Painting my Legion army

[tarthrin]

(Changed the title to reflect the new goal)

Hi everyone,

I've been going full-tilt painting my Legion army. I have a lot done on my beasts!
However, I haven't done anything with the infantry models because I don't know what to do!

I think I want to paint their armour in a purplish-black. Similar to this picture.


I'm not sure what colors to work with.
My initial guess is
Base coat: Black
Second coat: 1:1 Leviathan Purple: Black
Wash: secret weapon purple wash?

Edges/Highlights
First coat: silver paint? Maybe mithril silver?
Highlights: Plain White?

I use a mixture of GW, Vallejo, and Reaper paints, so I don't have a major brand preference.

If anyone has any suggestions it would be really helpful.

[tarthrin]

I am going to experiment.

First step is base a coat. Here is Lylyth with stylin' legs.

I am trying Liche Purple and Hormagaunt Purple

And, if anyone is interested here are some of the beasties. They aren't *quite* done, but close.

[3eland]

Hmm, the difficult thing is determining if the armour itself is purple or if the armour has a purple tint due to an effect in the scene. Legion is known for it's purple so it would be understandable for the artist to put a soft purple feel into her. Her pants are actually black but in the picture they have a purple colour mixed in and the fur on the khador guy also shows purple. I believe the armour is actually silver with a purple wash (this resembles the glow/tint/whatever you want to call it). I wish I still had my Lylyth so I could try my own test but I might have something laying around similar that I could test on. I'd imagine it would be a metal colour with a purple wash or a ratio of metal to purple. the highlight would be a mithril or similar colour. I would imagine if you were wanting to get a more accurate look I would paint the metal with non-metallic colours faking the resemblance of metal rather than painting it with actual metallic paints (I do this for my gold. Makes a super cool raw gold look that fits my lizardmen well). A little harder than simply slapping on some Boltgun but if done correctly can really make a punch.

Since the beasts aren't done yet I shall wait until they are so I can accurately opinion-ate them (although they look good so far, a little too shiny (a shade or varnish?) but that can be taken away with a matte spray).

[tarthrin]

Hmm, the difficult thing is determining if the armour itself is purple or if the armour has a purple tint due to an effect in the scene...
... I believe the armour is actually silver with a purple wash (this resembles the glow/tint/whatever you want to call it).... I'd imagine it would be a metal colour with a purple wash or a ratio of metal to purple. the highlight would be a mithril or similar colour. I would imagine if you were wanting to get a more accurate look I would paint the metal with non-metallic colours faking the resemblance of metal rather than painting it with actual metallic paints (I do this for my gold. Makes a super cool raw gold look that fits my lizardmen well). A little harder than simply slapping on some Boltgun but if done correctly can really make a punch.

Since the beasts aren't done yet I shall wait until they are so I can accurately opinion-ate them (although they look good so far, a little too shiny (a shade or varnish?) but that can be taken away with a matte spray).

Whether it is due to the scene effects or not, it is look I want to emulate. I agree that it looks like it could be a silver/metal with a purple wash maybe? Maybe I need to start over on my test figure.

I've never done the non-metallic metal painting. I will have to investigate that too.

The light makes the beasts seem a bit more shiny then they are in real life, but the green does have a gloss to it. I was going for a kind of slimy skin look, but it could be toned down a little.

[tarthrin]

Okay, so I tried the purple wash over the mithril silver.


It looks a little better in real life than the pictures show. (Sorry I couldn't get the camera to take a decent picture)
I am wondering if it might look better if I did several thinner layers of purple wash. Also, the purple looks a little pinkish, I think I may try mixing black wash with it, or finding a darker purple wash.

[optimusprime14]

Don't forget the artest has also taken into account shadow and light sources, which will affect the colour of the armour. You model is in a different pose and you may not be able to recreate the same light/shadow effect.

I like the purple wash over the sliver, I might have used a darker metalic to start off with. Try tinting you wash with a darker wash to bring it down a little. I would also thin out the wash some more as well, this can let you put on more layers without it building up too much

[tarthrin]

Don't forget the artist has also taken into account shadow and light sources, which will affect the colour of the armour. Your model is in a different pose and you may not be able to recreate the same light/shadow effect.

I like the purple wash over the sliver, I might have used a darker metallic to start off with. Try tinting you wash with a darker wash to bring it down a little. I would also thin out the wash some more as well, this can let you put on more layers without it building up too much

Thanks, I will strip her and try a few different variations of thinner/darker washes.
I don't have a darker silver to use as a basecoat, so I will have to go out and get something for that.

[kturock]

you can make silver darker by mixing in black.

[MagickalMemories]

I wouldn't use silver. I'd use gray.

Eric

[tarthrin]

you can make silver darker by mixing in black.

I am always scared of mixing colors cause I'm sure I will never get them the same twice. Lol.

I wouldn't use silver. I'd use gray.

I think I will give both a darker silver undercoat and just a medium grey undercoat

One of my friends suggested to put a real light glaze over using a soft body black wash.

Currently Lylyth is soaking in simple green so I can give it another go maybe tomorrow.

[tarthrin]

Hey,

I stripped her and am trying two ways.

left leg is leadbelcher metallic and right leg is stormvermin fur. both have 1 initial wash of purple.

planning on another wash layer. then highlighting with either lighter grey or silver.

[MagickalMemories]

I would go with a much lighter shade of gray, myself.

Eric

[3eland]

It looks like you are applying the paint fairly heavy. Do you thin your paints down? Also, to make a more realistic feel upon the model I would pick a point/angle you want the light to shine on and hit the model with a white primer lightly at that point/angle. This will help you in the end with pushing hat realistic feel like in the picture.

Can you get us a better picture of the model? Some close ups maybe so we can see the model better. Trying to see details with such a dark background (the rest of the model) is hard.

[tarthrin]

I would go with a much lighter shade of gray, myself.

Yeah... I thought the other grey I had would be too light, but this one turned out waay darker than I thought it would.

It looks like you are applying the paint fairly heavy. Do you thin your paints down? Also, to make a more realistic feel upon the model I would pick a point/angle you want the light to shine on and hit the model with a white primer lightly at that point/angle. This will help you in the end with pushing hat realistic feel like in the picture.

Can you get us a better picture of the model? Some close ups maybe so we can see the model better. Trying to see details with such a dark background (the rest of the model) is hard.

It is actually pretty thin. I use the reaper "flow improver" to help thin stuff out. The grey is could be a touch thinner, but I think it is mostly the lighting on the pictures.
I will try to get some better pictures later tonight.

[borthcollective]

Your picture is bad because your camera focused on the bottle and not the fig. See how crisp the words on the bottle are and how washed the legs are?