How to: Argent Shroud

[Thoqqu]

I thought about posting this in the painting section but realised that generally topics in there are guides and info instead of threads seeking for advice and opinions.

So initially this thread does not fit there but depending on people's comments it might end up there by mods, we'll see.

 

I have decided that my girls are part of argent shroud and I'd like to get some tips on how to make this happen.

 

Facts:

I don't have an air brush

Priming will be chaos black (several  different sources suggest this for metallic paints)

I have mainly GW paints (list follows)

Extensive set of brushes ranging from army painter: the spycho to 1 inch wide oilbrushes

65 girls in power armor, 2 nuns from reaper mini in robes and 4 tanks to do.

Second year in law school so It would be lovely if paiting one fig doesn't take 3+ hours =)

 

Main questions:

How to paint the armors?  Faces? Hairs? White clothes?

 

For armor I was thinking about starting with Leadbelcher dry brush, chainmail and final highligh of mithril silver. Finished with devlan mud wash. Problem is that will this turn it too "dark" or "murky"? I suppose this would fit iron warriors but does it work with SoB? No need for wash or different colour?

 

Bunch of guides on how to paint flesh out there, will this work?... Dheneb stone, Tallarn flesh, highlighted with rakarth flesh?

 

For hairs it would be nice to have different colours instead of just one but is this achievable from black basecoat?

 

Painting white over black will be painful without a doubt but how it should be done is open ended question... Multiple thin layers of skull white? Grey undercoat followed by blue and then skull white? Something else?

 

 

Paints and stuff:

Chaos black, skull white, white scar, codex grey, boltgun metal, chainmail, leadblecher, mithril silver, runefang steel, dheneb stone, rakarth flesh, tallarn flesh, calthan brown, knarloc green, iyanden darksun, liche purple, mordian blue, blood red, mechrite red, auric armour gold, shining gold.

gloss varnish, lahmian medium

 

Washes: leviathan purple, agrax earthshade, athonian camoshade, badab black, devlan mud.

 

 

 

[Grgobart]

I'm by no means an expert painter, I just want to point out, that just because things work out well for most others, doesn't necessarily mean they'll work best for you, at least from my painting experience.

You want to prime black and then worry the armour might come out too dark? And you will have large areas with white cloth! I'd think twice about that in your place!

I too started painting following the advice to prime black, but never really got the point (maybe due to being too bad a painter ). I soon tried priming white and found it much easier, even with the colour scheme for my sisters being black armour and dark red cloth!

I just find it easier, painting a whole model's armour from white to black, than its face from black to "skin". Additionally, an extra layer of paint does way less damage to details on largely flat surfaces, like the armour, than anywhere else.

I not suggesting you can't prime black, but maybe trying something else might bring you new insights.

As for hair colours, I found (mostly too late, as I had most models painted already) that even with a little number of colours you can create a great amount of variation:

- black or white undercoat makes colours come out differently

- darker colour drybrushed with brighter colour, gets you some more combinations

- brighter colour sort-of-washed with watered down darker colour, a few more

if that is still not enough you can then start "manually" altering hairstyles, e.g. inserting an odd streak of grey hair.

As for suggestions for easier/faster painting, as I said I'm no expert painter, but for me these are good enough and I painted them in a very simplistic way:

- white primer

- gory red for the cloth and elf flesh for the faces, applied in a watery thick layer, which leaves "sticking out"-areas brighter

- apply black and metal colour (all single layer)

- paint details

- wash the whole model with sepia wash (first and only wash I ever tried)

- varnish

For me this method was not to paint faster, but to circumvent the fact, that I'm simply bad at manual highlighting or blending and even worst when trying to recreate it on a second model.

[*Furyou Miko]

Priming black makes all metallic colours more vibrant over them, but here I think you're best off priming white then making judicious use of brush-applied black primer to make certain parts of the silver armour pop out as lowlights.

[Thoqqu]

Thanks for the replies, some of my reasoning seems rather dumb in hindsight.
I'm painting a IG shock trooper box for a painting competition, will have to see how the metallics work on white. (Also paint list grew by about 15 so hair and faces should be covered) ^^

[WarriorFish]

For faces I've found that Rakarth Flesh with a Reikland Fleshshade wash over makes for a nice pale skin tone if that's what you're looking for, but you can mix it up with different base colours. Hair is even easier thanks to the detail on Sisters models; a white base does most of the work for you, then you can just apply whatever wash/shades you like

Get some Ceramite White as that will solve all your white issues, it's a great base paint. A couple of thinner layers of white on top and you're done for white. Like has been suggested though maybe undercoating in white might be better? For metallic colours I like to start with an appropriately coloured base paint to start it off, it means you don't have to put quite as many coats on. For example Calthran Brown I think it was for gold, and a grey for metal.

Hope that helps somehow

[*Furyou Miko]

For faces, I like Iyanden Darksun as a base, then Elf Flesh or Bronzed Flesh over the top... but I haven't had any Bronzed Flesh in donkey's years. I used to do that over Snakebite Leather.

[srpelicano]

For white, I've used a fortress grey base over black primer and worked my way up using various other grays until I could highlight with skull white. Turned fairly nice in my opinion. Was done on high elf white lions for model reference.