Ulthuan

So my question for you is what color would go better with the red cloth on my archers? I am debating between brown or white...

Any input is helpful and appreciated!!!

ever thought about black?

red and black are very compatible (mixed with gold and white for details and armour)

Red and black seem a bit too dark for high elves. I'd go for red and white/cream. Not necessarily a white with gray shading, but more cream/brown.

I agree red and black is a little dark for my tastes. Ive seen it on a few models and i dont like it that much. I was also told that red and brown looks like wood elves to some people so i think red and white is the winner lol

Whats the easiest method to paint white?

Do you want a cream-colored white (bleached bone-ish) or a more pure white?
In either case, white always takes plenty of coats to paint. You need to water it down and do 3 or so coats of paint to get anything resembling a smooth finish. For bleached bone cloth do a basecoat of bleached bone mixed with a little bit of brown, then paint on bleached bone while leaving the darker color in the folds/crevices. Then a final highlight of bleached bone mixed with a bit of white if you so wish (though I don't bother).
More pure white you pretty much do the same thing but with gray in the folds.
Most important thing, again, is to just water down your paints. White needs a smooth coat otherwise it's utterly terrible.

Awesome thanks Grantmepower!!!

How would you paint red?

Depends on the darkness of the red. I use red gore, then highlight up to blood red, but find that it looks a bit more cartoonish then I like. Regardless, a dark red followed by a lighter red. Note that you do not ever want to mix white with red to make it lighter for a highlight, because you just end up with pink! You can lighten red with orange or yellow, though it sometimes looks funny. You're better off just buying a lighter shade of red. Darkening with black works just fine.

Assuming you're new, I'm just going to throw a plug out for the Citadel washes. They're awesome. Put a wash over nearly anything and it looks at least twice as good. Especially armour. Black wash over chainmail or mithril silver and a little bit of a re-highlight and it's perfect.

haha yea i love the washes!!!

I generally going mechrite red, wash with badab black, 50/50 mechrite/blood red, then a blood red highlight.... I think a little lighter highlight would work better, but i might just try your method first!

Hey, yours sounds better actually
I'm into quick and easy, so usually just 3 colors and possibly a wash.

Here is my first attempt at painting the white cloth



I think the the shade needs to be a little lighter.

Thoughts?

Also here is a brown 5 minute mock-up:

WarriorKING12 wrote:haha yea i love the washes!!!

I generally going mechrite red, wash with badab black, 50/50 mechrite/blood red, then a blood red highlight.... I think a little lighter highlight would work better, but i might just try your method first!

This is my recipe as well except I use Devlan Mud wash instead of Badab Black. I've been happy with the results.

Your white looks good, in my opinion. I like the contrast the gray provides, so I'd say be careful not to make it too much lighter or it may start to feel washed out. What was your process for that? I actually start with Astronomican Grey and then mix with skull white on the way up using pure skull white only for the extreme highlights.

I have to say your white looks really nice and flat and the shading looks fine in my opinion better than fine! As for the brown I kinda like that as well it might be a tad dark for how I personally see HE's but the red could make all the difference to that.
Good work though man

Hey thanks guys i appreciate it

WarriorKING12 wrote:Your white looks good, in my opinion. I like the contrast the gray provides, so I'd say be careful not to make it too much lighter or it may start to feel washed out. What was your process for that? I actually start with Astronomican Grey and then mix with skull white on the way up using pure skull white only for the extreme highlights.

For white I started with codex grey, then used fortress grey adding more white until i just use pure skull white. Although i am thinking about removing codex grey from the mix

If you are going caledor might consider red and green. Green is a complementary colour of red and they mix certainly well.

Blue is also a great combination although it is maybe too common in other people's HEs and you maybe want something unique?

Here is my test model:





What do you guys think?

I like it. Looks very good.

I like it too but I think the shaded areas need to be smaller. What do you think?

I quite like it! I think the shaded areas look fine in a unit they will stand out nicely. Also i really like the way you have painted the bow! how long do you think it took from start to finish?

Thanks Loec! I think this model took me about an hour to a hour and half