Elvish Trickery

Today Chris sent me a couple photos of his WIP Althran model for the GW painting competition.  He is following the instructions from the Althran Masterclass in one of the recent issues of White Dwarf, so check it out and see whether or not Chris has true 'Eavy Metal quality.

 

 

Chris was looking forward to trying his hand at the cloak, as it wasn't something he had done before.  Looks pretty good I would say.  The highlights are a little too subtle in my opinion, but that is completely subjective and it could look much different in person anyway.  The gold is looking good, the colored washes in the recesses really helps to bring out a rich gold color.

I really am not a fan of painting over white primer.  I always manage to have spots in the recesses that don't get covered and become glaringly obvious because of the white undercoat.  You also can't leave a gap between sections of different colors for a kind of poor-man's black lining.  Of course, having two armies whose primary colors are red and yellow means painting over black can be a real beating.  In the end, I usually choose the white undercoat and try to scour the model after basecoating looking for white spots because it's just so much easier get that basecoat on.

I painted some more last night and got most of Astorath's axe painted and all of the scrolls and parchment basecoated.  I'm going to have to re-do the axe blade, as I tried to get a little too ambitious with it and failed quite hard.  I'll have some pictures at the end of this week.

Brandon

Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1 Final

Well all the entries have been turned in, all the votes have been counted, and the points have been awarded.  Challenge 1 is officially over!  We all had a good time dipping our toes into the Warhammer Fantasy universe, even if time seemed to pass much more quickly than we might have imagined.  After adding up the points for completion and painting, here are how the standings, uh, stand, after the first challenge:

First place:
Brandon - 39/40 points

Second place (tie):
Chris - 37/40 points
Fictional Happy-Time Bonus Points awarded to Chris because his Noble was voted the best-painted model of the Challenge.

Second place (tie):
Justin - 37/40 points

Fourth place:
Cam - 34/40 points

As you can see, the standings are still very close and there is plenty of time left in the game for anyone to take control of the competition.  Coming up later this week I'll announce the second challenge of the contest.

Brandon

Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1: High Elves

The deadline snuck up awfully quick on my fellow TLoDH bros, who had to scramble to get paint on their models and finish what they could.  Chris was able to complete his High Elf Noble, and it looks fantastic.  The banner is what really puts this model over the top.  There is a ton of detail modeled into it and I was really impressed with the way Chris was able to paint it.  His highlights on the banner are great- very clean and fine brush strokes.  I think my number one problem when painting is doing fine highlights, and Chris put on a clinic with this banner.

Unfortunately for Chris, he wasn't able to get his High Elf Prince completely painted, although he worked furiously this past weekend to get as much done as possible.  As you can see, he got most of the figure painted, minus the base, and was able to get shading and some beginning layers going on a lot of it as well.  It's very much a model that you wouldn't think twice about seeing on the table, but definitely not yet painted to the standard that he set with his Noble.  This model also shows off Chris's armor washing technique well.

I'm sure this is a model which will look great when finished, although he better hurry because he has a unit of Lothern Sea Guard to paint this month and he is already short on time thanks to a 2-week jaunt to Singapore at the end of the month.  Get painting, Chris!


I'll have a final shot of Chris's models in my wrap-up post as well.

Brandon

Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1: High Elf Noble

Chris is almost finished with his High Elf Noble carrying the Battle Standard, and not a minute too soon as he only has 5 days left to paint his mounted Prince.  Chris has gone for the classic blue and white High Elf colors with his army, which should give him a crisp, bright army that really stands out on the table.  To continue that crisp, clean feeling into the silver armor, Chris washed Asurmen Blue over a Mithril Silver basecoat before drybrushing Mithril back over the top.  The bit of blue left in the recesses gives the armor a cold, sterile feeling really appropriate to the High Elves.  In these WIP pics you can see the effect:

Also notice the really bright colors he has gotten on the shield.  Chris managed this by highlighting Golden Yellow with Sunburst Yellow and Skull White and Enchanted Blue with Ice Blue and Space Wolves Grey.  In these last pictures, you can see the final highlights on the shield and also how he painted the gems.  If you're going to play High Elves, you gotta know how to paint gems!  Chris painted his gems with layers of Mechrite Red, Red Gore, Blood Red, and Skull White.

If you look carefully, you can even see that Chris has painted the eyes of his Noble blue, a very clever piece of work that required the use of a toothpick as a painting implement.  They say the face is the most important part of a model, but its also one of the most difficult sometimes.  Great work, Chris!

Be on the lookout for more from Chris as the deadline approaches.

Brandon