Love the yellow and orange flock.

I did a test paint of an elven archer with a view to starting my Latari. As I want to get through this army quickly I adopted dry brushing as the fasted way to get some subtle shading onto the models. I'm posting this on holiday so I'm not near my paints but I'll try to remember which ones I used.

I base coated with Dryad Bark followed first by a dry brush of XV88 then Steel Legion Drab for this effect.

I choose a fairly dark green for the cloth, there really isn't much of this and so in the end it will be quite subtle. This army wont be green but more a brown colour. I based with Castellan Green then used some very old GW greens from the 90's to highlight, I think Ork Flesh and something equally obscure. GW didn't do greens very well back then but they have come leaps and bounds lately.

I added a couple of other colours before washing, Ushabti Bone for the bow, I wont wash that, a couple of golds and greys else where, but overall as I mentioned I wanted the browns to be the dominate colour. The flesh I based with Cadian Fleshtone and highlighted with Kislev Flesh

I dont have a shot of the post wash before I added the base. So here's the final model with basing done too. I forgot to go back over the greens after I washed it but next time I'll redo these. I washed with Reikland Fleshshade as I didn't want to mute the colours down too much. I am going to base this whole army in autumnal colours, something I have not tried before but it should be fun. I should also do the eyes, its painful but really helps bring this type of model up a notch. I may also play around with silver hair, blonde is weirdly quite difficult to pull off properly.

Looks good great choice in flock

I finally got a chance to sit down and get serious with my elves. When I had finished my first 2 trays of archers I was a little concerned that I had over emphasized the autumn colours on the bases. But once I got the scions done I felt more comfortable with this choice.

To paraphrase the project management scope triangle, see if you can guess my job, there is quality, speed and volume (usually cost), pick two you can never have all three. So with this in mind I pick speed and volume, I often go back over armies at a later date once they are tabletop ready to bring up the quality. At that stage I'll do the eyes and highlight more. I'm even thinking about stringing the bows, something I have not done before but it looks good once done.

By the end of today I hope to have the the next 24 archers done, I might even base coat all of my battlecats.

I feel the autumn colours would have better served the models (as your initial impression), yeah looks alright on the scions but themselves being so flat are lost in the vibrance of the base.

So good.

39 minutes ago, Darthain said:

I feel the autumn colours would have better served the models (as your initial impression), yeah looks alright on the scions but themselves being so flat are lost in the vibrance of the base.

Hm true, a little drybrushing could bring out the wood texture more. Those colored mushrooms are fantastic, though!

7 hours ago, Darthain said:

I feel the autumn colours would have better served the models (as your initial impression), yeah looks alright on the scions but themselves being so flat are lost in the vibrance of the base.

Yeah I put them on the table for the first time last night. Our thoughts exactly. The way I paint most of my models they are a little drab so I'll look at putting in some sharp colour on them somehow. Once the eyes are done that will help, it's a shame there isn't more gems on the elves like GW ones. When it comes to my battle cats I'll look at a colour other than green or maybe I need to pick a brighter green and use a green wash.

59 minutes ago, Thornoo1 said:

Yeah I put them on the table for the first time last night. Our thoughts exactly. The way I paint most of my models they are a little drab so I'll look at putting in some sharp colour on them somehow. Once the eyes are do that will help, it's a shame there isn't more gems on the elves like GW ones. When it comes to my battle cats I'll loo at a colour other than green or maybe I need to pick a brighter green and use a green wash.

That's the great thing about painting, you just paint over it and move on with life (like my last attempt at NMM gold, which is conviniently TMM). The undo button is strong :D.

Just plugging away now. Sitting down and doing the hard yards. It's the only way to get these babies done.

Pushed out an elven character tonight. Totally messed up her battle cat the first time through so I had to go back and do it again. Got the shading all wrong, I initially started the cat as grey but didn't go dark enough on the base colour. Usually when shading three colours is enough, because I had such a light base colour I over did the shading and it came out all wrong. So on my second run through I moved from grey back to the original sandy colour I had been think about.

I think it's lucky I have two Alainas because I'm not super happy with this one.

You're being too hard on yourself. Looks good to me!

I'm with @Force Majeure that Aliana is looking fierce. Although, and it's probably just a trick of the light, but in the front photo it looks like she's sporting a mustache.

i think the "issue" with that aliana is more so the angle than anything else.
Personally i find that headpiece the mount has to be kinda derpy looking. This is a modelling quark not a paintjob quark.

4 hours ago, Contrapulator said:

I'm with @Force Majeure that Aliana is looking fierce. Although, and it's probably just a trick of the light, but in the front photo it looks like she's sporting a mustache.

Yeah its totally the light and camera. using an iphone4 and rather poor lighting.

She actually has red lips, i think I really need to spend the $40 and get a camera tent.

You'll be able to see blogs and vids about painting techniques all over the web. I'd like to discuss painting attitude.

For many of you Runewars will be the first tabletop game in which you need to paint a substantial number of miniatures. There is going to be times when it all seems too much and an overwhelming project. My advice is to chip away and it, do some hard bursts, then reward yourself by painting a character or single larger figure.

1. Enjoy yourself - it isnt realistic to sit down and paint 30 models in a single day and enjoy the entire experience, that factory approach is a hard slog
2. Reward yourself - the solos are always fun because you can see real progression. They can be knocked out in one or two nights and then you'll have a table top ready unit
3. Don't punish yourself - there will always be better painters out there, find your level and then knock the whole army out at that level. It takes literally years to get really really good.
4. Praise yourself - post your finished models online, someone will like it and let you know. This feels good and will keep you motivated
5. Pace yourself - getting a whole army done to tabletop quality can take from 2 to 6 months. That's just how long it takes. But that is ok.
6. Basing you models makes them look better- sorry, slipped a technique in there.
7. Understand the hobby you have joined - I've found that miniature war gaming is about 25% painting, 25% making army lists, 25% playing and 25% talking to your friends about the hobby.
8. And yes sometimes you will need determination, sweat and effort to get your units painted.

So don't give up, perhaps you have done your first 4 models for RWM and it took a month. Well done, you are halfway through getting a 2x1 unit ready for the tabletop. Do the next four miniature and enjoy playing with your first fully painted unit.

It has been a while. I have finished my first two Latari starter boxes. Really got bogged down on the Leonx Riders, kind of typical when you set a goal to paint entire army in less than a month. The last few units are a real cow to paint as your motivation drops.

I also play a lot of Mordheim, a skirmish GW fantasy game from the 90's. So I had a few elves set aside as magic users, typically for me I have unpainted models in boxes just waiting for me to get to them. So I have decided to repurpose these as heroes for my Latari army. The GW 25mm round bases fit quite nicely into the RWM trays so there is no need to do any cutting. The GW figures, as they are slightly older sculpts, are closer to true 25mm scale and when compared to the RWM re slightly smaller. I think RWM are closer to 28mm in scale.

On 9/12/2017 at 7:31 AM, Thornoo1 said:

Just plugging away now. Sitting down and doing the hard yards. It's the only way to get these babies done.

Pushed out an elven character tonight. Totally messed up her battle cat the first time through so I had to go back and do it again. Got the shading all wrong, I initially started the cat as grey but didn't go dark enough on the base colour. Usually when shading three colours is enough, because I had such a light base colour I over did the shading and it came out all wrong. So on my second run through I moved from grey back to the original sandy colour I had been think about.

I think it's lucky I have two Alainas because I'm not super happy with this one.

The cats are tricky, and I think this is why: FFG went way too heavy on the muscles on them. The deep deep crevices require a different type of shading than you can get away with on others. It takes more care. I had issues with cats at first blush as well, and had to redo the first set. Since I realized (what I percieve) is the problem, we've been all good.

Prodigious amount of work you've turned out though. I need to finish Aliana then take another elf pass as well for starter box 2.