Fred's 2016 Painting Diary

[jchaos79]

Very nice. It's amazing how much time you spend thinking about how difficult something will be to paint so you put it off and put it off. Then, when you bite the bullet and paint it, you sail through it.

MickS

That is a pearl of knowlage

[fred.]

Played last night, again Dark Elves vs Araby, using our home brew rules. This time with a proper Dark Elf army!



This was an interesting scenario - the objective was the farm at the far left corner of the table, the table had a lot of broken ground with swamps and woods. The Dark Elves started at the far right corner. The Araby forces in the middle of the table where the camera is.
This is around mid game. There has been a big punch at the bottom right - the DE are winning - but I managed to hold up a lot of their troops for some time, so they ended up out of the fight for the farm. 

In the middle there has been a big shooting battle - with Araby just edging it, but both sides suffering lots of casualties. My cavalry are getting round on the left to eventually pressure the few Dark Elf crossbows who had made it to the village.

A good scenario which made a big difference from the normal line up and charge battle.

[nikharwood]

Like it - looking good. Loads of terrain is always sensible - and non-linear is good too

[Techno]

That looks great, Forbes !

Cheers - Phil

[fred.]

Eastern Cavalry

More work on these chaps over the weekend, got all the horses painted, and inspired by Mick's Poles I have gone with Red and Blue colour scheme. I added white to the Royal Blue to lighten it, but it has come out fairly dark - perhaps in part to going over black.



Also remembered to hit the magic wand tool before uploading the photo - which has lifted all the colours a bit more, compared to the un-edited one




Lots of tack, and equipment on the riders still to do.

[Techno]

Coo !

Those definitely look rather spiffy, Forbes. 

Don't look too dark from the piccy.

Cheers - Phil

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one Forbes

[jchaos79]

Looking good with those bright colours!

[Subedai]

If I may be so bold, on the cavalry shields, which is really what people see first, I would add some high lights of scarlet or even a dark orange on the red and a lighter shade of blue on the designs. That would make them 'pop' no end. The other trick I have used is to paint the shield design stripes in black and then put the coloured stripe inside of that, it's amazing how much definition you get between the blue and the red with either method.

Hope this helps.

You can definitely see the difference in the picture brightness. Works wonders.


MickS

[fred.]

Some good ideas their Mick. I did add some light blue highlights last night, and added more of the red to lift it from the black base coat. But I will look to add some scarlet tonight I think.

Now that I have started thinking about making the colours bright, it's much easier to look at the colours and think, yes they could be brighter, rather than assuming they have come out as bright as you expected. The black base coat certainly drops the colour tome quite a lot. The little plumes on the yellow knights are the same red, but I had painted the plumes white first, and these have come out very bright.

The black base, to black line the stripes is a top tip - I will try that on some others, as these are a bit too far along for me to want to start the shields again.

[Subedai]

That's the thing, you have treat the first colour you put on as the normal shadow colour and then highlight up from there, it takes longer to write than it does to do, honestly. As said before I only use one a one colour highlight system as I can't really be ar*ed to do more than one. Looking forward to seeing the results.

MickS

[fred.]

More detailing on the horses - mainly the tack, of which there is a lot!

Realised the riders have mailed legs so did them silver, which saved having to choose lots of browns.  Also added some scarlet highlights to the shields.



Still a fair bit to do on the riders, skin, equipment, and white socks & blazes on the horses - nearly there...

[Techno]

NICE !

Cheers - Phil.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Looking good Fred!

[Subedai]

They look really good. The yellow and green combo is quite striking and the scarlet highlight also makes the blue stand out a little more. 

MickS.