My Eldar army grows! A model at a time, I'm trudging along slowly in what little free time I've been afforded by Spring Break. This is a model that I've wanted to paint since I was first introduced to the hobby so many years ago, and it was actually a good amount of fun to paint!
During clean up and assembly, I removed his tab and pinned him to the base. The base is a 25mm Lost Empires resin base from Dragonforge.
To start off I used Krylon White Primer spray, again with the low pressure cap to diffuse the particles better and give a more even coat. Once dried, I went to work with the airbrush. For my base color I used Vallejo German Grey. The airbrush affords such a nice even coat, I can't imagine working without it on armored models, and I'm not even using a high end set up! I'm really excited to upgrade sometime in the future to a more precise airbrush and possibly a better compressor as well.
To give him some variety of tone, I highlighted using a uni-directional spray of the slightly lighter Vallejo Neutral Grey. Using the airbrush in this manner catches all of the raised surfaces and upper quarters with the highlight, giving a smooth, natural highlight.
To help the transition, and to tone the piece back down a bit, I washed over everything with a light Badab Black. This gives me that nice black color without ever using true black paint, which tends to feel too harsh, and something my friend Migsula has railed against in many of my past projects! This method of black without black is testament to it's effectiveness.
Once the black was finished, I went to work on the sections that would end up being bone colored. I used my typical bone method, Bestial Brown > Snakebite Leather > Bleached Bone > Skull White. Most models I do all of the pieces that will be the same or similar colors at one time. Painting all of them at the same time affords me a little saved time from switching pots and a bit of paint conservation as well, as I won't be worried about my paint drying out before I get back to using it.
Metals were done using Chainmail painted solid and washed with Gryphonne Sepia and where necessary to bring out the detail even more I used a bit of Badab Black. You can see my washes on metallic step by step here. I use this method constantly, and to be frank, I use washes constantly throughout the painting process! If you don't have the armor line you want, a little wash can make that stand out! Don't be afraid to play a bit, a clean look (if that's what you're going for!) can still be afforded even with the most painterly style!
The armor was highlighted using Shadow Grey edge highlights followed on by Space Wolves Grey leaving some of the Shadow Grey showing around it. I paid special attention to what direction the majority of the highlights were leaning toward. Pick a single direction for the 'light' to come from and hit the edges that face it. You might find you're leaving a lot of edges un-highlighted by doing this, and that's the point! By doing this you're not over-highlighting areas and will have a cleaner, crisper finish.
Gems were painted using a Black base with Red Gore > Blood Red > Fiery Orange > Skull White in the typical gem painting method. Again, be sure you stick to the direction you picked earlier with the armor highlights, gems on the back should go to the same light source as those on the front!
The tassels (come on, that's what they are!), were done with a Red Gore base followed on by a Blood Red highlight and finally a wash of Badab Black to bring out the details.
For the base I painted the ruin work with Codex Grey, washed it with Badab Black and a drybrush of Fortress Grey. To finish the piece off I painted the rim with Black.
A quick hit of varnish and he's ready for the tabletop! I always use varnish, at the moment I've had good success with Purity Seal from GW, but I know that's not the best stuff out there. For now though, it's doing the job for my tabletop piece and I haven't had any issues.
I hope to do complete write ups with photos for a few things I've mentioned in this Reinforcements for the future. I hope this write up gives you a few new ideas on your next project, and maybe inspires you to try a few things you hadn't thought of before!
