Ulthuan

I just love that yellow effect. Reminds me of some rather old stuff by Nigel Stillman.


The white really stands out. Might look good en masse with white in a banner? Or maybe that yellow instead. Command figures could be key here.

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Perhaps making the yellow of the plume a bit lighter would make it stand out from the gold more and also draw attention to the head. Looks good anyway, though.

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"Eatainian jerks…" -Headshot
"It was a little ungentlemanly." -Aicanor (on the Eatainii)
"What is it with Eataini being blamed for everything?" -Aicanor

Thanks man, I really liked his style in the old WDs.

I've finished up the other four this evening, I tried out a few different methods to the plumes to make them a little different. I'm thinking the red wash was the best option.

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One foot in the hobby

They’re great! As said I suspect the command figures will make things pop.

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Managed to finish up the unit, although I need to make a banner.









Took advantage of the good weather to attempt to take some better pictures outside. I've gotten a wee bit better at painting white but still not great. Need to keep practising until I'm actually happy.

Just realised I forgot to take a nice pic of the runes on the Bladelord's sword but I shall do when I paint myself a little paper banner.

Up next, my 6th edition RBT.

Let me know what you guys think!

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One foot in the hobby

At least you're having a productive lockdown!

I like the metal. It seems quite a realistic shade of bronze, especially in that light.

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"I say the Eatainii were cheating - again." -Aicanor
"Eatainian jerks…" -Headshot
"It was a little ungentlemanly." -Aicanor (on the Eatainii)
"What is it with Eataini being blamed for everything?" -Aicanor

They’re really nice and this should set things off beautifully Olthannon.

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Yup! The gold looks great, especially with the bits of red and white. Good warm scheme with a little spritz of cool.

I like them as well. The warm bronze colors make it a very uniform unit and the white details on there give it a nice contrast and make it an interesting unit.

As for white, it reminds me of something from RE.Lee's army blog. When I asked him how he got his white so crisp he mentioned that he kept adding layers to it over the years. So each time you come anywhere close to the unit with a brush, just add a bit of white But it already looks pretty good. There's a nice contrast to it without looking dirty.

Rod

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Check out my plog
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Thanks guys, yeah really productive lockdown as it happens







I prefer the older RBT but I do like this crew a little better.

Got some archers to paint up and then hopefully some silver helms. I'm considering bronze on the barding and the riders in silver. Will do a wee test to see how it goes.

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Really like the red on them! Might I suggest taking the pictures in a bit more light? Especially with a dark palette like yours (I know the pain...) having what might be considered even "excessive" light is often barely enough. What's the status on the Hawkship BTW?

Also, you are definitely improving at painting white, I might recommend painting the white area first with a 50/50 mix of fenrisian grey and ceramite white with some water mixed in to keep it smooth, after which a series of increasing white highlights. Alternatively, just a white basecoat and a layer of Apothecary White, depending on your preference

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Luna, try not to beat them too hard. They are proud about their pseudo-glorious past and their present nothingness, you know.
-Elmoth, about Caledorians

Great rich reds.

On mini photography: in my experience a digital camera's sensor, metering, what-have-you will be too focused on the backdrop rather than the minis in the middle of the frame. This is especially a problem with a lot of light bouncing off a white sheet of paper or cloth, when you're trying to photograph relatively dark-coloured minis. I'd suggest a more mid-toned backdrop with a fairly neutral colour (grey or dull blue), or even black. Although black can cause similar problems by blowing out light-coloured minis.

As always, YMMV.

Thanks both, yes the photography is so very lacking. Once I'd finished these archers I was planning on trying out with a dark backdrop to see how that would work out. I think obviously a digital camera would be so much better than my phone so hopefully will sort that eventually.

As for the Hawkship, I've been putting it off and it's been sat on my windowsill gathering stoor. I need to do something good with the prow and I was building up to sorting it. With this lockdown in no sign of stopping maybe this week I'll do some work on it.

I'll keep you guys posted and let you know!

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So, I picked up some Simple Green (because you can order it in the UK now). I got a wee bit bored halfway through my first batch of archers so instead I took a stab at a tester for my Silver Helms.

Now considering my other old Fantasy armies were; Skaven, Vampire Counts and a small force of Dwarves, I've not had much truck with horses and the end result is about what I'd expect. I was following a neat little tutorial from the GW website so I'm going to try my hand at a few different colours to see how they progress.

As you guys mentioned, the dark background seems to work a lot better although a nicer camera would of course be ideal. (One day!) Although considering when I was first on this forum, having a phone that can even take pictures as well as this seems very futuristic.

Anyway let me know what you guys think of the colour scheme.

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I think he actually looks better from the back. I adore your shield yellow (would love to see it on a banner) Olthannon but not quite sure it fits with the white on the lance etc.. Could be wrong mind, more models might come across differently.

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The yellow of the shield is a little..."much" IMHO, I would recommend keeping it white with a red rune (easier and adds good contrast, IMHO) or red with a white rune.

Additionally, the gold and silver scalemail on the same model is a bit clashing. The painting work itself is very much fine, I would just recommend picking one color for the scales. Having gold on the horse's head plate is a good place to add gold, same as the harness, those look nice

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Prince Deral Lionbane, head of the House of Lionbane, Lord of Lionstone and Warden of Tor Charta

Luna, try not to beat them too hard. They are proud about their pseudo-glorious past and their present nothingness, you know.
-Elmoth, about Caledorians

Hey folks, little update for everyone. I've painted up my back rank of Silver Helms and also some archers to make up a quick unit.















As you can see, over the years a couple of the horsies have got bald bums. I took your advice on the yellow shield and went for the red primary instead, hopefully that looks a little better. You'll also noticed that the archer robes have changed to red. One, I like the mix as it makes the unit a little more striking. Two, the real reason is that I will avoid painting white if I can at all help it

Next up, I'll finish the rest of Silver Helms and from there I promise I will do some more work on the Hawkship and also probably my White Lions.

Cheers,

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Wonderful stuff. Again, love those rich reds. I can understand going for more of that rather than a lot of white!

I like the red and white archers. Such a simple way to give the unit a bit of variety - especially important for clone archers!

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"I say the Eatainii were cheating - again." -Aicanor
"Eatainian jerks…" -Headshot
"It was a little ungentlemanly." -Aicanor (on the Eatainii)
"What is it with Eataini being blamed for everything?" -Aicanor

I think this works better here, maybe because the yellow that remains kind of has a red 'border' between it and the rest, notably the white metal.


I hate to say it but I suspect the Silver Helms would look great all on white horses!

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Thanks folks!



Ugh I know I thought that as soon as I finished the white horse.

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Couple of quick pictures I snapped earlier today of my completed Silver Helms. I plan on taking some better shots tomorrow with better light.

Somewhat later down the line I plan on updating that banner when I feel better about some freehand.

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One foot in the hobby

I like your colour choices, they are quite original I think, and they work well.

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My WHFB armies:
High Elves
Dwarfs
Orcs and Goblins

Nice. That's an epic looking charge.

And I agree with MasterOfNone about the colors. They work very well with the models.

Rod

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For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
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Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.

Thanks to you both!

I've just finished stripping the paint off just about everything now and deciding what to paint next.

I have a very rough estimate because I never write it down:

20 odd archers (mix of the 5th/6th ed models)
35 spearelves (Don't know whether to keep this as one big block or split it into smaller groups?)
15 white lions
Tiranoc Chariot (The good old one)
1 mounted prince
1 mounted arch mage
8 or 9 Ellyrian Reavers with full command
1 RBT (the newest version)
2 more shadow warriors

And that is possibly it? I also have Imrik but the poor dragon has had the crap beaten out of him over the years of storage so I need to pick up some green stuff to fill some gaps.


With the big block of spears, I'm thinking of maybe turning some into a small unit of Cothique Sea Guard, using some green stuff and bits to make them look suitably corsair like. Is it worth having a unit that small from what I've got there if I wanted say two blocks of 20 spears in a larger force?

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Not sure I can advise on army list choices, my experience is sadly very limited, but given the vast amount you have to paint I would start from painting the miniatures that you are missing from your favourite army list.

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My WHFB armies:
High Elves
Dwarfs
Orcs and Goblins

Depends on the rules Olthannon. Before 8th Edition 20 was fine for Spears but if you're building for that 35 is a good size for a unit. The Archers work as 2 x 10 or a single 20 in 8th. Sea Guard were interesting as 10's in 7th but I rarely saw them in 8th, especially after the HE army book dropped. Obviously aesthetics may trump all this!

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I agree that 20 spears is probably too small a unit, except in some rare cases. A lot of units in 8th edition deal a lot of damage. You could easily lose most of them in a turn of combat. And units they are good against will probably be a lot bigger (like skaven or goblins), which means they will be stuck in combat for a while. And then they are just T3 5+ armour save models who die very fast to almost everything.

What you can do if you want to try out sea guard is that you paint up part of the models as LSG and part as spears. And then when you field a unit put either the spearmen or the LSG at the front. This should work with almost all opponents I think, unless you're playing tournaments.

I've tried LSG a few times and they've never worked for me. Either spearmen or archers would have been better. The problem is that I tended to use them either as spearmen or as archers in a battle. In which case they are just expensive spearmen or archers and more models would have been better. I do believe that they could be made to work, but that will probably take a lot of practice. Also, it depends on your opponent and how tough he makes his list. If you're just playing for fun and bringing interesting lists, then it doesn't matter all that much. Yes, those two or three models extra could have made a difference, but it's less likely in such a scenario. If on the other hand you're aiming for optimized tournament lists, then there are better choices.

Rod

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For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
Painting progress, done/in progress/in box: 167/33/91

Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.

Haha okay so if I'm going to be playing at all, it's likely to be 6th edition or possibly 7th if we are feeling whacky. Certainly not going to going to any tournaments ever. So I take it then it's go for it see what happens?

Now as for painting, for the second unit of spears, should I keep the silver mail or perhaps go for the more bronzed colour to differentiate?

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Yeah, you're good to go with smaller units Olthannon.


I'd stick with the silver because they're the same troop type.

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