h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay so having spent the entire night painting I got non of the knights finished. Great.

I did however, paint this little baby (this one not painted by me though):
http://ironhalo.net/bretking.htm

Its the oddest thing I've painted actually. I didnt expect it to work out well but I've been painting the beast (hippogriff) all morning and its looking surprisingly good. In fact its looking like one of the best pieces I've done, and thats with some stiff competition.

You can find some pictures of my stuff here although the pics are horrid:
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/asmodai_dark86/Andreas%20minis/

I have to admit it is a lot darker then some of the models I've seen but I have a plan to lighten it slightly. I dont want it to be too bright because I want the red to really stand out next to the blue (at the moment its a little dark).

That just leaves the scarey prospect of the king himself. I'm pondering trying some lighting techniques on him but I dont know yet.
Ah well back to work.

most of those are far too green for my liking....
and you dont really use a great many colours do you?

The fey is not mainly grey with a pale green, whilst arrielle is going white I think - merely work in progress on those whilst the rest... hmmm I dunno.

I try to use as limited a pallette as possible for the simple reason that it creates coherancey between units. Sure in a bretonnian army that isn't on crusade (where all the knights are in full heraldry) then looking like an explosion in a pain factory isnt a problem, but if you overload models with too many colors can end up with them looking american - this isn't a bad thing by any means, except its a style people either like or dont, and I dont.

Take leonceur which is nearly finished. He has perhaps four colors - blood red, regal blue, boltgun metal, and kommando khaki (for the beast). Yet to get the right tecture of red, I'll have used at least three other colors and a combination of blends. Thats not to mention the beast itself, the flesh of which has been highlighted to a standard I'm more then happy with, using only bestial brown, kommando khaki and skull white.

The same goes for arrielle. She has been painted using inks over a white under coat, with the highlights built up slowly line by line.

I'd also like to point towards cadians, eldar guardians, empire soldiers, lizard men (skinks and saurus). All essentially limited in terms of colors used, but with minor additions, a few shading techniques, it looks right and thats the point.

Ahh maybe your right though. I mean, I've been doing this a good decade and a half now, using a similar color selection process, and the fact that non of the countless people I've played with ever mentioned such a thing shouldnt have any bearing on my reaction.

I'm still waiting to see the Lahmian by the way you never did let me have a look. To be honest I've been tempted to try one myself recently now my free hands advanced enough (although I have a wood elf warband to paint thats demanding tattoos and face paint first.

I think i'll need to dig them out...
I put most of them away for a while when i started university
never did finish my wolves...

I'll get some of my acrylic out and see what i can come up with,
I never did like gameworkshop paint i can mix better myself

Pah! I have bright yellow Eldar... Mostely because I like Wraith Guard and Wraith Lords. The amount of variation from one piece to the other is tiny

NOOOOO! DONT TALK ABOUT ELDAR!

I've seen the new eldar and they look far too nice. Far far to nice (there knocking about on warseer dot com, in the forums section under 40k rumour roundup). Plus if they come out as scheduled I may be able to buy the big box set and save myself all of four pounds! Then in theoryI'll have enough time to paint and sell them ready for dark angels, which I could keep! Mwahaha

I think I'll finish the elf armies I've got before I head down that road though. My high elves need to go, preferably after my wood elves.

I've seen models painted with arcyilics, and while initially they weren't very good they looked alright eventually, but always too thick. I think it boils down to what you've been using - I've always used GW paints, tried others and wasn't happy. Even the three bottles of vjello which are the best for figure painting (general concensus of the online community) I own only get used to experiment with.

Hmm just realised that I left a lot of goodies around my bed room I'm going to go look for. I've still got to paint Archaon, I might as well find the bits and prepare...

I always liked the old chainmail Eldar, and the Harlequins too...wish I had a GW near me

The harlequins yeh but on standard guardians? You want one of the oldest, most advance races in the universe wearing chainmail??

Well not exactly, but it wasn't really chainmail, it just looked like that it was more a cloth that could suddenly become extremely had on impact from a projectile/particle/laser. Plus the original Harlequins were amazing, they were virtualy unstoppable, you only needed about 20 and you'd always win. I hope they bring them back in the new codex, when they finaly get round to updating them that is.

Ahh now I remember it was connecting discs if I could remember that were linked together so that when they got struck they formed a solid surface. Problem was they could never make it look right. I still like the modern guardians though they look pretty spot on.

True they were cool, and you didnt mean many, but they didn't always win, thats a bit of an exaggeration. There no better then any other eldar army in that if you had the skill to time it, you could wipe the board clean within a turn or two, but if you didn't you'd get splattered.

I really shouldnt look on the forgeworld site should I? Bad mark... very bad mark..

The big issue I have with GW and Eldar is that they were so powerful in 3Ed that they haven't really bothered about updating them, so Harlequins and Exodites still don't have 'official' rules. The big problem, I supose, with Harlequins is that their primary weapon, the Harlequin's Kiss should invalidate any armour saves so they'ed probably be too powerful against most oponents. Ironicly, as chaos fighters, their weapon is most useles against Thousand Sons Space Marines, as their armour is completely sealed and even if it weren't there's no body inside for the kiss to affect. Still Harlequins are easily the coolest troops in 40k

I just stick to undead...
got me some blooddragons and a nice nonGW figure for a necromancer

AD if you find Acylics too thick then you obviously havnt found the wonders of bottom of the market rubbish that comes prewatered down
i fond it great for drybrushing the white onto my skelintons for a rather classic look of white bones with a black undercoat showing through all the gaps

if you can do it right it looks good
otherwise just dont try it

I lost my Nagash mini I had a huge army consisting mostley of the old plastic skelies, some Z's and a couple of groups of Mummies, all led by Nagash, dunno where any of them are though, they seem to have just vanished

I have a zombie dragon (still to paint)
and his rider (who i switched because he wasnt the right bloodgroup thingy) but now i dont know what to do with the rider....

Bits box. All my old high elves went the way of the bits box and were later butchers to provide bodies for eldar exodites

You mean Zacharias I remember you telling me. Which blood line are you putting on the dragon, and do you have the mini yet? You could switch it with the blood dragon on winged nightmare - this gives you a low level yet powerful mage on an average beast while a powerful combatant on a corpse. Zacharias is pretty funky I've painted him, wasn't too happy though.

Sadly TB Nagash is no more - lost to the eons of time and gamers who remember the good old days. There's frequent murmurs of a Nagash campaign coming a round, but don't expect to see him marching with Mummies - they've all fallen out now (go on GWonline and look under khemri).

Black undercoat with a white dry brush? Sounds a little too white for me Seriously anth take a minute here - I've been doing this over a decade now, and now its my income; I know my buisness. I've always used GW paints. Until someone puts a better paint in my hand that I can use with the same ammount of comfort I do with GW paint, I'm not going to switch. Fair enough a pot of GW paint cost's probably double what you pay for yours, but barring black, white, and chainmail, I hardly ever buy a new pot. Oh and bestial brown actually thats my initial dry brush.

To be honest I've been pinning for Necrons today. I want to do something a bit more ornate, like a slave convoy. Something that looks really cool but on closer inspection is incredibly dark. Its my way of doing Khemri without collecting ranks upon ranks of skeletons.

Thats of course after I've finished my wood elves (coming to an auction site the end of July.. ish) and my high elves (roughly the same time)... and my imperial guard...and my dark elves... yeh like thats gona happen.

So I want some suggestions - I want another unit for each of these to make them sellable, what do you suggest?

High Elves currently have -
Two units spearmen, Two units of Archers

Wood Elves currently have -
One unit of archers, one unit of glade riders, lord with great weapon, spellsinger


I've been tempted not to sell the wood elves due to the imminent release of the lord with bow that I've waited an age for.

I'd go for either Silver Helms to give them some nice fast cavalry, or a Bolt Thrower as a nice piece of artilery. Then all someone would need to add is a command figure

GAH NOT SILVER HELMS! There evil, EVIL i tell you. But you mention cavalry.. dragon princes aren't evil... Fair does, dragon princes it is. Yeh I was going to add the hero when I've got the second unit. See how it all looks on the table then decide, because if I get the wrong one now I'm only going to end up back here in a month buying another.

I'll leave the wood elves then for the good doctor when she re-emerges

*glances at box of bretonnians on desk. Remembers how late they really are. Decides to go sit in the garden with beer*