There have been a couple of WIP shots of this chap, but here he is finished. I've always had a soft spot for Wood Elves ever since I first got into the hobby, and some of the latest character models are really nice. This one was also a gift from a friend of mine - I guess I'm an easy person to buy gifts for these days? :-)
The colour scheme for him was really simple, and he was quick and easy to paint - easier than the Dire Avenger, that's for sure. The model leans forward a little too much, but other than that the pose is cool. I like the little forest spirits they put on these models, they add a nice bit of character.
As mentioned before I went for a more olive green for the cloak - Charadon Granite, shaded with Devlan Mud, then highlighted using Charadon Granite, Catachan Green and Dheneb Stone. The forest spirit was a Scorched Brown undercoat, shaded with Devlan Mud, then highlighted with Scorched Brown and Macharius Solar Orange. Everything else is pretty much painted the way I usually do, the recipes can be found in earlier posts.
I'm on to Warcaster Sorscha now, plus another Dire Avenger and maybe a WFB Chaos Champion...
As always, comments and criticism welcome!
I'm a big fan of the soft, natural tones on this figure, the gold especially. What is your method for painting it like that?
ReplyDeletePete
Cheers mate! It seemed the right way to paint Wood Elves - I'm not sure I'll ever do a whole army of them, but I'm tempted to "paint" my way through the character models.
ReplyDeleteThe gold was Scorched Brown shaded with Devlan Mud, then highlighted with Tin Bitz, Dwarf Bronze, Shining Gols, and Shining Gold mixed with Mithril Silver. Then washes of watered down Devlan Mud and watered down Thraka Green to tone it all down. It makes the gold seem a bit more aged than normal.
That sounds like a good method and I think the aged look is very good.
ReplyDeleteI've been starting to really experiment with layering my colours more but I'm not at your level. My current squeeze is doing brass with Tin Bitz, Shining Gold, Burnished Gold, Devlan Mud, maybe some verdigris then finish with a light highlight of burnished gold. So much nicer than when I just glopped on the gold paint when I first started.
I will give your aged gold a try and see what it looks like. I've got some baroque terminators to paint fairly soon so who knows :-)
Gold was a horrible colour to paint back when I first started - I still have my original pot of Shining Gold that's about 22 years old now (it won't open) - it's a greeny gold. I had a Bronze colour that wouldn't mix in the pot and came out watery. I didn't paint much gold back then...
ReplyDeleteI don't know why but it feels better starting with a non-metallic base coat. I've basecoated silver metallics with Charadon Granite recently, and that's given a nice effect too.
I've noticed that starting with the flat colours and just having bits of metallic on top is a great effect too. The more I paint the more I come to realise that it's about creating a resemblance to reality and letting the viewer's eyes and mind fill in the gaps.
ReplyDeleteI recently went to the National Gallery of art in DC with my ladyfriend and looked up close at some masterpieces. They were just as I described in that they didn't actually paint everything exactly, but they made it so that your eyes really bring the paintings to life.
Very impressive.
I will be tring more flat basecoats for my metallics I think.