Hello,

I have been painting Haldir recently (here is an example of the figure: http://www.coolminiornot.com/219082?browseid=9675116).

I had two questions:

1) What is the best way to do highlights on red? So far I have done a basecoat of khorne red, a wash of nuln oil, and a highlight of wazdakka red, but the highlighting effect does not look dramatic or contrasting enough for me yet. Highlighting in orange looks too extreme, but perhaps it can be blended with wazdakka?

2) What is the best way to do blonde hair? I have a decent method for doing golden blonde hair (like you would find on a man of Rohan for instance) but less luck painting elvish blonde, if that makes sense. A guide from games workshop suggested highlighting up from vomit brown, but I wasn't sure if that is the best way.

Thanks for your time and help everyone,

Frogmorton

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Currently painting: Thorin's Company

With red there are various opinions and it depends on how you want it too look. sometimes you want it to go pink. For the most part though, I use orange added to my red for the first couple highlight layers as it remains warm and doesn't look pink. My peek highlights I will add a off white to the orange (like a bone color or khaki). This keeps my red looking warm and the highlights look like they are from the sun and not from too many times through the washing machine. (faded out or pink).

For Blonde hair I use a Balor Brown base, or Bubonic Brown. then add Bleached bone and then white. it will lighten up very good without looking unnatural which you would get if you use a bright yellow.

I am sure others will have input, but this is just my experience and far from the only solution.

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http://www.sithious.webs.com

For red, here are a few words of advice.
Red + white = pink. I normally reserve this for minis I am trying to paint pink. Usually, I do one of 2 things. For table quality, I base coat the area that is going to be red with either white (for vibrant colors) or purple for deep crimson type colors. Once the undercoat is on I paint red. After that, I will either add a wash of argax earthshade (again this is for table quality). Once the wash dries, reclaim your high spots with your red then highlight with a brighter red.

For higher quality minis I will wash with a purple instead of a brown, then mix a highlight of red and yellow till I achieve the look I want.

My general principle for red is to go dark with your highlights going to a blood red sort of colour.
The shading can be almost black, use of cold colours like green blue and purple can add depth to the folds.
You can add an orange to the blood red to highlight the edge and the very extreme edge with a thin line of pure white.
The white is the tricky point. Thin it with 2 parts water 1 part paint and have as little on your brush as possible. So little that it dries in seconds. That will prevent a grainy look.

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