Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Dark Elveses

I've been working like crazy on my Dark Elves, in order to get them ready for Tacticon in a few weeks.  Lots of new models to paint, and they tend to take around an hour each.  Here's a shot of the spearmen I've been working on, as well as the five crossbows that are finished to a level I like.

Click on them for a bigger shot- you won't be able to see the highlights otherwise.

The steps are straightforward, they just take forever, because there are so many colors I'm using.  There are a few different 'stages' to it:

1) Spray with GW Black
(Protip:  Always glue on basing materials that are going to need painted before you spray them.  It keeps you from accidentally painting on your already highlighted model in the later stages.)

Metal Stage:

2) Drybrush chainmail w/ Boltgun Metal
3) Paint metal w/ Boltgun Metal
4) Inkwash all metal (including chainmail) w/ Badab Black
5) Thick highlight w/ Mithril Silver on all the 'high points' on the model's armor
6) Thin thin Skull White line highlight on the same places, just way less noticeable
7) Coat all the highlights with a thin layer of Badab Black again.

Cloth Stage:

8) Paint on all cloth Regal Blue
9) Paint on all cloth Turquoise Hawk
10) Thick highlight Ice Blue on 'high points' of arms, line highlight everything else
11) Asurmen Blue ink wash on the dragons on shields
12) Thin thin Skull White line highlight on cloak edges and sword scabbards, outline on dragons
13) Asurmen Blue ink wash on all the blue parts

Everything else Stage:

14) Dwarf Flesh on all the flesh
15) Elf Flesh on all the flesh
16) Ogryn Flesh ink wash on all the flesh
17) Burned Brown (is that what it's called?) on staffs/crossbows
18) Bestial Brown drybrush on staffs/crossbows
19) Touchups on armor

Basing Stage:

20) Codex Grey drybrush on base
21) Skull White drybrush on base
22) Paint Skull White in blobs on base, and use it as adhesive for Snow

Done Stage:

23)  All done!  Woo hoo.  Wow, that was a stupid long process for a 7-point model who will be sacrificed for an extra magic dice by my Supreme Sorceress.  :P

5 hours? 35 points!

I'm not what I'd really call a 'hobbyist' in the sense that I much prefer to play the games than paint for them, but it's fun, and I've gotten better over the year and a half or so that I've been painting. 

What do you think?  Am I overcomplicating it?  I like the way they look so far, hopefully they'll be finished in a few weeks!

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