New High Elf colour scheme test model

[strewart]

Alright, here is the first pics of my new HE colour scheme. The picture has made him a fair bit brighter than he is, I think its too dark though so I'm going to do the next ones a bit brighter and slightly differently. The overall idea is a Spartan theme, deep red cloaks with gold/bronze armour.

I haven't done any highlighting/shading on the horse yet, it just has a base of scorched brown. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I also need to fix up a fair bit of the detail. Thats the general idea of my new elves though. Thoughts?

BTW, The green on the horse's armour is there to make the armour look old. I think I'm going to scrap that idea though, because HE are shiny and fresh. I need to cover the bits that stick out too much.

Also, I decided that all the detail that comes on the silver helm shields is out of character, so I'm filing it smooth. I think that shield turned out pretty smooth, it was filed.

[zuz]

The scheme sounds great, but there are no pics >.<

[King Ulrik Flamebeard]

Alright, here is the first pics of my new HE colour scheme. The picture has made him a fair bit brighter than he is, I think its too dark though so I'm going to do the next ones a bit brighter and slightly differently. The overall idea is a Spartan theme, deep red cloaks with gold/bronze armour.

zuz - Try clicking on the secretly hidden link in the above quote. -__^

KU

[theyak]

I think it looks pretty decent.
My only fear for the model is that the red will be lost in the deep gold color on the figure.
I think silver would have brought more contrast to the model.

[Manu_Forti]

It looks decent. I think using too much gold on regular troops can be dangerous though. Its usually better to reserve it for characters & other special pieces to make them stand out from the rest of the grunts.
I'd go for silver armour with a bit of gold trim here & there. Then load up the gold on your characters.
Make sure you always use black undercoat on for metallics though, and always drybrush the first coat of the metalic. Then the lighter highlights etc

Lighter coloured steeds would also contrast nicely with the deep red. Perhaps grey/white.

Look forward to seeing where you go with them

Cheers

[Ancalagon]

I agree with Manu_Forti on most points. I don't know what the final colour you're going for with the horse is, but I think it work well if it's quite a bit lighter than the basecoat you've got on it now. If you don't want to go with the usual silvers on the armour I would probably choose a darker bronze colour rather than a bright gold, since as Manu said, too much gold on the less important troopers doesn't tend to work too well.

Other than that I quite like it. I use a similar red on my High Elves, but not as much as you have (I use it as a trim with most of the robes being cream). I like the symbol on the shield too, since it does look quite Greek, which I assume was what you were going for. It does look like it could be tidied up a bit around the edges though.

[Ugrin]

i think maybe if you made the skin really light it would add more contrast too, unless you want that tan spartan thing going

[Cyric the Mad]

Tan elves? Next you'll be wanting them to grow beards.

I'm with Manu on this - I think there are too many warm tones on the model, so I would stay away form brown horses. Wanting a Spartan theme may push you toward heavy use of gold, but you really have to throw in some accent colors to keep the army as a whole from looking dull.

[strewart]

Next test model.. A grey horse, as suggested by several people.

I have intentionally made the red areas a lot brighter on the horse, and the new rider (with no shield) has similarly bright red areas. When drawing inspiration through a google image search, they all seemed to have very bright red (~blood red) so I was thinking of brightening the red overall, might also add a bit of contrast to the miniatures. The gold is also fairly bright, I think I should do the opposite and darken it. A bit more flesh wash/black ink on the gold areas, and probably highlight the red a bit better (start darker and highlight up to blood red). Thoughts?

Pic.

Also, I'm considering doing the chainmail stuff silver instead of gold to add contrast. Probably not on horses since they don't have plate, but for helms and spearmen it might add contrast. I think historically chain is silver (coloured) anyway.

[strewart]

A bit more stuff.. I tried painting the chain stuff silver and just the plate gold. I think it works pretty well to offset the gold a bit, here is a test model:

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/c...elmwsilver.jpg

Comments?

Second, I got all the horses for my 8 helms done except for fixing up minor mistakes, such as the blob of gold on a horses nose you see in one of the pics. And the hoofs, I'm not sure what to do with them.

Next, lances.. Anyone have any idea what colour to paint the lances for silver helms? They are really heavily detailed and I have no idea how to paint them to fit the theme and look good. I tried basic wood, as I've done with spear poles, but it looks pretty bad IMO. Here is the test model:

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/c.../helmlance.jpg

And lastly... Archers. Two different colours of cloth. Major area red, obviously. What to paint for the minor area? I tried bleached bone, the inked it black to get detail, then highlighted and smoothed the flat areas to make them cleaner. But I used a decent amount of ink on the red areas, which I really like the effect of, and it looks weird having the cloaks shiny/wet red and smooth, then having the other areas a dirty, dry looking white.. Here is the pic:

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/c...irstarcher.jpg

I was really hoping to get a couple of them finished until I hit this speed bump.

I'm going with a reasonably bright red but a fairly dark gold. I'll have pics of my Avaters of War Elf hero up later too, he isn't finished but I got a decent amount done and quite like the progress.

All comments/criticism much appreciated.