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So, I've got some Wood Elf Wardancers and I want to give them some excellent magical swords. I'm only a moderate painter, so techniques like NMM are a no-go area for me I'm afraid.

I've looked at the pics on the GW website and I'd like something that looks a bit like that, but a little more understated if possible. Any advice you could give me & pics or links to the finished product would be very much appreciated.

Also, I'm really not sure if this has been covered elsewhere, please point me in the right direction if so. My search-fu is weak I'm afraid...

Cheers guys & gals

I'm not quite sure how to do this but you could try using bright colors like Scorpion Green, Tentacle Pink, or maybe Ice Blue. Just remember to use an "aggressive" highlight on these, if you know what I mean.

Perhaps try the Vallejo florescent paints?

Never actually used them myself, but they give a good effect from what I've seen.

I'm sure some who has used them will be able to prove or disprove this Idea for you.

Right well after looking at the photos of wardancers on the GW website, what they have done seems pretty simple.

To me, it seems they have just painted the weapons with boltgun metal then added a slight metallic highlight with maybe mithril silver.

After this they have glazed the weapon with something like hawk turqoise, and just varied the amount of the glaze they have used along the blade to get the colour gradient they have.

What i mean by the glaze amount, is they have used it quite heavily at the base of the blade and probably pulled it along the length of the blade to get the fading look.

A quick and easy way:

Lets say you want it green (just an example here)

basecoat the sword mithril silver.
Wash it with a watered down dark green (DA green)
Highlight it with mithril silver again (making sure it shows around the edges)
Wash it a 2nd time with a very light green (scorpion green)
Do a final and very slight highlight with mithril silver.

You can also add a small skull white highlight to the edge aswell if you want a sort of glow.

Something i've tried that looks very unique:

Basecoat any metallic silver.
Mix a brighter color in a 5:1 ratio with rubbing alcohol. Mix it thoroughly.
Quickly dip the weapon in this mix, before the pigments settle to the bottom.
Hold the mini with the point of the sword pointing down while the mix dries.

Repeat steps 2-4 until desired effect is achieved.
Then lightly drybrush a contrasting color onto the edges.

Canonness Rory wrote:Something i've tried that looks very unique:

Basecoat any metallic silver.
Mix a brighter color in a 5:1 ratio with rubbing alcohol. Mix it thoroughly.
Quickly dip the weapon in this mix, before the pigments settle to the bottom.
Hold the mini with the point of the sword pointing down while the mix dries.

Repeat steps 2-4 until desired effect is achieved.
Then lightly drybrush a contrasting color onto the edges.

Pics?

A good way to paint things like that is thus

Base paint. The paint it either boltgun metal or mithril silver. (depending on how much metal you want to shine through) The simply use a wash or a light drybrush over the metal. That way the shine from the metal paint shines through the color you choose. It looks really cool. You might want to try it with a few different colors on some type of practice piece so you can get the color you want

Wow, thanks for all the replys! Loads of ideas to have a go at, I'll be busy it seems...

@Cannonness Rory, do you have any pics of the finished result of your method?

Winter wrote:Right well after looking at the photos of wardancers on the GW website, what they have done seems pretty simple.

To me, it seems they have just painted the weapons with boltgun metal then added a slight metallic highlight with maybe mithril silver.

After this they have glazed the weapon with something like hawk turqoise, and just varied the amount of the glaze they have used along the blade to get the colour gradient they have.

What i mean by the glaze amount, is they have used it quite heavily at the base of the blade and probably pulled it along the length of the blade to get the fading look.

I agree with the above .