Colour Suggestions

[kojibear]

I am quite keen on doing a 'Hawk Lord' themed Wood Elf army.

The Hawk Lords have their halls in the cliffs above the Athel Loren forest, and guard the forest from any who might find a trail down from the cliffs and into Athel Loren.

My question is what kind of colour scheme would work with such an army? They would need to blend in with the cliffs and perhaps the sparse trees and shrubs that survive on the cliffs.

What do you think guys and gals?

[me_in_japan]

mostly pale greys for leggings/tunics, with some darker greys on belts and pouches n whatnot. Shade your greys with graveyard earth or another dark brown, and highlight them by adding a bit of space wolf grey. This will result in a grey with warm shadows and cool highlights.

detail colours for spots of interest could be pale-mid green (goblin green springs to mind) or even hawk turquoise, highlighted with bleached bone to keep it a bit more muted. When I say "highlighted with" I mean you should add some bone to the turquoise - not use straight bone. Keep skin tones warm to contrast with the cooler clothing colours. Make sure to have some rocks on the bases, or if possible have them completely rocky with a few tufts of static grass for natural-ness. These rocks should be much darker than the greys used on the minis clothes, to make the minis stand out.

The spears and wood and stuff could be a pale yellowish wood colour, but Im not 100% sure about this. My brain is saying "yellow" but I worry that it might be too strong.

dats wot I fink, anyway.

[AndrewGPaul]

Orc Brown/Bilious Brown or whatever it's called this week. Ochre, I suppose. Shade it with a mid-brown (Gryphonne Sepia or by mixing with Snakebite Leather, depending on your preference) and highlight with tan/bone. That should stop it being quite so YELLOW!

I don't know what the Wood Elf miniatures are like for added detail, but feathery bits would look more appropriate than leafy bits. You might be able to get away with painting some leaf details as feathers instead. I'd also be quite severe with the shading and highlighting on the faces; emphasise the cheekbones and nose, to make them look more "aquiline".

[kojibear]

Righty ho Here is where the novice shows he is...well...a novice

So I should do the following?

Prime with Black.

Base coat the cloaks with a greyish colour?
Base coat the leather with a dark brown?
Base coat the face with a pale flesh colour?
Base the bows and weapons with a lighter brown?

Shade the above parts with slightly darkened versions of the above?

Finally add highlights, details and borders on face etc?

My question is where does a wash enter into the equation?

Oh this is so complicated

[Primarch]

Shade the above parts with slightly darkened versions of the above?
My question is where does a wash enter into the equation?

Oh this is so complicated

A wash is one way of shading a miniature. You can use the ready made GW ones (they're aces) or you can add water to regular paint and make your own. This can be a tricky process as too much water will cause it to run down the mini and not enough will cause it to go on like paint and cover too much. It'll take some trial and error to get used to it I guess.
For example to do skin colours I normally use this process:
Base Coat - Tallarn Flesh
Wash - Ogryn Flesh
1st Highlight - Tallarn Flesh
2nd Highlight - Tallarn Flesh and Elf Flesh
That might be a bit

[kojibear]

Thanks Prim

I seem, a wash is a way to add shading.

Is there a trick or a particular brush stroke that is important when applying a wash. Also, I see that GW sells a special 'wash' brush.

[kojibear]

How about the colour scheme called waystone defender?

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/conte ... ue&start=2

I think it is slightly too dark though?

[Primarch]

Is there a trick or a particular brush stroke that is important when applying a wash. Also, I see that GW sells a special 'wash' brush.

Nope, you just brush it on. Try not to get too much on the model and dont let it pool up in places you dont want it (just move it around with the brush).
You can try painting it directly onto the places you want it, but for things like flesh and cloth you can just brush it on roughly if you want.

[me_in_japan]

right: taking that glade guard chappy as an example.

1) undercoat :

use a grey spray undercoat. I find Tamiya sprays are just fine. Shake it very very well, shake it some more, and then spray with the (now legendary) "pfft pfft pfft" method.

note: from here on in, add a little water to all your paints when you put them on your palette, and never, ever paint direct from the bottle, especially when using your Newton and Winsor brush

2) flesh areas:

paint these with bleached bone with some terracotta added or elf flesh. I dont have the latter, but I imagine its handy for painting elf flesh.. . Shade by adding a little terracotta or dark flesh. ga canny with this, as you dont want pink shadows. Add some bestial brown or P3 umbral umber if it starts to get too pink. Highlight by adding bleached bone or even skull white to your elf flesh. Pay particular attention to highlighting the nose, cheekbones and fingers.


3) Leather undersuit:

paint the leather undersuit (the kinda dark brown/red bit in the waystone defender scheme) codex grey.

Mix a little graveyard earth or P3 umbral umber into this to create a darker shade. Water this down a bit more so it doesnt cover the colour underneath completely. Paint this into the folds and shadow areas. (anything like the underside of an arm, crotch areas, etc.) Try not to flood areas, as this will create tide marks. When youre working with thin paint (like you should be now), blot off most of it onto a tissue (by touching the side of the brush to the tissue after you load it from your palette). Use several layers to build up opacity to whatever level you like.

Mix a little space wolf grey into the codex grey to create a lighter shade. again, water this down so it doesnt cover completely. Paint this onto the edges of things and the top surfaces of extended arms etc. Your brush strokes should be from the center of the plate/arm band/whatever to the outside, where you want the paint to show. Use the side of the brush, not the tip. (well, the side-of-the-tip-of-the-brush, to be precise)

4) cloak and armour plates:

paint the cloak and armour plates fortress grey. Using the same methods as above, darken it with some graveyard earth/P3 umbral umber, and use this to shade. Again, use SW grey this time with some skull white added to highlight. Same technique as above.

5) Loincloth or any bitz that you want to go "ping!"

paint either goblin green or hawk turquoise. Shade by adding dark angels green, highlight by adding bleached bone. Same technique as above.

Do a test mini, and if the scheme looks a bit "hum" then do a few more bits in the green colour to liven it up a bit.

I find if you need to do things like twine/buttons/other wee bits that you dont want to draw attention to but want to do a different colour to the things around it, then graveyard earth highlighted with bleached bone is an excellent nothing-colour that people dont really look at. You can control the brightness of the colour by how high up you go with your highlights (i.e. how much bone you add to the mix)

[me_in_japan]

sorry - meant to say: washes are good, but you lose control when you use them. try to learn to shade without using washes, and then use washes to smooth out your shading. Dont use black washes on anything that isnt either black or metal. Devlan mud can be reliably washed on to pretty much anything and make it look better. Magical stuff, it really is...

oh, and you dont need a special "wash brush" - thats a bunch of hooey, right there...

swap out the blue/grey on these chaps (3rd from the left) and replace with turquoise/gobbo green, and i reckon itd work.
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/conte ... ue&start=5