Colour Suggestions

[AndrewGPaul]

My recipe for elven skin tones is a base coat of Vallejo Game Color Elf Flesh, shade with Citadel Ogryn Flesh wash, first highlight with Elf Flesh again then a final highlight with VGC Pallid Flesh. Works a treat, no mixing required. If you need to shade deeper recesses, some Devlan Mud round the edges works, or even Devlan Mud mixed with a dark brown for really deep shades.

A tip I've heard for doing black cloth is to basecoat the area with a dark grey, then give it a couple of washes of Badab Black until it looks black enough. I would think this trick would work with a dark turquise, green, blue, etc instead of grey.

Apparently, Badab Black over flesh tones gives a really good silk stocking effect:

http://frothersunite.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=31754 (as ever, here be sweary words).

[Seb]

You will probably want to have some nice rocky bases with that army.
I have only been using sand combined with broken cork to build mine so far but that makes cool ones, it is cheap and easy too. You can buy the cork boards in Toukyuu Hands on the DIY floor.

The bases come out pretty cool starting with priming them black and then drybrushing several layers of darker to lighter grey with a very small amount of paint.

By the way, if you can. Please make a hobby log and take some pics so that we can see your progress mate, themed armies are always interesting!

[me_in_japan]

seb's description of using cork for rocky bases is spot on. You can also get nice cheap cork chips from hardware stores, or even hundred yen shops, if youre lucky.

[kojibear]

Thanks for the base tips with the cork! Now I know not to throw the corks from all the wine we drink away!

Question about the grey Tamiya spray MiJ. I have a gunmetal grey one I think, quite a dark grey, would that work well?

[me_in_japan]

probably be fine, really. btw, I just noticed that you should probably swap out codex grey and fortress grey in the instructions I gave above for adeptus battlegrey and astronomican grey respectively. Theyre roughly the same colours, but although the former are slightly warmer in tone, the latter are foundation paints, which means they go on much, much more easily, although you'll need to water em down a lot more - foundation paints are like bloody toothpaste if youre not careful... (ok, i exaggerate, but they are definitely much denser and thicker than standard GW paints, which is what theyre designed to be, I might add.)

[kojibear]

Thanks MiJ

I'll do that. What would happen if I used the non-foundation paints, just curious?

Also, what brush sizes do I need to begin with?

Thanks and have a good day tomorrow bud.

[Primarch]

I'll do that. What would happen if I used the non-foundation paints, just curious?

You'd need to use 2 coats of paint.
Foundation paints just go on thicker than the usual ones so you dont need to do so many layers.

Also, what brush sizes do I need to begin with?

I use the brushes from Joshin. Their product numbers are 87048 and 87050. 1 is for normal painting and 1 is for detail. You may also want to invest in a larger brush as it will make painting the main colour much faster. I use one of my wife's old make up brushes, the tip is about a 1/2cm across and it makes base coating in one colour super easy.

[kojibear]

I'll do that. What would happen if I used the non-foundation paints, just curious?

You'd need to use 2 coats of paint.
Foundation paints just go on thicker than the usual ones so you dont need to do so many layers.

I actually already have the non-foundation paints. Can I make do without the colour paints or is it better to invest in them?

Also, how about the Vejello(spelling?) range? Are they a bit cheaper? Do they have colour and foundation selections also?

Thanks for all the help guys

[Primarch]

I actually already have the non-foundation paints. Can I make do without the colour paints or is it better to invest in them?

Also, how about the Vejello(spelling?) range? Are they a bit cheaper? Do they have colour and foundation selections also?

Thanks for all the help guys

No, you don't need the foundation paints. They're useful if you dont want to put on a lot of layers of paint, but they aren't by any means a necessity.
Vallejo have their own ranges which differ in both colours and use. They are a bit cheaper on average, (though the bottles are smaller) but the quality is about the same.

[me_in_japan]

Vallejo and GW paints are very comparable in terms of quality. Either or both is fine. mix and match as you see fit. I use em both, plus P3 paints. They all intermix happily, so no worries. If you see a colour you like, pick it up, basically.

As for foundation paints, I really like em. They were only released by GW a coupla years ago, at the same time as their washes range. They fill a gap that other paints dont. When Prim says they "go on thicker" thats not strictly speaking true. They go on denser. That means that a single layer of foundation paint will be the same thickness as normal paint (i.e. a fraction of a milimetre) but will have several times the density of pigment in that thickness, resulting in a far more opaque layer.

What this means in practical terms is that for every two or three layers of regular paint, you could make do with a single layer of foundation paint.

The foundation colours tend to be quite dull, as in not bright, but they make a very good base upon which to lay brighter colours (as their name suggests...)

I'd say you'd be well advised to get both those greys I mentioned, as well as iyanden darksun (vital if you ever want to paint yellow) and charadon granite (very similar to graveyard earth, and could replace it if you wanted). Maybe mechrite red would be good too, as its v handy. I bought the foundation set, and I use em all, from time to time, but those are my cant-live-without paints.

Brushes: dont get a cheap crap brush. Theyre just frustrating. Get a decent sable one from Rosemary & co. (or W&N if youre feeling bling). It helps a lot for any level of painter.