Jump to content

Need Color Scheme Advice


Pudelhund

Recommended Posts

Hey guys,

 

After a Games Workshop painting class and three painstaking hours of painting, I finished my first model.  It is a Skitarii Ranger.  Fluff-wise, my Astra Militarum regiment is going to be working closely with Skitarii and they will share the Skitarii's forge world colors.  In the photo, you see I have made the Skitarii purple with a light grey undercloak and trim.  I plan to make the Veteran Sergeant standing behind him in the same colors.  The cloth will be purple and the armor will be light grey.  

 

The Skitarii has a maple-colored gun, but I think that would look odd for the boltgun and lasguns and other Astra Militarum weaponry.  Which color should I use instead?

 

Also, if I make all of the armor and the backpack thing grey, is that too much grey?  Should I break it up at all with another color?

 

Thanks in advance,

Pudelhund

 

http://i.imgur.com/dIXfxQz.jpg

Link to comment
https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/307977-need-color-scheme-advice/
Share on other sites

First I'll say that's some darn good work you've done there.

 

As for it being too much grey, that's up to you. I'll throw out the pictures of my guardsmen:

 

WP 20150520 005

 

Now, I did all my pouches and rucksacks (all two of them) in brown, which given my background is understandable (My ruck was solid green, and my vest was solid tan, of course I was using non standard gear for training). I'd suggest doing something similar to break up the color scheme. I used base black with a slight drybrush of leadbelcher for my weapons, it makes them simple to paint, and would be fairly realistic for a guard force.

I know I said congrats on the model in the Ad Mech forum but...congrats happy.png! Now you know what it is to be a painter! Just don't go drinking yourself to death on Absinthe and we'll all be fine tongue.png.

To be brutally honest, though, the maple-like stocks look fitting. For the Ad Mech. The question of how to paint the lasguns and bolters still hangs in the air. I would say it's up to you but you asked for our opinions. Red would work for the bolter cowlings any day of the week. Hell, all the cowling for Space Marine bolters used to be red back in the old days. There's your vintage look.

As Captain Sox said, black always works and I think it would look nice with all that purple going on. So there's your chic look (dear Emperor, I'm starting to sound like my wife).

Green. Not just any green, mind you. A good colour recipe that my Regiment uses, well, 7th Company uses, is as follows:

Weapon Cowling

Castellan Green basecoat

Athonian Camoshade wash

Death World Forest highlight

This gives your green a very nice military look. Why should you wash with a green shade? Funnily enough, it makes it look like the weapons have been used. I figure you've seen matte paint on metal before. Well, if you can recall that image in your head, it gets a kind of dullness look to it as the paint oxidizes with the air, dew point, and humidity. This would be your military look. On the plus side, it looks great with purple.

As for the question of your scheme having too much grey, try breaking that up with a brass or bronze colour on some parts. I see you have some, but you may need more. Well, all in all, great work. You're over the first hurdle. Now go and paint 200+ more msn-wink.gif!

If you look at weapons that have seen a lot of use they have scratches on the receivers, and wear around the edges.

 

Here's a picture of one of my very well worn airsoft guns for reference:

 

WP 20150521 004

 

That should help with ideas on how to weather the guns properly.

He looks great, I agree that the weapon colour probably wouldn't suit the Guard as much. As mentioned black always works :tu: The base looks good too, so I'm looking forward to seeing some Guardsmen painted up - perhaps for the ETL?

 

For the Skitarii you should pick out the cog in white and black, as that's how it usually appears. White is a good detail colour for purple and greys too :tu:

That's a cracking first model. :tu:

 

When choosing colours less is more with models. You don't want your guard looking more like Eldar warriors with a riot of colours. The purple/grey with a metallic will work well with dark trims (black or a very dark brown) to the weapons and webbing. If you were to go down the green option I'd take out the grey.

Why would that maple-like color look bad on IG weapons? ~confused~

It looks like wood the way he has it painted, which I don't believe would look good on a lasgun or bolter (which are reminiscent of the ubiquitous M16 "Black Rifle").

FW's hazardous environment upgrade smile.png I'm thinking of getting a set myself.

They almost look like Kasrkin, which I love. I also hate painting faces. I'd love to have a couple sets to build some more guardsmen.

edit:

SO here's the question, you said grey armor and backpack right? So are the Fatigues going to be purple? That would look really cool, though a bit odd for Fatigues...

If you were to go down the green option I'd take out the grey.

 

When I first found the local GW Centre (about three hours away), there was a young man in there with his heretical, xenos Tau army- may they burn by our righteous hatred and fury of a thousand guns. His colour scheme was a military green with grey. It looked absolutely fantastic! For a filthy xenos army, mind you. But i do understand what you mean about a riot of colours. Can't have that.

 

@March- It wouldn't look bad to have maple stocks and cowling on the lasguns, just a little anachronistic. Then you'd have to think about the cowling for the bolters. Really, as I think about it, the lasguns would need something that wouldn't burn-out after a few hundred shots so wooden cowling would be out of the picture.

Thanks guys, I'm going to experiment with black and green.  Also, the Hostile Environment kits are awesome, but my special weapons ones are a total mess.  The hoses are broken on almost all of them, there is flash everywhere in  the arms and under the gun that is really hard to pick out from what should actually be there, and the fingers are totally malformed and I have to improvise some kind of green stuff glove fix for them.  Really disappointed in the plasmagun/meltagun molds.  The regular torsos seem fine though.

Call Forge World, Pudelhund, and tell them about it. I'm sure they'll send you a replacement. They had to send me 10 new Death Guard Legion shoulder pads because mine weren't mixed properly. The old went into the bin and new took their undercoat flawlessly.

Thanks guys, I'm going to experiment with black and green.  Also, the Hostile Environment kits are awesome, but my special weapons ones are a total mess.  The hoses are broken on almost all of them, there is flash everywhere in  the arms and under the gun that is really hard to pick out from what should actually be there, and the fingers are totally malformed and I have to improvise some kind of green stuff glove fix for them.  Really disappointed in the plasmagun/meltagun molds.  The regular torsos seem fine though.

 

I had exactly the same experience with the sets i picked up a month or so ago too. The Plasma sets were awful, ended up pretty much carving out new fingers and hands from all the flash and the wires going around to the plasma guns had to be broken to even fit on a set of legs, was very unimpressed. The melta's were a lot better but still pretty poor considering it was a FW product. If i get any more i'll just buy the torso sets and source the special weapons from other kits. 

after delivering my thesis i had some fun with the imperial guard painter, to throw some shemes at you using a similar coloursheme. the first thing that popped up in my head was why not alternate the colours, eg grey clothing, and purple armour? why you ask? well, a simple respray of the armour while in transit would allow them to camouflage them completely different, eg a white respray for winter combat etc, without need to change the cloth.

igbeta2.php?b62c=@iakk7_hzOfe.i9aHM_@@.@@@___@hFZ83hFZ83hFZ83..@@hozqS_haLvy@&

armour: liche purple, top clothing astronomican grey, trousers adeptus battlegrey.

I also did a mock up of the sheme you spoke about in the original post though:

igbeta2.php?b62c=@iakk7_hFZ83.hzOfe_.@i9aHM@@@___@...i9aHMi9aHM@@hnsaQ_haLvy@&

as for the guns, i usually pick the same colour as the armour, both as mentioned before, you can't go bad with black with some grey highlights

Hendrik brings up an interesting idea. Grey fatigues would be more akin to what the guard would wear, and purple armor would be easy to adapt, easier that purple fatigues. That said, we're by no means trying to pressure you into changing if you don't want to, just offering alternatives. A color inversion would let you keep the same colors, but add a little variety to your combined force. They'd still tie together but the two would be just different enough. Besides, paining all of that purple can be rough (I've painted Hawk Lords, and let me tell you, I never want to see that much purple again). 

That's a good point WF. Speaking in terms of camouflage, dark colors are best for night operations, though never black. The night is never dark enough for black to work, I can tell you it's easy to spot a blacked out ninja wannabe at night (play an airsoft night game against one and you'll see what I mean). Dark Purple, Dark Green, Dark Blue, Dark Brown, Dark Grey, all do very well, so your colors would be fine for a planet shrouded in eternal night. 

 

I look forward to seeing more paint on plastic from you pudelhund!

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.