Sunday, September 12, 2010

Painting Chaos Warriors test models

I haven't been playing 40k for a few months and each project I start seems tiring.  But fear not gentle reader, this is not a complaining blog entry, but a start of something new: square bases.  Some friends of mine recently started Warhammer Fantasy (aka stupid square bases) and it looked like something new, something refreshing.  The latest edition took away much of what I disliked about the game and so I started looking.  Some research and number crunching later I settled on Warriors of Chaos (no surprise there) rather than Vampire Counts because frankly, I want something easy to paint and a hoard army does not fit the bill, even if they are mere skeletons.

Funny enough this article on Bell of Lost Souls talks about just my predicament.  I hope that painting Warriors of Chaos and starting something new will get the ball rolling again and all those languishing projects will once again hope to see the light of day.

I truly am living up to my blog name at this point and so, without further adieu, I give you test scheme A and test scheme B.  Please vote for your favorite on the side bar.

I tried to keep it as simple as I could.  Scheme A recipe: prime grey, block in gold, red, silver and bone, douse in Devlan Mud.
Scheme A
Scheme B recipe:  Prime White, wash armor with Gryphonne Sepia followed by Devlan mud, wash shoulder-spike, horn caps and axe blade with Badab Black, wash cloak, horns and axe handle with Gryphonne Sepia, wash boots, axe-haft and gloves with Devlan Mud.  No paints here!
Scheme B
Scheme A.


Scheme B
Scheme A
Scheme B

15 comments:

  1. I'll be voting for scheme A.

    I have reasons :)

    I think both look equally good, the metailling will most likely "pop" more on the table, but the prime reason is characters.

    If you want your characters to look a notch above your guys for scheme A you go for real metallic metals, and shade them, highlight them and theyll look wicked and in keeping with the army.

    If you want your characters to pop out with scheme b, then you're pretty much going to have to paint them totally differently to te body of your army, and use a lot of sublte washes and smooth blends. that might be a tad onerous.

    Shiny wins.

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  2. I love the look of scheme "B" - very natural looking, and really lets the details of the sculpt stand out!

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  3. As cool as scheme B is (nothin' but washes), I think scheme A looks better.

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  4. Anonymous9/12/2010

    B is my favorite!

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  5. Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.
    Good, I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
    It is unavoidable. It is your destiny. You, like your father, are now mine
    Good. Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you.
    Mywhahhaahahahahahahahahaha!

    Go with scheme A. Khorne approves the red. I think scheme B may be a little too hard to repeat over and over. I do like the use of washes.

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  6. HA! scheme b is dirty and filthy looking like hardened warriors of the north should be. if you want your characters to pop, use NMM schemes for b. the metal looks good as well though.
    so, i turn your question around on you; do you want an easy to paint army that requires little time so you can devote that precious commodity to friends and family, or do you want an army that takes more time and looks a little smidge better?

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  7. Hivemind tells me "B" - and I have to agree with her. :)

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  8. B is simultaneously more striking and more subtle. Really, really beautiful color selections on that one.

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  9. Wow, thanks to all of you for the thoughtful words. Karitas, the character quandary is an excellent point and one I would not have thought of, being new to fantasy and all.

    amaximus: Both methods are fairly easy, with only the need for the wash heavy model to dry between layers standing out. In assembly line painting I think that wouldn't be an issue. But the main answer is that I want something quick and easy for now.

    Myself I'm leaning towards B, since experimenting with the Hellhound commander and using mostly washes on him I've become enamored with the new technique.

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  10. scheme A is looking pretty sweet!

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  11. I like scheme B, specially from behind. Cloak and fur look way better than A.

    And it's also more original than the red-gold-khorne scheme :P

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  12. You actually inspired me to attempt to paint a model with only washes! My Spellweaver actually turned out pretty well. I may do a few test models for my Beastmen and see how they turn out. If they look good, I may end up doing my entire beastman army in washes! Excellent post Reuben!

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  13. Loving Scheme B. How are you going to do Units such as Marauders and Horsemen, though?

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  14. Good question Martin. I have some marauder horse and some viking models to be used as marauders on foot. Hmm.. time for some paint experiments.

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