat for completing the Riders! I have willpower issues).

So here we are - I want it fairly simple and clean... might do some markings on it later. Also giving lightling another go. It still needs some smoothing out, but not bad so far.
[the black isn't black - it's Charadon Granite]

oh, and I'm not going for a Tron look at all, no siree... ; )

I like the color of your horses. I had issues finishing my Glade Riders a while ago as well. I eventually finished so keep at it. Liking how the Hornet looks so far.

So how do you thin your paints and when you apply them how do you keep from the watered down paint from going everywhere? How do you apply the paints and thin them..cause your work is very good and i am always looking for new ideas to get better!

Cutthroatcure - I just thin them with water; I ALWAYS thin them down, even if it's just a basecoat, so I can get it nice and even without it being thick and gloopy. For that, it's usually 1:1 paint to water.
For shading/blending I'll go 1:3 paint to water, or even more water, and then just build up lots of thin layers of glazes - it does take a fair while to do, but the results are generally smooth.
I use a 00 or 000 brush, and only take a small amount of paint onto it - really small when I come to think of it. Basically you're applying so little paint that you can see it dry and evaporate very quickly, even if you can't see any paint transferred, and you just keep doing that until the pigment starts to build up - like I said, not a quick technique!

Hope that helps : )

Well I am not doing anything super fast and if that will result in an even better looking model then so be it..I mean i spent enough money on everything why not take the time and make them look good.. Also what do you thin them in?

8 pages of awesome! I really love your painting style, it is very vibrant and full of life (as I presume elves would be). Loving how the hornet is turning out! I will be looking out for this thread in the future as there is some great painting going on.

Cain

thanks Commander, very much appreciated : )

cutthroat - I use the plastic lids from the GW boxed miniatures as pallettes, most handy! : ) (and considering my miniature dependency problem, I'm unlikely to run out of them!)

That hornet is just awesome. It reminds me of tron. Seems like a lot of stuff does that recently. But yours is by far the best glowing effect I have seen

More Hornet work done : )
I did this last night, so I'm going to do a bit more tonight - enjoy

more work done on the Hornet. I'm not sure about doing markings on it now... it might make it a bit too fussy...

I think small markings from your craftworld on the armor sections would look great. Just don't put them all over the place

IMO I think it looks very Stealthy and Sleek...Adding Marking may pull away from that Tron look...I don't see any marking on their bikes or cars...Just Saying!

Nice, beautiful rich colours.

.. so, due to a slight basecoating accident, I had to restart the Hornet, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I did the Tron glow darker this time around, just using Hawks Turquoise. Changed my mind about the canopy and went for a contrasting colour. Final touches were the white fill-ins.

Not bad I guess, although I know I haven't gotten the knack of painting vehicles yet! (guess I'm going to have to wait until I get a super-heavy grav-tank )

enjoy

Stunning work as always. TheTron effect works very well for the model.

That is freakin cool. Nice job on the glow effect and the canopy. The end of the lances look a little plain though.

sum1thtdiesalot wrote:That is freakin cool. Nice job on the glow effect and the canopy. The end of the lances look a little plain though.

I agree!

Holy sweetness. Love the glow and the color you got for the window (cockpit hatch window thing - yes I have my own lingo).

I got me some Shadow Spectres (like anyone's surprised by my total lack of willpower).
Totally sweet models, and actually really nice to put together - no more or less tricky than the Guardians or Avengers.

I'm thinking pale greys with maybe blue or pink highlights to make it look pearlescent... maybe...

That effect on the hornet is brilliant!

That is a simply beautiful model. I cannot wait to see that painted.

I love the way those models look!

First Spectre started, and while I'm still not entirely convinced about my colour scheme, we'll see what happens.

Basecoat of a 2:1 Spacewolves Grey and Charadon Granite because I wanted a warm grey. Initially I was going to leave the fabric, but thought I'd do them that grey too so I can be free to make mistakes while I'm doing the armour. A wash of black over the top.

Crystals: hawks turqouise and white (1:1), then a wash of Hawks (which didn't do too much!) and then a wash Asurmen Blue - and that's where I am. More to come - highlighting next on the armour.

a little bit of work done tonight. Highlighted the chest, helmet and backpack, and then some more highlightingon the chest and helmet. Tried some pale blue and pink to aim for a pearlescent look... not sure about it yet - I need a decent reference picture to work from I think...

This shadow spectre looks amazing already. Love it.

a little bit more work done on the Spectre - cleaned up the legs, so they're ready for their highlight; also started to work some of the ribbons up to white on the back

Lookin very nice. Can't wait to see it finished

Stunning work, almost inspires me to buy up a ned Elfdar army. Those spectures are amazing models I know ull do them justice.

more work done. Armour done (bar the innevitable retouches), weapon blocked in and washed, and more work done on the ribbons. Not entirely sure what to do with the ribbons - just leave them white, or to add colour... tried adding some colour at the end of a ribbon - not convinced. Either needs to be stronger or totally white


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more importantly - as ever, thank you for the positive comments : )

Looks great so far. What if for the ribbons you made them go from light blue to white? I thhink that might look kinda cool

Wasn't too convinced about your armor color with the first pic of the back. When I scrolled down to the front pic though, wow! I truly think you captured a pearlescent vibe on the front. Maybe smooth out the backpack colors a bit more though. Great job.

so here's the Wasp with its undercoat of yellow ink : )

I think I'm going to do it yellow and dark grey, which is what I'm planning for a unit of Guardians too

Cool conversion. Very creative.
keep up the good work. I Think yellow and gray will look pretty cool

The Wasp washed with Gryph Sepia, and then a little bit of work done on the pilot - just the grey blocked in, I'll give it a wash of black to get some shading.

Love the depth on the wasp. So distinctive. I look forward to watching it finished.

The Wasp is really coming along...I really Like it!

a little bit more work done on the Wasp/Mosquito. Slow going, but I want to take care with this one.
Not entirely sure what to do with the wings - I feel as if I want to put some markings on there, but not too sure what...

Your work is quite stunning!
Very clean and crisp and colourful just as Eldar should be!

I also like very much seeing the progression of how you are laying down your colours! It fills my head full of all sorts of ideas

glad you're enjoying them logg_frogg, and that you're getting some ideas

Very beautiful work.

May I ask what yellow ink you are using? I'm trying to find something that will make my orange Eldar pop and think that might do the trick.

Your work is stunning! I really like how each unit has a range of color instead of each unit being made up of clones.

Very nice work your absence from the painting scene does not show.

SilverMK2 - it's the old GW yellow ink. One of the local stores happened to have one left in stock and I snagged it! I love it.

I've tried other artists inks, but they're a bit thick and they don't dry too evenly - I guess it's a case of trial and error...

NecronBender & NcronLord3 - thank you very much

I personally hate wasps. They scare me and their stings hurt...but yours is fantastic. I like this one very much.

What to do with the wings? Hmmm.

Well as I recall wasps have veins running through there wings so they can move them as needed. I also recall eldar often have lighting or thorn patterns that often could look like a wasps wing viens.

So I would say add some black lines/viens. In my imagination it seems to turn out alright but It could crow the model so I would do it sparsely. Or maybe just do the tips.

Well there's my 2 cents worth!

detailing on the wings - hasn't turned out too badly, although I could certainly wish for a steadier hand!

I should have gotten a shot of this, but I reversed the scheme on the underside of the wings - grey wings with yellow stripes. Pics next time!

Great freehand

That looks fantastic. The freehand looks great.

... not that I have the attention span of a fruitfly or anything... new Guardians, X-Men style! Lets face it, it was bound to happen sooner or later!
I got the simpler Guardians, so there's just the weapon arm left to stick on - I didn't attach it as I wanted to to the stripe down the torso. Not turned out too badly! Not sure what colour to do the weapon, so I'll have a think about that...

Very cool. Perhaps blue for the weapon to go with the gems?

Looks very effective so far.

Bone might be a nice contrast to the black. Or grey perhaps.

first half-squad of Guardians done, and they've turned out pretty well. This is speed painting for me - minimal highlighting and details.
The second half of the squad plus the weapons team coming up next

first of the Shadow Spectres finished. Don't think I've quite cracked it yet. I'm going to try for lighter armour and blue ribbons on the next one...

That spectre looks quite nice. That being said I think that adding blueer ribbons and making him lighter will look even better

Awesome!

Looks really fiddley. I can appreciate that from doing my howling griffons, but youve taken it a step further again!

The guardians look great! Only thing is, they look somewhat plain without the big gem on their gun painted. You could really extend the orange stripe to the gun with an orange gem.

I love the Shadow Spectre.

finnan wrote:first half-squad of Guardians done, and they've turned out pretty well. This is speed painting for me - minimal highlighting and details.
The second half of the squad plus the weapons team coming up next

These guys seem reminiscent of a football team (hand-egg for you brits). It looks a little odd in light of the other models, but if you throw a few shots of them together maybe I'll change my opinion. Excellent work though!

progress on the Guardians - most of them blocked in and a little work done on the weapon platform. A bit of tidying up to do on the Craftworld icon, just to make all the lines a consistent width.

Really like the freehand on that weapons platform, may i suggest adding a bit of highlighting to it to make is pop a bit more

The freehand there looks great! Have you decided on a gun color yet for the guardians?

... I'm being lazy on the gun colour lol
I'm going for Charadon, then a wash of black, then a couple of washes of blue. It does make a difference, but doesn't show up too well on the photos. I think what I might do when they'yre all done is go back and do some detailing on them, maybe a jewel and a couple of stripes, but nothing too major.

TheChronoTrigger: yeah, the icon is a bit flat at the moment (in line with my speed-painting, minimal highlighting for this bunch!) but I know what you mean. At the moment it's flat yellow because I had to correct some mistakes when I was doing it, so some whiter highlights in the corners would probably be a good idea

Very cool. The color scheme is great. It's simple, yet memorable and distinct. More please

Loving the color scheme!

The guns look good black (or granite). Just the gem needs to be coloured.

i litterally went WOW whne i saw those guardians, great job and also cool work on the spectre and the ship on the previous page.

Man, loving the work you're doing with them Guardians.

I've read your whole blog and it's amazing. Everything looks amazing. Well Done!

Also if you don't mind me asking how did you paint your Eldar Hornet to make the glow look so life like?

Great job on everything by the way.

thank you all for the kind words - as ever, it's nice to have my stuff appreciated (and to know that I'm doing stuff right! lol)

Porcupine: someone else asked me about the Tron Glow, and here's what I replied:
it was actually fairly easy (once I'd gone wrong a few times and learned from my mistakes!)... the first attempt I think I did the glow too wide, and it was a bit overwhelming. That also might be because it was quite a light colour - Hawks Turquoise and white. When I started to redo it, I had a look at light sabres, and the glow around them is actally fairly muted, so I just went for pure Hawks the second time around. It looks really strong against the grey, but gets knocked back A LOT when I put the white in. If I really wanted to go the extra mile, I would have done a hawks:white highlight, but that might have been too much.
So tip no.1: don't make the glow colour too light.

How I did it: blocked in all the dark colour and then did the glow colour over the top. As usual, I just thinned down the Hawks and then applied it in lots of thin layers - so thin I could barely see it applying. I did thin layers, so while it took quite a few layers, it wasn't too slow to do.
Tip no.2: thin down the paint 1:5 paint:water, and just have a little patience when building up the tone. I used a 000 brush so it wasn't heavy-handed or anything.

After I'd done the glow, I thinned down some Skull White so it'd flow a bit better and dropped it into the recesses as the actual light source.

That's about it really. It wasn't the most exciting painting job, but it came out okay, so the effort paid off.

hope that helps : )

Thanks for your reply finnan, it's very help full.

Will this painting technique work on a Necron abyss base coat?

Also you don't mind if I use this glow effect on my eldar tanks do you?

Thanks again.

You're more than welcome I don't see why it wouldn't work - Necron Abyss is pretty dark, so if you use a lighter colour for the glow, it should stand out enough.

Of course I don't mind!

I like where you have been going with the army...I would like to see some photos of the guardians beside the tanks you did earlier.

donno if you caught this but the bottom of the gun platform looks like it's crackling on the surface. Looks like a bad priming from the one photo. May want to recheck to see.

Otherwise, nothing but great things in this thread, Great new take on guardians.

just had a look at the platform, can't see any crackling... might be the aggressive drybrushing I did on them all lol
the plan for the platform is to tidy up the yellow more than I did on the guardians - larger, flatter areas are more unforgiving of the Basecoat, Wash & Drybrush The Hell Out Of It process, particularly yellow (which is almost as bad as white for getting it nice and flat!)

Guardians done : )
They've turned out okay for a quick job, and I quite like the weapons team.
Not the best shots, so I'll try again later, but you get the idea : )

They look like little fire-lights in the dark. I love them!