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So I have finally decided to paint my army one solid scheme. I am so scatter-brained and wishy-washy but i have finally decided! DUN DUN DUN. And since i am going to put the time in to do this, i want to do it right. So i plan to base my army in the process. The scheme I want to do is based off of the following pictures. It is from the Imperial armour 11 book. I've always loved snow themes and this seemed to be perfect.










So based off of this guide and trying to achieve a similar look, I started my eldar. I did a few test models to see what would work the best. I tried priming in white, grey, and black. Then base coated with ceramite white. When primed white I only required one thin coat of ceramite white To get good coverage. But my white primer isnt as smooth as I would like. It is sort of dusty. The grey primer Could still be covered with the ceramite white in 1-2 coats depending how thin I made it. The black required 3 thin coats. So for the bulk of my army i will prime grey.

Next I washed with nuln oil to get some shading. This brought the white down some which is what I wanted. I then went back over with a very thin ceramite white for highlights. The guns i did with black and grey mixture. I didnt want them to be true black, but agaisnt a white model it will still seem so. I used golden griffon and dry brushed the shoulder pads and some accessories with it. The new dry range citadel paints are very odd. But seem to work well enough. I also gave the black gun highlights with the gold drybrush. Then I washed the shoulders with nuln oil and highlighted with burnished gold.

For the bases I used a snow material and elmers glue. I found that pre mixing them gave the best effect for packed snow. I will continue to experiment with ways to make the snow and try to find what is best. Here are my test models. They are far from perfect but as they are just 3/30 of the guardians (not even counting the rest of my army) I will be doing, I know I will improve as I get more done.





Now onto the rest of the guardians. Here they are primed grey...



This guardian Tore his hamstring


And here are some in the next phase of basing them white...



I will continue to update the thread with progress. I was hoping starting a thread on this would keep me motivated. So please, comments and criticism are much welcome.

Thanks and enjoy!

Here is my work in progress scratch built skyshield landing pad. The goal is to make it look like its an ice structure or a landing pad encased by ice. Well see how it turns out.

Here are the 4 pillars being glued together. I will have to scuplt/ cut them down to look like ice pilars.

Mould lines!!! :-(

I know it sounds daft but well, it looks a bit white.
I think you may need to try to get some other tones in there to help seperate the models from the bases.

This is feeling like a Blog. You should make a Blog....BLOG!!!!!!!!!!

Im really digging the progress though, I love me some snow based minis

Why don't you add some very light blue to the base or as a highlight?

Always had a soft spot for snow themed armies.

I agree with ExNoctem some ice blue for highlights or maybe a very dilluted blue wash to give them a bit more of a frosty look might help bring out the details.

Great ideas for the blue! That would really help with the snow look! And since these are only the guardians and there are 30 of them, I was just trying to get down the technique and process. With my Hq's and wraithlords and guard I plan to make them more eccentric.

I also Saw a cool idea on making icicles. You heat up a clear flying stand stick and pull it apart and the melted clear plastic makes little icicles that you can glue onto your bases.

Any idea on what I should be trying to make this blue wash with? is there any Citadel paint I can try to base the tone and hue from?

I'd say Lothern Blue/Ice Blue or Fenrisian Grey/Space Wolves Grey would be your best bets. If you make a wash from them it then it may look good. I haven't tried it though.

Oh no! The mold lines!!! They really damage an otherwise great-looking scheme/idea. I like what you're doing, but clean those mold lines if it's not too late.



Ghidorah

Lol everyone hates my mould lines. What do you guys use to clean then up?

I have some small files, but what I usually use is just reverse-scraping with my knife. It really helps smooth irregular edges.

 Razgriz22 wrote:
Lol everyone hates my mould lines. What do you guys use to clean then up?

Mostly, just drag a razor sideways across the lines and they come right off. But as Flinty mentioned, if some are really stubborn a file works

So I got back to work on this army after a busy weekend and monday. I felt like working on the scratch built landing pad. Got a good bit done. The idea is that its sort of an ice plateau, or even a landing pad completely covered in snow and ice. The rough shape is complete and now gluing.

Wow, that's really great. Foam cutters really do nice work (I gotta get one rather than the blade I use).

Yea foam KILLLLLLS blades. IDK why but its consistency just dulls them so fast. The foam cutter was a little bit of an investment but pays off int he long run (35$ i think?)

Today I got a little further on my landing pad as shown bellow. Im in the process of base coating it in grey.





I tried to give a little blue to the snow but wasnt entirely happy with it. Im still trying to perfect the art of snow here. I have 30 guardians to get it down :-)

duuude, that is an awesome pad! I wanna see it painted!

I glue and sand my base paint ultharian grey once dry I dry brush sotec blue followed by lothern blue then scar white. After that add patches of snow leaving some of the icy patches to come through, that way you get some flashes of colour come through.