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Hey, Dakka.

I've been wanting to ask you for your advice, regarding my colour scheme for my Eldars. I've been busy lately, and, well... Also kinda lazy, when it comes to painting my stuff. But no more!

So... What I need you to do is two things:
- Help me figure out which colours to use for the colour scheme in the pictures below.
- Some advice/opinions on which colours goes WHERE on the models. (Like painting gold everywhere will make your army too shiny etc.)

Farseer


Warlock


Guardian


Falcon


Autarch


So basically, the idea is white as the primary, followed by black for things like helmets, shoulderpads etc. Gems, slik clothing and the like would be the greyish blue and jewellery and other sorts of symbols gold. That's all I got for now... But if you got an idea for a colour to add to the scheme, or which areas to colour which colours, I'm all ears!
Thanks in advance,
Bill'

go for it I like it.

Haha, thanks, smitty. But I wasn't really asking if I should go for the scheme or not, but rather which colours to use - both as base and for shadows and highlights

I see pain in your future with this paint scheme.
Its a lot of white. a lot....
If you areup for it and already have a bit of experience with painting then go for it.

I have been painting for 4 years and i wouldn't touch that scheme.

As far as color. White. and then for the goldish color i would go for a mix of Bone white and Snakebite 1:1 or 1:2
test it and see what you like.

Undercoat white (spray paint) and add a light coat of badab black wash at the end to shadow it.

dorantana wrote:I see pain in your future with this paint scheme.
Its a lot of white. a lot....
If you areup for it and already have a bit of experience with painting then go for it.

I have been painting for 4 years and i wouldn't touch that scheme.

As far as color. White. and then for the goldish color i would go for a mix of Bone white and Snakebite 1:1 or 1:2
test it and see what you like.

I'm not that experienced as a painter, so... Why the scepticism about white colours?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

SilverMK2 wrote:Undercoat white (spray paint) and add a light coat of badab black wash at the end to shadow it.

I was thinking about a diluted badab black to prevent the shadows from becoming too strong.. And then working up the white from a darker grey into a lighter grey, and finish with pure Skull White.

- But how about the rest of the colours?

I would be spraying them white, so if you did that could probably do most of them using washes, or paints thinned to wash consistency.

The blues could be done with a light purple wash followed by a blue wash.

Yellow can be done with something like a light brown wash (with whatever the new version of bestial brown is thinned to a wash), with something like golden yellow (again thinned to a wash) over the top.

For the blacks, paint with a dark grey, then a heavy badab black wash on top.

Then a very light badab black wash over the whole model.

Hey Silver, I have only been painting for a year and the reason people are intimidated by white is because it takes a lot of skill to pull it off. Some of the reasons being...

1: White by nature is a chunky paint to so do a smoothe coat you have to do several layers. Which is very very time consuming when doing many minis.

2: White requires a lot of brush control. Of you accidently dab a blob of red or something in it and dont get it off quickly, trying to cover that blemish up properly can take some time. Imagine doing all your white first, then painting all of your other colors only to notice during the touch-up / clean stage that you have several sloppy brush marks on the white to clean up. Then imagine doing that 50+ times.

3: White armies require a finess to pull off. If done improperly you will have a blob of white on the table. White can be challenging to shade and with the chunky factor, if your not careful you'll have a buncha guys who look like a seagull took a dookie all over them.


There are more reasons I'm pretty sure but those are the most common I think.

If you are going to be doing white I would recommend a few things to invest in. Will really help.

Go get either the GW "Flamer Airbrush" and use that to base coat your minis. Or buy a cheap airbrush for basing them evenly. White can be easy to work with if you properly thin it down. I use Liquitex ( I think thats what its called) to thin my paints. With white since it is a thicker color in general you will add more liquitex. For a color like say blood red, I usually use a 50/50 mix of Liquitex to paint.

White spary primer can be pretty grainy. With the airbrush your first coat will be silky smoothe.

After you get the white base coat on everything, go carefully paint the other parts of the mini. The gems, black cloth and helms, etc etc. Then when all those are finished carefully touch up the messups using several moderatly watered down layers of white.

Once the touch ups are done. Do a wash of the new nulian oil. Dont do that straight from the pot though. I would water it down about 70% water, 30% nulian Oil.

Let the wash fully dry. Then start with your watered down white and blend up the the cracks in the armor. Make sure if you can to not get any white in the recesses. When working with watered down paint the most awesome thing is...if you accidently get something where it shouldn't be you can quickly clean your brush off, leave some of the water from your cleaning pot on it, and rub the oopsie away. You can also smudge it away with your pinky or whatever too.

Hope this helps, didnt mean to write you a novel. I am currently trying to master Bone coloring and at first I was chunky paint city. The best thing you can do is practice, have patience with the white, and remember...thin thin thin, layer layer layer

Cheers!

-FatBoy-

Practice is indeed key. Try one or two test models before diving into the whole army so you know what you're going to do before you get everything half painted and change your mind.

Starting with a white basecoat is the way to go, as has been said several times. Myself, I simply lined all the creases (very carefully!) with thinned down Codex Grey (whatever silly name that may have now).

Hey again, and uh, thanks for the long replies

@Silver
What I am currently about, is to undercoat white, base white, and then work up the colors I intend to use.

Base colours are:
- Skull White
- Chaos Black
- Shadow Grey
- Snakebite Leather (base for the gold colors)

But I see you've got a whole other approach than I've been having in mind for the white. Seems very interesting. I'm currently testing back and forth on some test models, to see what works and what doesn't. I'll definitely try yours out.

@FatBoy
Haha... I love novels. So thanks!

I already own an airbrush. But I haven't painted in a very long time, so... I haven't used it yet. But I've heard from several sources already, that it gives a nice, smooth layer of paint. So I might just take you up on that. I might need to look some further about thinning mediums, but I figure you could easily get those, if you know where to look or ask..?

Regarding your three points, I fully agree. But I tend to be a fighter about those things. Practice makes perfect, as they say. And if you know you risk spoiling your mini's on mistakes, you're much more careful.
- Currently, I'm using Vallejo Model Color (converted from the Citadel equivalents), and with great result. They are said to contain more pigment, and the paint covers very smoothly as well! I actually haven't had trouble with my whites - not even when diluted (I always dilute 1:1 paint:water).

Well, anyways, thanks a whole lot for the novel - highly appreciated

@hungryp
And practice it is! I am, as I just wrote, working on some test models. I'm not touching my real-deal mini's until I'm certain of what I want.

But thanks for the advice!


Kindest regards,
Bill'