Warhammer-Empire.com

Hey all,
i just recently started to collect an empire army. While looking at all the different army colors i decided i would paint mine in the mighty colors of talabacland.

Only problem is I am having trouble painting skin/ highlighting in general....

Here is a pic of my test model:






Any advice on how to improve this model would be appreciated

Welcome aboard!

My opinion: The clothing is okay. This is rank&file, so the quality is perfectly fine for tabletop.

Issue 1 is the shoes. Pure black looks flat. Black is difficult to highlight, so I suggest you use Scorched Brown instead and shade it with black wash. Problem solved.

Issue 2 is the eyes. I hope I don't offend you, but dang, those are scary! They look as if the eyeballs were rolling out of the sockets. Excellent for zombies, not so much for state troops. Use pure white for the eyeballs, and take care that the wash doesn't run into them when you shade the face (paint the eyes last). Eyes are, in my opinion, the part that can make or break a model most easily.

Hope this helps!

Hm, I have not yet experimented with mixing normal paint and foundation paints, so I can't comment on your ideas.

Fast version: What you can do is apply Devlan Mud to the entire clothing (perhaps thinned down a bit). That will darken the clothing, especially the yellow. You can then highlight with the initial colour. Personally, I don't like the look on my minis, but some members here use the washes to great effect. Look for Zero_Zwentythree and Shadowlord.

Slow version: For sharp highlights on red, I recommend mixing it with Elf Flesh instead of lighter reds, using pure Elf Flesh for the final highlights. Conversely, I find Dark Flesh is good base colour for red if you are layering it.

Edit: You're welcome! I recommend browsing around a bit here, there are some great painters on this site.

If you are using the foundation paints my advise would be to thin them down, that goes for all paints really... You'll get a much smoother finnish with multiple thin layers than you would using just one thick cote. As far as shading goes, washes are your friend. The GW ones are excellent. Once you've blocked in the base colors and shaded them (washed the area) start layering on the highlighs in progressivly brighter tones. For red you could try 1:1 Mecrite Red to Blood Red, then pure Blood Red then 1:1 Blood Red to Fiery Orange as highlighs to a Mecrite Red base. Just remember to keep the paints thin.

I'd also advise to you to give your models an exta "quick once over" before priming and painting to ensure that you've gotten rid of any eventual moldlines/flash. Moldlines are the devil!

How much to thin your paints comes down to personal preference and painting style. When thinning paints that much you can't load as much on to the brush as you are correct, it will run. You have to be more careful. Generally though, thinning to that consistancy is recommend for some techniques. You can get away with less thinning if you aren't taking advantage of the thin paints ability to allow lower layers to show through and give a blending effect. If you are just trying to keep your paints smooth, I find about 1 drop of water to about 3 or 4 drops of paint is sufficient to apply paint smoothly. Depending on how fast you use your paints, you may have to add more water as time goes by in order to keep it at the same consistancy.

Here is the state troops red cloth:



still no highlighting as i suck at it.... not even sure where i would highlighten...

Sorry for the newbie questions 

Thanks

I quite like his eyes, just the right mix of crazed and terrified for a soldier stabbing wildly at some hulking green monster swinging a choppa at him

I think for rank and file that looks pretty damn awesome!
The only trouble is getting rid of the mould lines (the arch nemesis of all things) and doing something about the boots. If you want to keep them black, a dark grey highlight around some raised edges should do the job fine.

Look forward to seeing more!

That looks much cleaner and better than the first one! Bravo ! 

Why is Pikachu's tail on this guy?

I like the things you have painted so far.

I like the face of the first guy, especially his eyes, that is the precise look the empire troops get when they have to face the unit of chaos warriors: scared to death and very concerned of: what now?
Don't change it.