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Dont-Be-Haten
09-05-2011, 01:58 PM
Lo, folks its Dont-Be-Haten again, here to take up more space in the fantasy forum. (*winces to the eye rolls and whisper of too many thread posts xD*) So for starters some of the guys who've been extremely helpful in unit building/tactics already know this but I have recently come into the game and have acquired the Island of Blood and High Elf Battalion battle chests, the problem I've run into is this. I've started on about half a regiment of High Elf Spearmen and I'm having trouble with their front chest areas, mainly with the unit that has the Chevron or (^) and the rising sun chest piece with the leather overlay protection, and then the rune/designs on certain Helf helmets.

For starters, I'm using a metallic gold (not citadel) from Folk Art that is actually rather nice it just seems to clash with the chain-mail painting scheme I have. So a little input there would be helpful (i.e. alternative colors, I'm presently looking at a blue/ with emerald scheme to take place instead of gold on the metal on metal pieces.

Next I've basecoated in a 50:50 brown/orange mixture the chevron etc for the metallic gold chest armor finish but I don't like the way its turning out, again looking for other options here.

Finally one of the breast plates the Elves have stops at about the midrift of the back, goes over the shoulders and then rises back on the opposite side near the sternum at the Cheron, Should this be base coated in the same color as the robe or painted as another off metallic metal color? I'll look at trying to upload pictures (I don't know how exactly xD) to give you a more general idea. Thanks for reading and hope to hear back soon!

-DBH

magickbk
09-06-2011, 01:10 PM
Easiest way to upload pics is probably to sign up for a free ImageShack account, and then imbed the pics using the Insert Image button.

You can paint anything any color you want on the model. As for precise shades of colors conflicting, that gets tricky, especially when using paints from a variety of different companies. One thing I will say is that craft metallics will be difficult to work with on a tiny High Elf because of the size of the flakes in the suspension compared with the surface area. You may find splurging a bit for a few Model metallic paints(don't get enamel by accident!) will make life a little easier even if you want to keep using craft paints to keep your costs low.

Another thing you can do if you aren't happy with the way the gold-on-silver looks, is to either paint it all one color, using Silver on your more basic units like Spearmen, and use Gold only on your more elite units like Phoenix Guard. The finished effect across your army when deployed on the battlefield will be similar, and you can avoid having to balance the two together on the same models. You can also use color to good effect by using a 'ceramic' technique: paint part of the armor a color and then gloss varnish that section. This is usually used on 40K models, but is a technique that might be useful for you. You could also try mixing brown into your gold, this is pretty common and helps to even out the gold coloring.

Also, a few random painting pointers:
1. Try to keep your paints thin, by using water or acrylic thinning mediums. You can always build up a few thin layers to achieve an effect, but it the paint goes on too thick it obscures detail.
2. The most important steps in painting are assembly, priming, and basecoating. Remove all the extra bits of plastic and molding from the models, prime evenly and lightly in lower heat and humidity(where possible, I know, some of us live in sweltering, humid, locations), and take care to carefully base coat your models by painting 'inside the lines'.

wittdooley
09-06-2011, 01:49 PM
Also bear in mind that painting real metallic paints are the most finicky of all paints and, from my experience, are the ones that you really benefit from purchasing decent paints. In this instance, the Citadels are overall probably the best that are made. With this in mind, don't be afraid to use spray basecoast, particularly for armour heavy units like High Elves. No reason you can blast them with a metallic spray paint as your base coat, and then paint the other details from there. I've done it both with Grey Knights and Sanguinary Guard, and it works really well.

For basing details with gold, using a straight brown base coat can really help. I generally use Beastial Brown as my base when I'm doing that. The Citadel Washes can also help you get a couple different colors of gold and silver. if you simply use them to dirty up your base coat. My recommendation is just to experiment with this and find out what you prefer. A buddy of mine used the blue citadel wash on his silver armoured HE, and they looked really nice after highlighting them up. Try this:

Spray with a metal primer
Wash liberally with Asurman Blue (I think that's what it's called)
Highlight stage one with chainmail (or equivalent silver w/ small amount of black)
Highlight stage two with Mithril silver (or pure silver equivalent)

That's really only 3 painting stages, and you can achieve really nice results. That is how this guy was painted:

http://jgemrich.smugmug.com/Hobbies/Miniatures/Elf-lord-023/986917375_gEu7H-M.jpg

Again, just fool around with it and you'll find something you like, but from my experiences you'll get better results with a nicer metallic paint due to way the paint is pigmented.

Dont-Be-Haten
09-06-2011, 03:03 PM
Hey guys, thanks again for all the helpful advice. It really does mean a lot! I've been experimenting, I just couldn't pass up a 1.08 USD metallic gold compared to the 4.07 USD (after tax) citadel gold, I can always go back and buy it I was just being stubborn. I think for all the paint I need its like $145.00 USD (after tax) and the paint containers are uuuuber small. I was just looking at it from that aspect. I'll try to upload some pictures to a dummy facebook account so you can see what I'm talking about. xD

Thanks again fellas!~ Hmm, Well upon further review, my camera is trashy and can't focus for some reason boo on that idea. Nice model btw, I figure I can practice and have a bit of leverage with the spearmen since they aren't as detailed as the sword masters or Lothern Sea Guard from the island of blood; I'll hopefully have some pictures up before long.

-DBH

magickbk
09-06-2011, 05:38 PM
You need a macro function to photograph a model properly. Other than that, you can try backing away about 4-6 feet and then cropping it. You won't see detail, but it'll get the colors across.

Also, the GW paints are expensive for a reason, and should be used sparingly. My paints generally dry out after about 5 years before they run out, other than washes and 2 colors that I over-use. The key really is to water things down and paint in thin layers.