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So, i'm going to be starting on Eldar Jetbikes. The bikes i'd like to be red and black with green gems. The pilots wearring black armor with white and red helmets. I'm not sure which colors to use for the primers, base coats, highlights, and washes (if any). I'd also like to try my hand at freehanding some of the bike markings and banners. What would be the best way to go about that?

If anyone would like to offer some advice i'd greatly appreciate it.

To start, do you want your bikes to have a dark or a bright look? For dark, go with a black undercoat, for bright, go with white. This is important as it will determine which colours you will need to attain the desired effect.

From your description, I'll assume that most of your model will be dark.

Spray prime the whole thing with chaos black.

Carefully paint the areas that you want to be coloured with a few thin coats of skull white.

Paint the bits you want to be red with the red foundation paint (or blood red if you don't have that). Paint the gems with dark angels green.

It is very important at this point to make sure that you have a nice even coverage of paint all over the model. Go back and tidy up any bits that you think look out of place/streaky/etc...

Start to build up your highlights: Mix a little white into your black and paint it along the edges of the model where it would naturally catch the light. Do the same for the red parts by mixing a little white into the red.

For the white areas, mix some ice blue paint with alot of water (about 15 drops of water for every drop of paint) then paint it carefully over the whole area. Once this has dried, paint white over the top, taking care to leave the blue in the recesses of the armour.

Finish your highlights by adding a little more white to your red and black paints and applying the mix to the very edges of you previously highlighted areas.

Thin down your black and red paints as you did with the ice blue and paint the resulting wash over the appropriate areas to help blend your highlights.

There are some excellent tutorials on the GW website about painting gems so i won't repeat them, here. Just do a search on google or the main GW website.

Hope this helps!

Thank you very much.

Q: How do you water down/mix your paint? What do you use?

Thanks again.

Gems are really, really hard to do well. This is what I show everyone, it is a really good guide for gems/lenses etc.: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?community=&catId=cat380004&categoryId=400035&pIndex=1&aId=1100010&start=2

I'd start out with a black primer, with a Mechrite Red base coat, and Red Gore as the primary color with drybrushed Blood Red for highlights. Then Baal Red wash it to mix the highlights with the base. If you want something darker, then Badab Black wash after that makes it turn a very interesting shade of red.

Banners and what not are easy to free-hand. Just get a really fine pencil and draw out the design, then paint over it.

Thanks for the link.

Any suggestions for making clean strait lines between red and black sections on the "hood" of the bike?

You could use masking tape, but i think this is a good opportunity to practise your freehand skills. Remember that it will be easier to paint black over red than the other way around, so don't worry if you mess up a little when painting the red stripes; a steady hand and some black paint will soon fix it.

I just use water to thin down my paints, although quite a few people i know use an acrylic medium (available at most craft shops) which produces a better consistency overall.