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I've almost finished converting a Mortis Engine (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1460002a), and I'm starting to worry about the next step, namely about the colours. For those who aren't familiar with the model, here's GW's stock photo for reference:



Now as you can see the problem with this particular paint scheme is that the character riding on the throne does not stand out very much. The "host" is pretty much always going to be painted a "ghostly" white, and unfortunately my character has to have dark robes. I was thinking about painting the throne as white marble and light coloured bone, so essentially the character will be the only dark thing on the whole model, I hope that will make him stand out and serve as the focal point.

So my questions are:
1. Would that work? I'm used making the focal points of my models in bright colours, this would pretty much be the exact opposite and I don't know if it will look good.
2. What colours should I use, specifically? I'm thinking about giving him dark green robes (the alternative being a blue base, but the green is "richer" and better contrasts with the blue I want to use for the ghosts). For the marble I'm not sure what to do, I'm thinking about a white/blue scheme but is that too close to the ghosts? Perhaps a white/turquise to bridge the gap between the blue ghosts and the green robes? Also, I'm considering either bright red or pure black for the character's weapon - red would be very dramatic but might "steal" the focus too much, while black might be too... flat, I guess? Any suggestions?

Or can anyone think of a completely different colour scheme that they think would work? Any photos of similar models for reference would be much appreciated too.

Hi mate if you have a look at my mortis engine I did the "throne" part he is standing on more of a bone. So it's more inbetween the white of the rest of the model and like you said makes the lord stand out more :3 hope this helped

I barely know this model but it's so involved that I want to try and help just because it's worth the era that it's quality is heralding and anyone who is interested in painting such a piece has my respect..

My two cents:
Without knowing what the fluff says about it all (maybe the ghost armor is meant to be clean), consider making the barding and armor old in appearance, or else new but very ostentatious and prestigious in patterning. Otherwise just google images the same kit name every day- there will always be new images daily and you will collect tons of considerations in the end.

The dead could also be depicted as old grey or brown instead of white to help you with the contrast you want to bring in to the top bits.

If you still want marble, consider white with blue & grey veins, or black with grey & white veins.

Alternatively, consider applying a whole blanket of ancient dust on top of the barge-chariot-thing (perhaps with FW weathering powders?) regardless of what colors you use underneath to show ages of dust. As I say, tho, I don't know the fluff for this piece and assume it can be made to look underworldly like it came from some Hades* instead defaultly of clean like it came from some Heaven.

Not very helpful I guess.

*By Hades I mean Hades, the earth realm from Overworld gate to Styx to 3 mouths of cerberus of undead army school- I don't mean Hell, the 'fire element' realm of Chaos army school.
Anyway I think it will look fantastic no matter what you do with it in the end.

kronicpsycho wrote:Hi mate if you have a look at my mortis engine I did the "throne" part he is standing on more of a bone. So it's more inbetween the white of the rest of the model and like you said makes the lord stand out more :3 hope this helped

Hmm, I think I might have to go even lighter than that, though I'm afraid the whole thing will look too white if I do.

Smoketreader wrote:I barely know this model but it's so involved that I want to try and help just because it's worth the era that it's quality is heralding and anyone who is interested in painting such a piece has my respect

I'll be honest, I'm not a very good painter and it's a very intimidating piece, so I've decided to just use extremely simple methods and rely on the piece's own detail to make it work.

Soul Samurai wrote:

kronicpsycho wrote:Hi mate if you have a look at my mortis engine I did the "throne" part he is standing on more of a bone. So it's more inbetween the white of the rest of the model and like you said makes the lord stand out more :3 hope this helped

Hmm, I think I might have to go even lighter than that, though I'm afraid the whole thing will look too white if I do.

Smoketreader wrote:I barely know this model but it's so involved that I want to try and help just because it's worth the era that it's quality is heralding and anyone who is interested in painting such a piece has my respect

I'll be honest, I'm not a very good painter and it's a very intimidating piece, so I've decided to just use extremely simple methods and rely on the piece's own detail to make it work.

Fair enough. Only problem is.. If you go to much lighter, it will blend in with your horde of ghosts. which is not good.
:(