Army uniformity - how do you do it?

[RelentlessPursuit]

Hey all,

 

Looking to paint my sternguard at the weekend but I have a bit of a dilemma.

 

Do I paint the gold helmets with the same gold as my sanguinary guard etc? Or do I use balthazar gold style the same as the others gold parts on their powerarmour?

How did you do it?

 

And do any of you have any other paint scheme rules you try stick to?

[neonmole]

Personally; when I decide on a method of painting a certainly colour, I use they method on all instances of th colour. e.g. the gold would be the same on SG, veteran helmets, chest eagles, details etc etc.

 

Given what you have said though, I would probably go with the same gols you have used on other similar “armour” pieces, I.e the way you have painted your SG, rather than the way you have painted other details.

 

As an additional comment on this - everyone always talks about bases as a way of unifying (which is definitely not wrong, and goes a very long way), but I also find that simply using a similar set of techniques across as army goes a long way too. e.g if you use a shade/edge highlight approach, they apply that methodology to all the colours, or, if you use a wetblend approach for one colour, apply that to all the other colours. Hope that makes sense!

 

Hope that’s helpful :)

Edited January 26, 2018 by neonmole

[Panzer]

Yeah for me too all gold in an army is the same tone of gold.

[Xenith]

I generally try to stick to the same methods, using the best paint for the job, but similarly, techniques evolve as the army evolves.

For small areas of gold, veteran helms, icons, wargear, etc, these get a coat of retributor, then a wash of agrax+lahmian, maybe another fine shade. Highlight stormhost silver.

All gold models get more attention, as the gold is the focal point. These usually get:

retributor base.

all over wash of sepia+lahmian medium

touch up gold plates where the wash sploshed

broad point shade of leviathan purple into recesses

more leviathan into deepest recesses (e.g. the abs on the sanguard)

broad highlight liberator gold

sharp highlight stormhost silver.

Here's examples of the former:

and the latter

EDIT:

It boils down to characters getting more attention lavished on them.

Similarly, rank and file get:

mephiston -> agrax point shade -> highlight evil suns -> fire dragon bright

Characters get

mephiston -> agrax point shade -> highlight evil suns -> wild rider red -> fire dragon bright -> ungor flesh

Edited January 26, 2018 by Xenith

[Chaplain Gunzhard]

I always write my recipes down. Gold is easy enough to match but red is another story... it's why I still use a convoluted, painful method for painting a mediocre red that I'm not crazy about but it's too late to change.

[Xenith]

I always write my recipes down. Gold is easy enough to match but red is another story... it's why I still use a convoluted, painful method for painting a mediocre red that I'm not crazy about but it's too late to change.

 

I had that kind of red also. Like, keep drybrushing blood red onto the model until it looks ok. I changed everything and switched to the Eavy Metal way of painting red when the new colours were released and haven't looked back.

 

It's not too late to change.

[Ornithologist]

I use color uniformity in more than just using the same paint colors. For instance:

 

All Purity seal wax is a medium blue color, and all Lascannons have a yellow barrel, all plasma Guns have Glowing Green for the ribs, etc etc. Including Skin/hair (Yay, Genetic tinkering!)

 

it both helps show off that this army is using mass production to generate parts, as well as showing off structure. 

 

Meanwhile my Ork army is almost the complete opposite. The only constant through out the army is the basing and every Ork has a yellow shirt (Bad Moons) and if they are on there, black suspenders. Everything from Skin tone, Pants, shoes, and hats I have anywhere from 4 to 6 different color options that I found a way to apply randomly. The Yellow shirts keep them looking like a unit, but the group is wonderfully Orky at the same time. Big flaw is it takes literal millenia to paint any units. I have had the army for about 8 years now, and I have only gotten about 60 orks out of 150 done, not counting any vehicles or characters. Though the Mega Orks are basically gold/yellow walls of awesome... so

[sockwithaticket]

I agree with some of the advice so far: use the same accent colours accross the board (eg. all plasma coils are green, all purity seal wax is red), make sure that divergent schemes for special units have some consistency with your main colour palette (inverting your main scheme can be a good way to do this), paint the whole army with broadly the same techniques (i.e. if you started out doing  line highlights, don;t shift to blending).

[rayvn26]

I use the same method for all my golds. Liquid Gold from Vallejo: Red Gold base, Gloss Agrax Earthshade targeted to recesses, first highlight of Liquid Gold Old Gold, final highlight of Liquid Gold White Gold. Super shiny rich gold.