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 Post subject: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 4:49 pm 
Loremaster
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Hey everyone,

Still waiting on my first minitures to arrive and have been speaking to your helpful resident supplier Green Dragon about sourcing some paints to get me started on a 500pt Grey Company themed army.

Has anybody got links to/or be able to give paint guides for the below?

Arathorn and Halbarad
Rangers of the North
Rangers of Middle-Earth

It will help massively when deciding which paints I will need to get going! I know some of this is completely subjective but it will atleast give me an idea.

Look forward to contributing my first ever WIP to this forum!

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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:30 pm 
Elven Warrior
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Hey there Thermo!

I don't have a painting guide per se but I did paint my first Rangers of the North a few months ago, I could probably quickly give you some basic instructions to get started on yours? Here's some pics of my first attempts:

Image

Image

Image

And a quick run through of how I painted them:

Faces: Start off by covering the entire face with a dark flesh colour, I use Tallarn Flesh. Afterwards, use a flesh (or a light-brownish) wash to add depth. If you want, paint in the eyes (I use Bleached Bone with Shadow Grey for the pupils -> blue eyes) but be warned they require a steady hand and some practice! Then gradually add light highlights to the higher parts of the face with lighter flesh colour (i.e Dwarf - Elven Flesh). For exceptionally bright parts of the skin you can even mix some Bleached Bone and Elven Flesh together.

Hair: I basically use Scorched Brown as a base, then drybrush a Scorched Brown/Bestial Brown mix and add Bestial Brown highlights. For different hair colours, you could use a dark colour, then a mix of a dark and lighter colour, followed by pure lighter colour for highlights.

Cloak: Shadow Grey! This is an essential colour for the (aptly named) Grey Company in my opinion - other members might have other ways of doing their cloaks. Since painting these Rangers of the North I've made a bit of progress on cloak painting so I'll give you some general tips. Like the hair, use layering (Dark colour through to lighter colour), the deepest recesses of the cloak could be black (or a roughly 1-1 mix of Shadow Grey and Black). Start by covering the whole coat with the aforementioned 1-1 mix of Shadow Grey and Black. Then, with the next coat, use maybe a 3-1 mix of Shadow Grey and Black (or a darker grey instead of black -> experiment yourself and see what you like!) and only paint the waves of the cloak, i.e the 'parts that come towards you'. Finally, you'll want to add some highlights to the highest parts/the edges of the waves. To make this highlight look more natural, water the colour down a lot (here I used Codex Grey) and only put a bit on your Fine Detail Brush. Then drag it along the parts you wish to highlight -> the colour blends into the rest of the cloak, giving it a natural feel! This way of applying highlights could be used on other parts of the figs, too.

Leather armour: I used Dark Angels Green mixed with Codex Grey (I think it would've been a 2-1 mix -> try yourself) as the base colour and built up layers, gradually adding a bit more grey with each step. Try to keep the highlights green and not too grey though!

Chainmail: Drybrush Chainmail. Or Boltgun Metal if you prefer darker mail. If you find your mail to still be too dark -> use watered down black paint (or even better: black ink!)

Leggings: Codex grey layered up to Fortress Grey.

Boots, Belt and Armguards: Scorched Brown, covered with a black ink (or watered down black paint) add highlights with a lighter brown (Bestial Brown is a good candidate, Dark flesh could also be used -> experiment!)

Quiver and Bow/Spear:
Scorched Brown, heavy Bestial Brown highlights!

So that was just a basic guide (which turned out much longer than expected), hope it was of some use! My advice would be to really just try out yourself and don't be afraid of mixing colours, it opens so much more doors! Be creative!

Can't wait to see your Rangers!

Also: If you have Halbarad with Arwen Evenstar's Banner, then you can use these tips for him too, he's clad exactly the same as his Ranger bretheren. For the banner, use a black background with Chainmail, then Mithril Silver highlights, for the motive!

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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:58 pm 
Loremaster
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Wow, another example of why I'm loving this community. Thank you for being generous with your time and giving that detailed reply :)

That guide will certainly be helpful, really assessing my options before buying any paint (the economy and all that) Liking dark greens, browns and greys. If my models look half as good as yours, I'll be chuffed. Let's see what happens!

Looking forward to seeing more contributions and images to get the creative juices going and also establish key paints. It seems to me that it's a good idea to get a darker and lighter version of each colour you want to apply, for the various layers and highlighting, would this be right?

Any musts when it comes to paint? Black, white etc...

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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 6:11 pm 
Elven Warrior
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Black and white are certainly important (don't necessarily need to be Games Workshop paints, look around for any old matt acryllic paint - you can most likely find some much cheaper in a local shop). These coloues are good for basecoating your models (I generally always use black and have only used a white basecoat for Gandalf the White on Shadowfax) and can also be used for any black or white parts of your figures. Also, if money's tight you can use these to darken/lighten your colours, meaning you wouldn't necessarily have to buy dark and light versions of each colour!

Other essentials are Scorched Brown (now called Rhinox Hide), Shadow Grey (is quite blueish and can double as a blue in a pinch! - now called The Fang), Codex Grey (average grey, now called Dawnstone), Dark Angels Green (Caliban Green now), Boltgun Metal and Chainmail (Leadbelcher and Ironbreaker - metallic paints are essential for weapons) and Dwarf Flesh (Ratskin Flesh). Also consider Elf Flesh (Kislev Flesh) as it's good for lighter skin.

When I started out around half a year ago I only started out with a narrow range of paints. Mixing can cover your basic needs in a pinch but it can be time-consuming and frustrating if you run out or the paint dries up before you've covered what you want! Jst gradually phase in new paints when you can afford them and give it your all :)

And in answer to your question: yes, eventually it'd be very helpful to own light, dark and middle variants of the key colours. This can be quite costly so take your time to see what you need!

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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 4:03 pm 
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I just finshied painting my Arathorn, I can not upload picture of him right now as I'm at my parents farm and doing forestring. But if you are interested I could upload him and write down which colors I used =)

You could look at my rangers in my WIP if you like and get a idea of how he looks.

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=24088

(If there is a color/ink you really should buy it's agrax earthshade, it really does wonders on the minis, really easy to use and makes the models look so much better.)
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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 11:08 pm 
Loremaster
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Fab advice Matt re: essential colours as well as the new and old names! Really really helpful, thanks pal.

Crucifer, looked at your WIP thread and your Rangers look extactly how I'd like mine, a mix between the grey and dark green cloaks, model to model. Really great work there :) Look forward to seeing your Arathorn!

If you get the time, I'd love to see you do a step by step, including the paints you've used as they have turned out beautiful. Add that to Matts really useful guide and the pressure is on for my first models!

Thanks again for your time :)

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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 11:50 am 
Kinsman
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Thermo I'm currently writing a step to step by step guide with Halabarad as he was the only "ranger" mini I got left atm, but the guide applies to the rangers of arnor and Arathorn aswell. I'll post it once I'm done with Halabarad's base. Just sanded it, so I'll give a few hours to dry properly. You will have the guide by tonight hopefully =)
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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 5:35 pm 
Kinsman
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/116268976/1-P ... y-Crucifer

It is the guide I wrote how I painted my rangers, hope it is helpful =)
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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 5:54 pm 
Elven Warrior
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That's a very useful and well-written guide, Crucifer, great job!

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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:54 pm 
Kinsman
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Monotone_Matt! I uploaded the wrong version, the one with the uneditetd text/o\ But fixed it now, so it should be the right one now. But thank you for the kind words
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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 7:05 pm 
Elven Warrior
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You're welcome and kudos for taking the time to write such a detailed guide :) I'm thinking of buying some Arnor rangers in the near future and will certainly use your guide for reference!

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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 11:09 pm 
Loremaster
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Great guide! I will certainly be using this!

Managed to get 24 rangers for a tenner on eBay which are on the way so look out for a WIP thread soon.

Hope to do you proud :)

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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 1:31 am 
Loremaster
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So, paints arrived from Green Dragon on Christmas eve and I have begun work on my first minitures using the above two guides!

Halbarad plus 12 rangers of arnor currently have been glued, primed and have received most of their basecoats!

I'll post up pics soon!

Thanks again guys.

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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 5:14 pm 
Kinsman
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Waiting to see the pictures. These are your first minis right?
Have fun painting them \o/
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 Post subject: Re: Grey Company Painting Guides
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2012 9:35 am 
Loremaster
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Hi Crucifer, yup, first minis so appreciate the advice!

Started a WIP thread here http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=24609&p=302585#p302585 and welcome your criticism!

Painting a model seems to be very therapeutic. Not much gets me relaxing but this seems to be doing the trick!

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