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Guys, maybe you can help....

I've been searching the web for quite some time now and just don't seem to be able to find a step by step guide on how to paint Eldar Swooping Hawks.

What I'm trying to achieve is this:


Question is: How do you achieve such a result? Are there already guides or step by step tutorials out there? Any suggestions or maybe good alternatives?

Appreciate any help

Elo

I have never even touched a swooping hawk, but looking at the model and the codex (which suggests some colours) I think I can give this a go for you:

Well the Codex actually only suggests one useful colour which is "Hawk Turquoise"... another colour I have never seen. Buuut judging from the colour indicator I'd imagine it's the basecoat (what I took to be Enchanted Blue). Anyhoo, just in case I'll not use it in a little step by step:

Assemble the model without the head if it is possible. Paint the head totally white.

Body:
1. Undercoat the model white.
2. Apply a basecoat either by painting or spraying on a complete coat of Enchanted Blue over EVERYTHING (unless manually painting it on; in which case, leave the gun)
3. Give a generous wash over the entire model using 50/50 badab black and Ultramarine Blue.
4. Touch up any stray splatters and such with a nice square layer of Enchanted Blue over every flat raised area (except on the wings and gun).
5. Apply a thick highlight of Ice Blue,on the raised areas leaving Enchanted Blue only in areas where you want shading (look, for example, at the middle of the knee pads in the picture). Paint the blue feathers with Ice Blue.
6. Apply a Badab Black wash to the wings and then paint the white wings with Skull White, using more than one layer if necessary.
7. Paint the gun chaos black.
8. Apply a 60/40 Chaos Black/Codex Grey highlight onto the raised areas, but only those facing a light source (to put it simply... those pointing upwards!)
9. Apply a fine highlight to the gun with Codex Grey.
10. Paint the "gems" on the gun with Codex Grey.
11. Highlight said gems with fortress grey, leaving Codex Grey on the lower edges.
12. Put a little spot of skull white on the very top of the gem.
13. Apply a *fine* Skull White highlight on all the armour and blue feather edges.
14. Paint the gold broaches and jewelery (on which the gems rest) Mithril Silver. Then add Sshining Gold.
15. Paint the gems on the armour Chaos Black. Then add on Scab Red, Blood Red and Blazing Orange in the same way we did on the gun's gems. Finally add a little *tiny* spot of skull white to look like light reflecting.

For Biel-tan (like in the photo):
16. Paint the wing bones(?) Dark Angels Green.
17. Apply lighting on the top with 50/50 Dark Angels Green
18. Apply a fine edge highlight with Goblin Green.


Head:
1. Paint the faceplate and vents Codex Grey.
2. Paint the broaches as we did on the body.
3. Paint the piping (on the back of the helmets) Chaos Black.
4. Highlight them with a Codex Grey drybrush ('cos it's easy).
5. Paint the faceplate white again leaving a very fine amount of the Codex Grey in the recesses.
6. Paint the eyes Scab Red. Apply a dominant splodge of Blood Red and then a fine dot of Blazing Orange.

For the Exarch:
1. Paint the white parts of the crest Codex Grey.
2. Layer on Fortress grey, leaving Codex Grey in tiny spots near the helmet.
3. Highlight with Skull White.
4. Paint the green parts Dark Angels Green. If you are feeling lazy, leave them white and apply watered down DA green to gain an illusion of shading... you can then skip step 5.
5. Highlight with Dark Angels Green.

All done

If you water down your paints properly and correctly identify the different parts of the model, I am 90% certain you'll end up with a great result

And I wish I could take credit for what I've suggested... but it's pretty much an adaptation of the GW guide for Dire Avengers




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If you couldn't detech the head and used a spraygun... Just do the head steps as normal but obviously paint it white first

I know these aren't plastic but I like to paint my Eldar heads whilst they are still on the sprue

First of all, thank you for your feedback and the step by step guide! Heck of a thing you did there, appreciate it

My Swoops are only black for now... primed them that way for some reason as I thought that this would give the model an overall "darker" feel and would make sense since you have those black recesses. I was inspired by the Banshees, looking at how the official GW guide starts off with black and then slowly builds them up.... Thing is, I know wonder whether that was a mistake and I should have primed them white as you suggested. I ve never done it, but is it safe to spray white over black or vice versa? Or will you loose detail?

Anyway, that s straying off the actual topic....
I had a look at Hawk Turquoise and was wondering whether it would have a more matching effect than enchanted blue in terms of using it as a base coat.

Here the color itself:


and as comparison Enchanted Blue:


What do you think, which of them resembles the effect on the above models more?

Elo

You're quite welcome.

Iin the case of Dire Avengers (pics of which I have just finished uploading if you want to see what I'm talking about... I'll edit this post when I get a thread up about them) the "darker" recesses that you see on the model are created with a 50/50 Regal Blue/Badab Black wash. As you coat the ENTIRE model with this it significantly darkens the colour. So, to answer your question, I'd say test it for yourself and see what the blue looks like *after* washing. Bear in mind that you will be using the same blue again as a layered highlight over your stained basecoat! However, with this in mind I'd say out of the two perhaps Turquoise would indeed look better, as the model is lighter!

As for the primer... Blue isn't as finicky as other colours over a black basecoat. This is untested territory but, since you are quite right about applying a white coat over the top causing a loss of detail (though this isn't so bad on a metal model) you may want to try applying the Turquoise (Enchanted Blue would likely be too dark) with only a *light* Badab Black wash over the top of that. I can't really vouch that it'll work but it will certainly salvage some detail!

Your call


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Addendum:

As a shameless self-promotion, here are the Avengers...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/335681.page#2262611

They were painted in the method I mentioned above and you can see that I had to do a second coat of Ultramarines Blue to cover up the wash's mess (though it looks good in the recesses).

Unfortunately you can't see it so well on the one detailed shot as the mini in question has bewbs and is thus too smooth for the wash to do its best Try to distinguish it in the group shots I guess...

Think I might go for the riskier option: priming it once again with black
I tried in on a guardian today (was gonna go for biel tan but then decided that ulthwe was wayy cooler) and it looks fine!

Will post the results in here once ready.

Thanks m8 for the help so far!

With white

And I guess that if you are spraying from a decent distance it won't look *too* bad.

Plus you're lucky in the sense that they are A. Metal and B. Eldar... so most of the shapes look organic anyway


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Btw looking closer at the pic the "white" feathers might actually be Space Wolves Grey...

Hey, I hope this isn't considered threadomancy, since this is a painting guide after all. My Dire Avengers, I think I will upload them. I think they look better than Henners91's, don't mind me saying...lol. What is this about the white undercoat destroying and covering up details? Please tell. As a bonus, let me teach you an awesome way to paint white helmets and other features. First undercoat it black or white, I believe black would be better. Than you put on a basecoat of Ice Blue. Right after that, wetbrush white over the basecoat, I believe that's what you do. And the effect looks gorgeous! If I am not wrong, that's how they teach you to paint Dire Avengers on the GW website. Go check that out. Too bad, they don't tell how to paint Swooping Hawks, which is a real shame. Also, you should use Hawk Turquoise, not because GW recommended it, it will be a waste of your money, since little else uses that particular paint. Plus, as you have noted, it is lighter than Enchanted Blue so it should be perfect for those Swooping Hawks!

Btw, Elowyn, here's a site that shows a Swooping Hawks Painting Tutorial. The part on drybrushing your Swooping Hawks over with a very little amount of white, I foresee to be exceptionally useful towards your goal of painting them like those models in that poster. That's my aim as well .

http://www.miniwargaming.com/content/NGuCOAYz58rK