Eldar Colour Scheme Help

[thebigdog]

Hi guys,

I've finally got one of my guardians painted up a bit to test the colour scheme I had planned and I'm looking for any comments or critique you might offer regarding the colour scheme.

I'll apologise in advance regarding the photos, I'm having to use the camera on my phone and don't have a proper photo set up.

This is only an initial colour test and still in the rough stage and has only a single highlight applied. Furthermore the ammo pack and weapon platform control thingy haven't been painted yet. I will do a further edge highlight or two on the armour plates so that the final edge highlight will be almost white.

The undersuit is grey (stormvermin fur/chaos black mix) and the turquoise is a Vallejo paint I picked up, highlighted with white.

Does the colour scheme work? Would a white helmet and purple face plate work better?

I do intend to try some osl on my Eldar. Will the turquoise (highlighted almost to white) work with the purple for this?

Also need to get myself some decent brushes rather than the 'Yaks-Arse-On-A-Stick' that I have at the moment. Does anyone have any suggestestions regarding this? something that will retain its point.

Thanks for any help or advice you can offer.

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http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/g746-sulanthwe-craftworld-eldar.html

[Prince Nuada]

Hi!

Purple and black is a colour scheme often used by Dark Eldar and Dark Elves.
If you want something visually striking I suggest more contrast.
An example of good contrast would be something like white with orange.
The white is neutral whereas the orange is bright and stimulating.
In your case the black is the neutral colour but the tone of purple is a shade and does not contrast with the black (and the turquoise is not enough). You might consider going for a lighter tone or even a colour like magenta?
As far as the faceplate is concerned; it looks ok. You might even consider painting the faceplate the same colour as the helmet but with a white pattern across it, maybe vertical stripes or perhaps a craftworld design.
Or whatever. Just a suggestion.

Cheers.

[jgebi]

I like this just because people are going to say that "eldar should be bright and flashy" but I like the dark side and I like it.

[thebigdog]

Thanks for the quick responses and advice

@ Prince Nuada - I deliberately picked a darker and cold purple tone with stark white and turquoise to contrast o make the army appear sinister. I think the inclusion of a warmer tone such as magenta would unbalance that feel. As far as can tell from the fluff, despite the dark eldar being penned as the 'bad guys' it seems like all eldar, including the craftworld eldar are capable of extremes and can be arrogant and utterly merciless to non eldar, whom they view as 'lesser races'. I remember reading somewhere that eldar would manipulate events that would cause the deaths of billions of humans to stop one eldar life being lost. I guess i'm trying to get the feeling that just because they're not soul sucking space elf vampires, it doesnt make them good guys either.

The colour is purple and a kind of browney-grey (stormvermin fur and black mix) rather than black but the photo is poor. The weapons will be actual black with sharp extreme highlights using a starker grey.

I'm planning to work this into the aspect warriors whilst still trying to keep the theme of the different aspects. My striking scorpions i plan to use the same stormvermin/black mix for the undersuit, jet black with line highlights (possibly gloss varnish) appliedto the armour plates and the purple on the banding. Spirit stones and sensor mane dreadlocks will try the turquoise as a spot colour. I will avoid white and metallics on them as their theme is stealth and infiltration and bright colours would give away their position.

i do appreciate that there isnt enough contrast, maybe if i lighten the turquoise a bit and finish the spirit stones, weapon gems, remote control doodah thing there will be enough to balance it off?

I like the idea of a craftworld emblem, possibly a phoenix in white on the helmet to get more stark contrast in there and draw more notice to the head/face. What do you think?

@ jgebi - thanks, hopefully what i have planned for my striking scorpions will please you. Trying to get a real menacing feel to them.

[Brent]

Hey-
You've got an outstanding color scheme going there...not your run-of-the-mill Eldar, and you've definitely achieved the menacing look you were after.
I don't really think you need anything on the helmet. When you finish up with the details, I think it'll be perfect.
And very nicely executed!
Keep up the great work....
Brent

[Prince Nuada]

You could always mix it up.
You might consider drawing up 3-4 pheonix designs and putting different ones on random models to keep it interesting.

[magickbk]

I like it. Although this model doesn't have one, you also have the weapons to put a strong color on, like Ulthwe. Mostly black models, but the bone weapons really create a strong contrast.

[Cactus]

Generally, I like it! When your army is painted, it'll look fantastic!

I think if you give a bit more spot color some more attention, like the blue, the mini will really pop.

[thebigdog]

Wow guys, thanks for all the advice and encouragement, I'm just getting back into 40k after a fairly long hiatus (most of 4th and 5th edition to be honest) and its been quite a while since i sat down properly to put paint on a mini its good to know most of you think i'm heading in the right direction with it.

I'm still not sure about the white faceplate. Other ideas i had were:
white helmet and purple faceplate
purple helmet and the grey faceplate (matching the undersuit)
White helmet and grey faceplate.

Any ideas on what would work best?

@ prince nuada - thanks for the idea, i'll sketch a few out before i put paint on a mini to find some i like. I might use it to differentiate squads. Its been quite a while since i last painted anything properly so i want to ensure i get the symbol/icons right before i try freehand.

@magickbk and cactus - i was planning on painting the weapons black but using the turquoise spot on all the gems and bumps on them. I was also thinking about painting the raised barrels on the shuriken catapults with the turquoise as an object source light technique to get more of the spot colour in and make them seem more alien and hi-tech. Will this be enough to make it pop on the guardians do you think?

@ brent - thanks for the encouragement. Between work, family, real life and being forced to be a proper grown up (most of the time), i'm really slow at making progress with army projects. Ive got about 1000 points to build and paint and its comments like yours which keep up the enthusiasm.

Cheers again.

[Da Gargoyle]

I have been gaming Eldar for a while and went with a really different colour scheme. I use metal colours for the bodies and flats for the weapons and accessories. The flats tone down the effect of metals and I have worked a colour scheme in to bind the entire army. For example, the primary colour on all weapons is beubonic brown which is really more sandstone yellow in colour. My guardians, storm guardians and wraith units have tin bitz uniforms with green helmets and red face plates, (Red Gore in the old colours) I found a great metalic green that just screams Scorpions painted over dark angels green. And I have worked the tin bitz into my vehicles to keep the theme on track. If some one can advise on how to post photo's I can put some up.

[Cactus]

@magickbk and cactus - i was planning on painting the weapons black but using the turquoise spot on all the gems and bumps on them. I was also thinking about painting the raised barrels on the shuriken catapults with the turquoise as an object source light technique to get more of the spot colour in and make them seem more alien and hi-tech. Will this be enough to make it pop on the guardians do you think?

Cheers again.

Yes, single point lighting will make any model pop! It's not easy and I recommend just getting your base paint job down first so you can get those pointy-ears on the table right away. Then, you can always make improvements as you go. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

[thebigdog]

Hi guys,

sorry for the delay in posting updates, I did warn you I was slow.
Here's photos of the guardian squad I've been working on, the weapon platform and accompanying warlock.

I've been trying to avoid using metallic colours to create an organic feel to the minis and the dark purple and grey to keep them looking a bit sinister. I decided to lighten the grey and also go for a lighter grey colour for the body of the weapons to provide a bit more contrast. I tried to make the barrel of the shuriken catapults look as if they're glowing to add to the super high tech eldar look but haven't gone for a complete OSL effect. I'm still mulling it over but if I go down the full OSL route then I'll have to do it on all minis in the army and its taken about 5 months to get to this stage and I'm a little scared I'll screw it up.

The weapon platform has been painted with the same technique for the control panel.

After finishing the warlock, I'm a little concerned about the witchblade. I think maybe the white blade is a little too stark and makes him stand out too much. I was considering painting it as a crystalline weapon in the same turquoise colours as the shuriken catapult barrels.

What do you guys think? Any comments and critique would be greatly appreciated.


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[Deadlift]

Time well spent :) nice colour scheme. The gems really pop nicely.

Personally like the blade as is.

[Cactus]

Well done! Now get some Wave Serpents on the field and your army will be ready to show everyone else who the dying race really is!

[thebigdog]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Cactus, I do have a wave serpent lined up but in order to fill out my minimum organisation chart slots I'll need to get my converted Farseer and a Dire Avenger squad built up. The plan is to get the avengers and farseer done then my vyper to hit the 500 point mark and get some small skirmishes in while i paint up my other units (wave serpent, scorpions and reapers)

Im pleased with the vyper conversion. I was never satisfied with the standard mini so i stripped it down to be a single crewed sleeker and more streamlined vehicle. I used the wave serpent pilot with the mask to pilot it and trimmed the canopy down so its open topped. The addition of a spare wave serpent engine, weapon covers and wave serpent energy field vanes smoothed out the shape. I magnetised the weapons and they now attach to the top of the vyper.

i'll try to get some pics up soon.

[thebigdog]

Heres the Vyper piccies I promised.

No paint apart from undercoat so far.

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