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Looking at the new guardian defender models and I can’t help but think they have been painted a bit boring by GW, which is surprised as these are marketing images. But there’s 3/4 colours per model and 1 colour covering most of the model, it’s like space marines but without the detail on the power armour to add extra colour.

I think you could glam up these models these models with more colours I’m just surprised GW didn’t do that


What do you think?

They're painted to "achievable" standards. The studio painters could absolutely do all kinds crazy freehand and blending but they stick to layers and edge highlighting so that it doesn't alienate people who can't paint to that standard. It also means if people aren't bothering to paint because they won't reach that standard they aren't selling those people paints or brushes.

Also, with CWE, you don't want too many colours on each unit. The Aspect Warriors take care of any missing colours.

mrFickle wrote:
detail on the power armour

lolwut?

most of GW's SM paintjobs are 3 colors too, just like guardians

It's the marketing material, it has to be shown in a way that the average consumer will be able to replicate.
If GW was marketing its models with a high level of painting skill like these:

I can guarantee you people would be hugely put off on getting said models.

It’s also a legacy of Rogue Trader, where fancy paint jobs were solely for Golden Daemon. Everything was big and bold primary colours.

Given most people love the look of the models from what I’ve read, I’d say the paint jobs have done the trick. And they’re a basic troop with less detail so going to town on them wouldn’t be the norm. They look great to me!

 Skinnereal wrote:
Also, with CWE, you don't want too many colours on each unit. The Aspect Warriors take care of any missing colours.

My thoughts exactly.

The main problem with CWE paintjobs is the common interpretation of how wraithbone has to look like a dull, flat plastic. But then most of official GW paintjobs are horrible, because of the very philosophy behind GW color palettes - that you should be able to discern every subfaction in the game from 10 meters away and do that by using 3 colors and basic painting skills. Long gone are the days when Harlequins actually looked like murder clowns, nowadays half of the mask schemes look like sad elfs, because someone stained their goth trench coats with a bad, rhombus graffiti.

mrFickle wrote:
Looking at the new guardian defender models and I can’t help but think they have been painted a bit boring by GW, which is surprised as these are marketing images. But there’s 3/4 colours per model and 1 colour covering most of the model, it’s like space marines but without the detail on the power armour to add extra colour.

I think you could glam up these models these models with more colours I’m just surprised GW didn’t do that


What do you think?

All armies are painted now to fit the "Battle Ready" they are pushing. They started painting their minis like this awhile ago, some special models will get the better treatment like normal.

 Amishprn86 wrote:
All armies are painted now to fit the "Battle Ready" they are pushing. They started painting their minis like this awhile ago, some special models will get the better treatment like normal.

That's not "battle-ready", that's "parade-ready" for GW classification.
Battle-ready is 3 colours and one of the basing materials. That's it. No highlights, no dry brushing, no special details.
Those Guardians have highlights, the bases are detailed and I suspect the soul stones may even be using the gemstone paints. They are objectively not "battle-ready" standard.

Pretty much all GW paintjobs are dull IMO. The ones that arent is because of the amount of details the sculpts have (Plague marines, Bladeguard vets, etc.) Their minis barely have any contrast and its a edge highlight party that just makes it all look bland. Shadows are almost as bright as light spots, this is the main reason they look dull.

The better question is "Why Saim-Hann?" - maybe less so for the Guardians, but definitely for the battlebox.

It isn't like there's a Ranger-themed Craftworld whose colours could've been used for that instead, rather than the Speed Freak equivalent Craftworld...

 Dysartes wrote:
The better question is "Why Saim-Hann?" - maybe less so for the Guardians, but definitely for the battlebox.

It isn't like there's a Ranger-themed Craftworld whose colours could've been used for that instead, rather than the Speed Freak equivalent Craftworld...

They are visually striking and easy to paint. All the others are only one or the other.

Thematically they are a bad choice as the poster child for the faction, as the typical Saim-Hann list is a skew one.

Make it fun :

https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/rvbygd/saiyan_armour_colour_scheme_for_the_new_eldar/

mrFickle wrote:
Looking at the new guardian defender models and I can’t help but think they have been painted a bit boring by GW, which is surprised as these are marketing images. But there’s 3/4 colours per model and 1 colour covering most of the model, it’s like space marines but without the detail on the power armour to add extra colour.

I think you could glam up these models these models with more colours I’m just surprised GW didn’t do that


What do you think?

That 'glam' paint jobs look awful. I don't want a random mishmash riot of colors ever.

Personally, I like craftworld armies best when they purely (including aspects) in a craftworld or simple custom color scheme. I've seen good results with terracotta or bone as the main armor color, with hair, cloth and weapons in good contrasting colors, and a few gems and hoses picked out for detail in accent colors.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

nou wrote:
The main problem with CWE paintjobs is the common interpretation of how wraithbone has to look like a dull, flat plastic.

Never heard that one before. Wratihbone has historically been 'bone' colored. And that's still current, considering the 'bone' basecoat is literally called Wraithbone now.

I don't see a problem with their paintjobs. 'Eavy metal style is far from my favourite and on some models I'd argue it is actively detrimental, but for Eldar? Looks good to me.

 Dysartes wrote:
The better question is "Why Saim-Hann?" - maybe less so for the Guardians, but definitely for the battlebox.

It isn't like there's a Ranger-themed Craftworld whose colours could've been used for that instead, rather than the Speed Freak equivalent Craftworld...

Saim-Hann was the Craftworld involved with Vigilus' story arc. Started with "Wake the Dead" box even.

Siegfriedfr wrote:
Make it fun :

https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/rvbygd/saiyan_armour_colour_scheme_for_the_new_eldar/

I mean if the goal was to get people to appreciate the GW paint schemes more, than that certainly worked!

Voss wrote:

nou wrote:
The main problem with CWE paintjobs is the common interpretation of how wraithbone has to look like a dull, flat plastic.

Never heard that one before. Wratihbone has historically been 'bone' colored. And that's still current, considering the 'bone' basecoat is literally called Wraithbone now.

A flat, dull plastic in bone color is dull, flat plastic nevertheless. Just to clear things out - I wrote about wraithbone because this is what CWE stuff is made from. You rarely see metalics used on CWE, mostly on runes and rune armour. You see quite a lot metalic/weathered DE schemes but you rarely see any kind of weathering on CWE and it's extremely rare to see CWE done in grimdark style.

Craftworlds are kinda supposed to be about perfection right?, they're going to have that reflected in their sort of minimalist armor I'd think. Craftworld armies look pretty amazing at the moment I think, though maybe some freehand could spice them up. Nothing crazy though, maybe just a few stripes painted across things.

Siegfriedfr wrote:
Make it fun :

https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/rvbygd/saiyan_armour_colour_scheme_for_the_new_eldar/

Ok, I actually like that. My Iyandin might need some new Guardians.....
It'd show up really well on the table top. And it'd be funny to see it facing off against the Buzz Lightyear Primaris the one guy at the local shop has been painting up.

Voss wrote:

nou wrote:
The main problem with CWE paintjobs is the common interpretation of how wraithbone has to look like a dull, flat plastic.

Never heard that one before. Wratihbone has historically been 'bone' colored. And that's still current, considering the 'bone' basecoat is literally called Wraithbone now.

I get what Nou is saying, I think?

Wraithbone is a material. It's supposed to be the most common material that the Aeldari use. It has a basic color (the "wraithbone" basecoat you mentioned seems to be the default, like Mechanicus Standard Grey is supposed to be the color of Power Armour before given its Chapter livery) but it also can apparently be dyed or altered--since we have whole armies with different colors.

With that said, the models can look extremely boring because you have large unbroken surfaces of Wraithbone. Stormcast and Marines tend to suffer from a similar issue.

To use a model from the new Guardian set as an example:

The Operator for the Support Platform here has three or four colors really going on. Her armor is red, helm is white, and the gun, faceplate, and doohicky for the platform are all black.

Extending the black or white to the "interior" of the bodysuit would break up the red a bit and make a more interesting visual aesthetic.
They don't need to look garish or anything but it would definitely be doable as a concept. Plus the different Craftworlds are supposed to have variances in wargear. There's a really spiffy Biel-Tan scheme that uses grey for the bodysuits that the wraithbone plates are attached to for example.

 Kanluwen wrote:

Voss wrote:

nou wrote:
The main problem with CWE paintjobs is the common interpretation of how wraithbone has to look like a dull, flat plastic.

Never heard that one before. Wratihbone has historically been 'bone' colored. And that's still current, considering the 'bone' basecoat is literally called Wraithbone now.

I get what Nou is saying, I think?

Wraithbone is a material. It's supposed to be the most common material that the Aeldari use. It has a basic color (the "wraithbone" basecoat you mentioned seems to be the default, like Mechanicus Standard Grey is supposed to be the color of Power Armour before given its Chapter livery) but it also can apparently be dyed or altered--since we have whole armies with different colors.

With that said, the models can look extremely boring because you have large unbroken surfaces of Wraithbone. Stormcast and Marines tend to suffer from a similar issue.

To use a model from the new Guardian set as an example:

The Operator for the Support Platform here has three or four colors really going on. Her armor is red, helm is white, and the gun, faceplate, and doohicky for the platform are all black.

Extending the black or white to the "interior" of the bodysuit would break up the red a bit and make a more interesting visual aesthetic.
They don't need to look garish or anything but it would definitely be doable as a concept. Plus the different Craftworlds are supposed to have variances in wargear. There's a really spiffy Biel-Tan scheme that uses grey for the bodysuits that the wraithbone plates are attached to for example.

Exactly.

Go and have a look at the 2nd Codex ed 'Eavy Metal section - half of the weapons are golden, Guardians have a literal chainmail under the plating, there is a lot going on. Or a 3rd ed codex, when GW pushed Biel-Tan thorns as the face of the Eldar. Saim Hann is flat and boring as hell. Even when GW tries to "go crazy" and spice things up for the Eldar, the only thing they come up with is a Mymeara gradient, which breaks the flat, dull and separated look of CWE schemes just a little bit - it still looks flat, but now requires an airbrush to do. Great.

Now why "separated" - every CWE scheme has the same construction of large, separated swathes of flat colour and half of the craftworlds have a scheme that is just direct application of the most basic colour wheel rule. There are very few repetitions, completely no variations and god forbid going for some depth in the colours. There is enough detail on CWE models to do way better, even sticking to GW basic techniques. CWE don't look flat because they can't look better, but because GW chose such look.

I'm not a particularly great painter, and the images below are from my Eldar army, which I painted mostly more than 20-years ago. The eldar is all metal and goes back to what was available in second edition.

But even with limited skills you can come up with a much more "popping" paint scheme than what GW usually rolls out for the Eldar.

Key to a good eldar scheme in my mind is painting the mesh armor "plates" in one color (with basic/crude edge highlights) and the undersuit below it a different color or at least a much different shade. Some examples below:

Fire dragons where yellow plates over a green undersuit.



My guardian / craft world scheme was "blue helmet" with "orange" plate armor. Orange plates had highlighting and the under suit was a dark red. The aspect warriors all pulled in one of these color groups (the orange or the blue)



Banshees had darker brown undersuit with the bone color armor on top.



Warp spiders used a two tone approach with blue and purple

Also don't forget that Eldar are crammed full of spirit stones and if you paint them in fabulous colors then the fancy gems don't stand out so much. But by and large the canon craftworlds are pretty boring. So make your own! I can't wait to do some rangers like I did my Farseer and Spiritseer.

 JohnnyHell wrote:
They look great to me!

They look great to me too.

There are nice CW themes out there, like the people who paint their tanks to look like nebulae or whatever, but I don't think there are any standard Craftworld patterns that look bad.

I think the paintjob on the posted new red guardians is awesome. They're dudes in full armour, they shouldn't have more than 3-4 colours total. Even painting the helmet with a different colour than the armour already seems an exaggeration to me, an excuse to add another colour to the model.

I think the reason they look even more plain than a marine is that they are wearing bodysuits with armoured plates over the top, so there's not much differentiation on them.

Marines at least have separate segments and the flex joints that can be different colours.

The best you could do I think is painting the unfersuit and plates different colours.

You could do shoulder pads as different colours as well as back vanes.

So, since we are sharing, this is my basic scheme. At it's core it is simple two colour harmony of... orange and violet. Yes, that is right. But then orange is split across off-white, orange, bronze and brown and violet is split between cold silver, violet and burgundy, with dominance of orange part and just a drop of secondary colour.

This was done purely with GW acrylics and apart from heavy weathering, which might not be to everyones liking, this sort of scheme can be done with straight GW base/wash/highlight method with single spray can and nine pots of paint in - Pallid Witch, Driad Bark, Balthasar Gold, Seraphim Sepia, Agrax Earthshade, Nuln Oil, any of the lighter steel/silver, Jokaero Orange and Barak-Nar Burgundy. Plus, if you fancy, 'ard Coat for gems shine, any turquoise and Khorne Red for squad markings, and Blood for the Blood God for blood. At it's barest minimum it's one can, five paints and two washes, so nothing really above the GW's entry level scheme.

The clou of breaking the dull nature of Guardian armour here is the asymmetric shoulder pad, specular contrast of flat colour vs metalic, high contrast of all the belts, scarfs and those little boot I-don't-know-whats and then texture differences and further contrasts of weathering.