Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

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MatRat
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Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#1 Post by MatRat »

Hi all -

First time posting on the site, but I've been lurking around as I've recently gotten back into the hobby and interested in building out my WHFB High Elves army (don't know that I'll actually play but I do love the modelling aspect). Anyhow, I'm currently working on a unit of White Lions (the OOP metal ones, which I think are fantastic models), and am running into some trouble in nailing down the lion pelt painting scheme. I've added some pics of the "versions" that I've done so far:

https://imgur.com/TIsEqHh
https://imgur.com/Oj8jXq6

The first model on the left was my first, and is basically a base coat of zandri dust followed by highlights of ushabti bone and screaming skull, with a wash of seraphim sepia. Initially I felt good with how this model turned out but upon further reflection it strikes me as a bit to dark for a "white" lion pelt, so I tried to lighten things up a bit with my next iteration (basecoat of ceramite white followed by washes of reikland fleshade and some successive drybrushing using ulthuan grey and then ceramite white.

However, I preferred these results less than my initial try, so I again went for a more muted approach and my third / fourth models were painted with a basecoat of ceramite white followed by glazes of rakarth flesh / mechanicus standard grey, followed by some drybrushing of ulthuan grey / ceramite white as before. I generally think the result was ok, but now I'm worried that there isn't quite enough contrast on the model and that it will end up looking "flat" when fully painted.

Thought I'd ask around for any tips / criticisms on approaches before I really commit to the full unit.

Thanks in advance!
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#2 Post by SpellArcher »

MatRat wrote:Hi all
Welcome MatRat!

:)
MatRat wrote:White Lions (the OOP metal ones, which I think are fantastic models)
They have a lot of character.
MatRat wrote:Initially I felt good with how this model turned out but upon further reflection it strikes me as a bit to dark for a "white" lion pelt
This is an issue but I agree that this guy is the best. He still features quite a lot of white, I feel you have some artistic leeway, so long as the unit hangs together.
MatRat wrote:now I'm worried that there isn't quite enough contrast on the model and that it will end up looking "flat" when fully painted.
So much white fur is a challenge, colour-scheme wise. I’m not mad about this blue here and I agree the grey doesn’t provide contrast. Maybe try a slightly different colour combination?
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#3 Post by MatRat »

Thanks for the warm welcome, and appreciate the feedback!

I think I'm going to shoot for something in between with the pelts - I'll try to introduce a bit more warm tones with some zandri dust in the mix of the glazes, and make the final shades a bit darker

Without getting too deep into a discussion of army colors, I've got a fairly basic white and blue scheme that I'm working with, and my initial thought was to keep the plumes blue as a way to make the unit appear more cohesive with my other units. Although, I've also toyed with the idea of varying the plume colors for each of my "elite" infantry choices to make them each unique - red is another color I've considered; perhaps I'll test a few out and see how they compare against the blue.

In any case, here's a couple quick pics of (1) a unit of swordmasters, and (2) the front of my white lion test model.

Image
Image
SpellArcher
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#4 Post by SpellArcher »

MatRat wrote:swordmasters
Like these, very solid.
MatRat wrote:the front of my white lion test model.
Again I think he looks good, the white crest is OK. Red is often good for these models, partly because of the Roman thing they’ve got going on but I’m not sure it fits your other colours. Blue could work as done on the Swordmasters.
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Prince of Spires
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#5 Post by Prince of Spires »

Both groups of models look great. I wouldn't go red for the crests. Mainly because it would not fit with the rest of the model.

In general, for your army color, I would pick a couple of elements that are common across models and paint those all the same color. Then you can vary the rest (though going exactly the same on all models is an option too, just wouldn't be my choice) between units. The white cloth and blue trim around the edge of the armour work great for this (it's how I do it i my army). The crests you can either do in the same color or you could pick a color that matches the unit.

So in your case either blue. Or something that fits the warmer bronze of the armour and brown white of the pelt.

Rod
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#6 Post by MatRat »

Thanks for the feedback! Quick update -

I did some more shading on the pelts, and managed to infuse a bit more contrast, but not a ton. I'm hesitant to do more at this point, and in hindsight, I'm thinking I may have approached the pelts the wrong way - instead of starting with all white and shading down, would a better approach be to layer up to white and then add glazes to tie it all together and add depth?

Image

I tend to agree that I can use the color of the plumes to tie units together in the army, so I'm going to try blue with this cast of characters, as with my swordmasters. Here's a WIP from the front - still a good amount of highlighting to do, but starting to come together:

Image

Also starting to think about how I want to base these guys - I like the concept of them as "woodsmen" and I thought it would be cool to model them charging through a cleared forest, with some moss for added character. Let me know what you think (I'm thinking they may just need a tad more - maybe some well-placed static grass):

Image
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#7 Post by SpellArcher »

MatRat wrote:still a good amount of highlighting to do
Close up the crests in particular definitely lack this, though en masse it would be less obvious I think. So far so good though!
MatRat wrote:cool to model them charging through a cleared forest
Great idea!

:)
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#8 Post by MatRat »

Been making progress, slow and steady. Latest step was to work on building up and painting a tree for the movement tray:

Image

Image

Made the frame of the tree with floral wire, then coated with a a few coats of modeling paste before priming, painting, and adding some course turf as foliage. I quite enjoyed taking a break from the models to paint this, as scenery such as this seems to be much more forgiving.
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#9 Post by SpellArcher »

Nice, I like the canopy effect.
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RE.Lee
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#10 Post by RE.Lee »

Coming along nicely!

I agree about scenery - a welcome change of pace when it comes to painting (there's no faces :shock: ).
cheers, Lee

Elven Field Surgeon, Department of Intensive Care, Resuscitation and Necromancy
MatRat
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#11 Post by MatRat »

Making some progress on the units, but after nearly finishing the gold, it feels a bit too dull for what I'm going for. I'll probably re-paint those areas to come through a bit brighter. This also has the highlights on the plumes - next time I may experiment starting with a lighter blue as the basecoat and see how that compares...

Image

My other progress on these models involves the bases, as I recently bought a nifty gadget that helps me manufacture fairly realistic leaves (and I've really been looking forward to putting it to use). I had thought before that my bases were lacking something, and I'm more happy with them now after adding some grass and a smattering of leaves:

Image

Image
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Prince of Spires
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#12 Post by Prince of Spires »

I like them. They're looking good. They could indeed perhaps use some more highlighting. Though that's always difficult to see for sure in a picture. But they're very good table top quality. I would happily field that unit :)

I love the idea for the leaves. It never occurred to me to create them this way. I know what I'm getting my kid for christmas ;)

Rod
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PS: Bring cookies!

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Shannar, Sealord
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#13 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

I picked up one of those leaf punches from greenstuff world awhile back. I really like it. The rollers too, and I just recently discovered that they make a few really long rollers now. Guess I'll have to send some more money to spain.
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Prince of Spires
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#14 Post by Prince of Spires »

linky?
For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
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Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#15 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

http://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/101-punches

A lot of punches to pick from.
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Prince of Spires
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#16 Post by Prince of Spires »

What a great site. So many lovely things to buy. Just spend 15 minutes browsing through everything. Makes me want to start another hobby project again. First finish up what's currently in progress and then start working on the next thing :) Thanks for sharing :)

Rod
For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#17 Post by RE.Lee »

Yup, the rolling pins are especially tempting!
cheers, Lee

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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#18 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

They work very well on foam too, fantastic tool for terrain building.
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#19 Post by Nyeave »

A little late to the discussion but here is my input. It’s a long time since I painted any white lions and they were one of the first units I finished so they are not my finest work, but I went with a more greyish tone as a base.

Image

Image
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MatRat
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#20 Post by MatRat »

@ Nyeave - thanks for the input. Your unit looks great! If I can ask, what paints / steps did you follow to paint the pelts? Also, kudos on quality photos - looks like I've got some work to do to put together a lightbox for some better pics of my own.
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#21 Post by Nyeave »

They are in the old GW colors:

Dheneb Stone washed with devlan mud, followed by a drybrush of Dheneb Stone and then White. You could probably get a far better result by painting the highlights on instead of drybrushing but it will ofc take alot longer :)
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#22 Post by RE.Lee »

Rakarth Flesh would be the closest thing you can get to Dheneb Stone right now (from GW at least).
cheers, Lee

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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#23 Post by SpellArcher »

Nice unit Nyeave.

The colour scheme is definitely close enough to MatRat’s for a good comparison.
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#24 Post by MatRat »

Been a little while, but wanted post an update as I'm substantially complete with the paint job. Just getting things all based up at the moment. Here are some pics (apologies in advance for the picture quality):

Image

Image

Image

Image

Overall I'm happy with how they've turned out, but a few things I'd like to change up / improve in the future are:
  • Experiment with NMM, partially since I find TMM very challenging to "get right"
  • Generally achieve more vibrant blues by being more patient with building up the base layers
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#25 Post by RE.Lee »

Nice, that tree on the movement tray continues to impress. =D>
cheers, Lee

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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#26 Post by SpellArcher »

Definitely more polished!

=D>

Cloaks appear to differ slightly in tone but hey, animal skins do that.
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#27 Post by Prince of Spires »

I agree with the others, they look great. I especially like the bases (and the movement tray with the tree). They take the models from great to awesome.
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Re: Tips for painting White Lion pelts?

#28 Post by elendor_f »

Nice White Lions!
Seeing the evolution was really cool also :D
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