Hi folks !
I recently found back my old Warhammer minis. I started collecting HE (mainly) more than 15 years ago and I've never really finished painting them. So I decided to buy some paints and brushes and to do my best to finally finish this army.
Back then I painted them pretty close to the classic blue and white colour scheme. But this time I want to go a bit more crazy. I chose my Swordmasters to test different colour scheme because they're metal (easy to strip) with a fair amount of details without having too much. So I primed them black with a zenithal white and I put paint on them until I found something nice. After a lot of trials I finally narrowed it down to the ones bellow.

From left to right :#1 is a test for the sword. I tried to wet blend ... I'm gonna add a bit of orange on it. Mainly on the edges and maybe a thin line in the middle. But that's what i'm gonna head for.
#2 Orange clothes with red borders. I tried orange plume (that's what the "hair" coming from the helmet is called, right ?) but that was too flashy so I changed it to red. Beige gauntlet, silver helmet with gold details. The scale mail is painted with 2 layers of AP Soft tone with Ushabti bone highlight. That's also what i did for #3 and #4.
#3 Red clothes with beige borders. All the armor is silver except for the gloves that are made the same way than the scale mail without the highlight. Again gold details.
#4 Red clothes with orange borders. Beige armor with some highlights/shadings. Again gold details. The gloves are silver with a bit of AP soft (or strong) tone.
What I'm gonna keep: - The black and red sword (like #1)
- The red plume
- The gold details
- The bone-like scale mail
- The lighter bone-like armor (#3)
What I'm still wondering : - The clothes : orange (#2) or red (#3 and #4) ?
- The borders : red (#2), beige(#3) or orange (#4) ?
What I don't know yet : - The gems : Maybe something fire-y but it may be too much of orange and red. Or maybe something green to add a bit of contrast ?
Some parts are still not painted or only partially because I don't think it would be important to determine the colour scheme (like the pommel, the skin and the shoes)
I put some effort in them but I didn't take time to correct some errors and I think I can do a bit better than what I'm showing.
So, folks, what do you think ? Any feedback or advice on how I could make these units better ?
I'll try to post my progress as much as possible to show how it goes !