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Just hoping to get an opinion or two here -- working out the color scheme for my Grave Guard and he's basically completed, but I'm feeling iffy on the weapon. Do you think that the blue is too subdued to be a magical glowing wightblade of awesomeness? Should it be a brighter blue, or perhaps red to tie the GG in better with the rest of my army (which will follow a more traditional black / red theme) and break up the blueness of the model? Or should I just scrap the glowing wightblade of doom idea and tarnish the blade like the rest of the model? Thanks in advance for any opinions or advice!

I like the idea of the magical blade... but blue might not stand out the way you want it to. I like the idea of the red weapon, it'd obviously be magical looking and much more striking. Personally I would be a fan of a subdued green, but I dunno if you'd want to expand your color palette that much. But I do like the blue you have already painted, nice style, I think it's better than what I can do with blue!

But yeah, glowing wightblade of doom idea is a good one.

Good luck, and I expect pictures when you are done!

It might just be the pic, but it's hard to make out the blue. Maybe do a metallic base coat, and blend the blue to white to tarnished metal?

Thank you for the responses -- and Dez, I think I love that idea! I'll have to give it a go and see if I can manage it, but I think that could look really awesome and make it seem like the weapon is still a rusted old piece of crap, but that it's all super uber and spiffy in the hands of the grave guard. My head is like.. crying out in pain at the idea of trying to blend rust into blue/white, but.. I guess we'll see. Thank you, thank you!

You could try two things if you wanted to adjust it (Which I think it looks fine as it, remember these guys will be ranked up);

You could add rust by using Tamiya Rust ash. Basically, think mascara in the form of rust. You 'brush' it on. Warstore has it, it's cheap and works well (The WW2 guys use it a great deal).

Or, you could add OSL. Nothing makes a glowing weapon pop like OSL and it's really not difficult to do.

Again, just some thoughts typed out....I think it looks fine as is.

Cheers

AgeOfEgos wrote:You could try two things if you wanted to adjust it (Which I think it looks fine as it, remember these guys will be ranked up);

You could add rust by using Tamiya Rust ash. Basically, think mascara in the form of rust. You 'brush' it on. Warstore has it, it's cheap and works well (The WW2 guys use it a great deal).

Or, you could add OSL. Nothing makes a glowing weapon pop like OSL and it's really not difficult to do.

Again, just some thoughts typed out....I think it looks fine as is.

Cheers

I can second the Tamiya Rust ash, it's great and my boss at hobbyland fell in love with the stuff when it came out. It'd be interesting to see how you incorporate if you use it.

Everything on the model looks terrific but the blue bits, to me. Blue strikes me as a high elf or dwarf color, as far as glowy magic items go. The tarnished armor, bone and red all compliment each other very well, but the cool colors look off. Maybe coppery green with green/yellow witch light edges? Ireally like the red around the arm bones, maybe you could bring it up to the wings on the helm?

I would really like to see some larger images of whole model, especially the armor...

Yep the tamiya stuff is great. You will have to use some sealer though when you're done so you don't wipe it off when you play I use testors flat laquer spray, it dulls down the metals too but if you don't like that part it just takes a quick drybrush to get the shine back.

But I agree the bright color of the blade just stands out too much, you got such a cool rust effect going on with the armor, it'd be great to see it on the blade too.. i dunno how to get the rusty yet magical & crackley kind of look though :(

I've never tried the Tamiya rust stuff, but I'm not really sure how I'd feel about using it.. I know it's silly, but it always feels like cheating to me to use things like that (and not that I care if other people use specialized paints / verdigris / minwax / etc). I think I'm just a masochist and like to punish myself by making everything take forever.

Kirby: I was actually kind of thinking about bringing the red up to the wings on the helmet.. even using the same exact colors for blue on the legs / helmet, I still don't feel like they match quite right, and I do feel like the model is too blue. My heart is pretty set on a blue theme overall, however. I feel in love with a picture in the Vampire Counts book with a blueish Grave Guard and nothing will do but to have something similar ^_^ I am going to give serious thought to switching up the color on the helm, though. I think I'll try out Dez's idea of the rust-fade thing and go with the helmet from there.

Anyway, if you wanted to see the armor a little bit better, there are some pictures in this thread that show the armor more closely.

Everything is really well painted, nice work. As for the color choices, I feel the bright blue should only show up once or twice on the model.

Specifically, if the weapon is blue (which it does look sweet), then his arms and helm should be tarnished. Or only his helm crests could be blue and the rest a pile of rust. This would help give the blue it's special "scary" value and keep it from overpowering the "I just rose from the grave and I'm really cranky!" aesthetic.

The blue says 'alive' to me.

I think a green or a purple would do better than the blue.

Not really a big fan of the light blue. It's a little too bright for me. A wight blade screams for a darker color IMO, but not sure if that works out with the overall lighter palette you're using.

Well, if you are really a masochist why dont you make it a really dark blue and paint multiple screaming faces/souls on the blade... that'd lighten it back up a bit, and would certainly give it the "magical" touch.

That would be ridiculously awesome, but I'm not that much of a masochist ^_^ I still have like 100 models to paint so that I can play a game with someone other than hubby! I'm also not sure that, even were I that much of a masochist, that I'm that much of a painter! I'd imagine that is well beyond my current level of skill. It would look freaking awesome, though..

Oh, ok, I see, fine then, don't paint super cool faces of screaming death on your swords!

I'm with Stelek on this one - I think a nice necrotic green or purple would be better than the blue...

Meh.


I tried to go for something like.. the weapon being rusted and cruddy, with the crud slowly cracking away as the power of the wight flows through the blade.. but I think what I ended up with was a crusty weapon with blue squigglies drawn on it. Anyone have any tips for how to make it look less fake?

Also, the more I look at my pictures, the more I realize that I need to pick out his teeth better.. he looks like a toothless, gummy old man or something.

Also, the more I look at my pictures, the more I realize that I need to pick out his teeth better.. he looks like a toothless, gummy old man or something.

"Old" might be a slight understatement.

For the crust on the weapon. Well so far im having little rust troubles myself. But perhaps painting it, as it was in the very first picture and then applying the crud might work better, especially if the paint is a little thick, since the crud is covering something underneath it might be a good idea to paint flakes of it over the thing it's covering as in real life, the thicker paint should add a little depth to the flakes. You could also try making the crud in matt finish while making the blade gloss, that might also make it look like the dry dirt is peeling away from a shiny weapon underneath. Hope this helps in the slightest.

I think it looks really good, and goof has some great suggestions. What I recommend is maybe having the very edge of the blade be all blue/white and then receding into rust and decay? Kinda like a volcano:

The volcano idea isn't bad... maybe use the technique for the ogre kingdoms weapons on the rear, blended/stipled into the powered blue edge? That might just be the way to go.

Otherwise, if you want crud falling off of your blade, perhaps just make the crackling blue more irregular, with larger patches falling off instead of just squiggles. Maybe ( ) even mix up a little sand in the paint for the crud, so it actually has true depth to it.

Yay for real crud!

The volcano kind of fading into the blade from energy on the edges is what I do to my power weapons/force weapons. I have a brighter blue on the edges of a black or silvered blade and dry brush different hues of energy-y looking colors, I finish it off with a little bit of the etching like the energy is skittering to the center of the blade but I suck at that. I personally think it looks really good as is though. Although it does look slightly blunt, if that makes sense.

Typeline wrote:The volcano kind of fading into the blade from energy on the edges is what I do to my power weapons/force weapons. I have a brighter blue on the edges of a black or silvered blade and dry brush different hues of energy-y looking colors, I finish it off with a little bit of the etching like the energy is skittering to the center of the blade but I suck at that. I personally think it looks really good as is though. Although it does look slightly blunt, if that makes sense.

Any chance we could see a pic for reference?

Yes, I'd love to see a picture for reference / inspiration! And really, thank you everyone for your responses. I'm going to rework the blade tomorrow if I get a chance, and I'll post more pictures.. I'll probably end up having to strip it down before I get it right x.x

Stripping an entire Ork army hurts :<

i have to admit i do love the idea of blue grave guard. i did like the cruddy blade with the magical cracks all over it too, i just think you need a more vibrant blue.