The Red and White Legion

teddet · Post by **teddet** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:05 pm

I've been working on a dark elf army for a while. Not quite sure what the fluff will be, but I went with a (IMHO) striking colour scheme and have been enjoying it. Would love any comments.

IMG_1166 by teddetted, on Flickr

IMG_1162 by teddetted, on Flickr

IMG_1164 by teddetted, on Flickr

IMG_1009 by teddetted, on Flickr

IMG_1010 by teddetted, on Flickr

IMG_0796 by teddetted, on Flickr

IMG_0791 by teddetted, on Flickr

IMG_0779 by teddetted, on Flickr

IMG_0776 by teddetted, on Flickr

IMG_0769 by teddetted, on Flickr

Untitled by teddetted, on Flickr

Payce · Post by **Payce** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:16 pm

Absolutely loving the colour scheme. The Cold Ones in the lower pictures look a little bit unfinished, I am guessing the lower body provides some contrast?

Post by **Amboadine** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:41 pm

Great looking army. Nice work.

Diobarach · Post by **Diobarach** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:43 pm

Looks fantastic, very striking indeed.

T.D. · Post by **T.D.** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:00 pm

Highly sexual.

Loads of great touches. I've also went for the SoS mask-Warlock approach as well.

It's a great colour scheme far ahead of anything I could pull off...(here comes the but)

but ...it does not work across the army IMO.

Warlocks, Execs, Corsairs, Witches = Exceptional

Dark Riders, RBT, 2x Griffon, Chariot = Starting to look overdone.

Keeping the white plate and red trim across the army would look good, but I think you need a lot more naturalism of colours and to extend the palette for this army to realise your (obvious) artistic potential.

/my 2 cents

teddet · Post by **teddet** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:09 pm

Trying to find a pic, but the bottom half is grey -- kind of like the red/grey contrast on the Karibdyss

photo (1) by teddetted, on Flickr

photo 4 (2) by teddetted, on Flickr

image by teddetted, on Flickr

And thanks for the comments TD. I'm on this road now, so going to finish it. One thing I wanted was a lot LESS naturalism on colours. Just to see what the effect would be. I agree that the RBTs aren't as good. Part of that is that the older models don't quite have the same ability to match the colour scheme. Part of it is also that i'm not good at doing wood grain - I wanted a white/grey wood feel on the cross pieces of the bows, but I'm not sure I really got that. Going to keep working on it. But I'd really like to keep any "colour" outside of red out of the models.

T.D. · Post by **T.D.** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:22 pm

It still looks great, don't get me wrong!

anthalont · Post by **anthalont** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:27 pm

Very interesting.
It must be difficult to pull this off over whole army

TD made some valid points but I understand you wanted to go for less natural, distinguished approach.
I like it. Warlocks ,especially, look so awesome.

teddet · Post by **teddet** » Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:34 pm

Yeah - and I don't disagree with TD that it can get to be a bit much. I'm counting on the fact that it won't be the whole set at once (probably I'll just field portions of it in games). And I may revisit some of the detail painting. I also tried to be a bit "sketchy" with the greys, sort of to (hopefully) make it look "drawn".

The other thing I'm considering is giving the weapons a gloss coat. I'm not sure whether it would look great over the whole army, but it would distinguish the weapons from the red cloaks/scales.

Scythe · Post by **Scythe** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 2:59 am

Wow! That is indeed striking!

I think those are the first executioners with the skull masks I've seen that I actually like the look of!

I suppose in echoing TD's comments, the models on which the scheme I think looks best on are the ones where white/gray/black are the dominant colours, with red for contrast. The cold ones, dark riders (those are big capes they have), and kharibdyss seem to be red-dominant, with white/gray for contrast, which could lead to the whole "mayyyyybe it's a bit much" phenomenon.

In any case, really love the work. Nice job!

41spoons · Post by **41spoons** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 5:36 am

I like this color scheme a lot. Very unique in a good way. Also nice to see the old school bolt throwers painted up. Really love those models.

Rowena · Post by **Rowena** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 6:32 am

Very striking colour scheme and I really love their red blades, the whole army looks like something out of a graphic novel.

EDIT: I read the thread after commenting on the pictures and I'm glad I caught your intention with the graphic novel feel.

The red-dominant models might feel quite strong, but I think the other should balance it and it's quite clear realism wasn't your concern, so I wouldn't worry about that. Great job.

Post by **cultofkhaine** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 8:45 am

The army is looking great but I have to agree with TD in some places the red is just to much for me.

I think it is because you have used the same solid red on all your beasts - If you dumbed the colour down a tad with some dark washes perhaps on the K Beast, Griffon and Cold ones I think this would look much better (more of a deeper darker muddier red / than the brighter colour you currently have). Leave the bright red for colouring on the units (like clothing, banners etc)

Apart from this it looks like a solid force you have there.

teddet · Post by **teddet** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 2:05 pm

Thanks for the comments everyone. I have wondered about distinguishing between the reds a bit more -- that's one reason I thought about doing a glossy coat on the weapons. Then there would be "glossy red" weapons and "regular" red cloth/feathers/skin.

Maybe I'll try to take some pictures of multiple units on a white backdrop this weekend. See if I can get a view of the army as a whole. It's hard to tell in the pictures I put up, but I tried to give the feathers on the griffons (my counts-as manticores) some patterning like natural feathers - so it's not just a sea of the same red.

Phierlihy · Post by **Phierlihy** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 2:51 pm

I'm sure everyone here by now knows I'm not a fan of the 'Paris Hilton matchy match' look of an army (she dyed her dog's fur to match her handbag...) but I like the color scheme other than that. Some variance in the red might be nice to that metal, cloth, scales, wood, and leather don't all look the same it's off to a fairly good start.

Booah · Post by **Booah** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 3:21 pm

Like everyone else, I love the style of this army. Really individual and striking.It would be great to see a whole army shot or a couple of units together to be able to see how it all works together, failing that just get your units out and deploy them and look for yourself, you will probably see if the red becomes to much. I personally love the k-beast, could be seen as the place where other units have drawn inspirations for their colouring. Regardless you have got a fantastic and different looking army that is completely fine as is but can also be tweaked as you add more units.

Diobarach · Post by **Diobarach** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 7:01 pm

I think your Kharibdyss looks great, strikes me as pretty natural looking compared to your other stuff but fits in overall.

Looking back over it, your sister of thorn + sister of slaughter combo is mental, I'm totally swiping that

Plantagenet · Post by **Plantagenet** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:35 pm

I really like this. For me it feels like I am watching a movie like 300 or Sin city where the film is shot with a black and white or coloured lens but the color red is left to pop through for dramatic effect.

Really cool. Good job keep up the work.

teddet · Post by **teddet** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 4:04 pm

Okay -- I have a question for the painting brain trust:

IMG_1230 by teddetted, on Flickr

The witch elf on the right was a "finished" model from the first batch I painted. Last night, I was painting witch elves and decided to do one further highlight on the cloth, which gave me the witch elf on the left. The left model still needs one further highlight on the "metal" bits - pure white -, black for the hair and highlights on the flesh/red.

Right now, I like the look of the 3 layers of highlights on the cloth bits, but am concerned it won't be enough contrast with the metal (believe it or not, those are two different greys for the highlights on each). Any thoughts? I'm also thinking that I will do a third layer of highlights on the cloth for the right-side witch elf. That will make the black hair more of a contrast with the model.

So questions: Keep the third layer of highlight on the "cloth"? Go with black hair?

(And some group shots)

IMG_1229 by teddetted, on Flickr

IMG_1228 by teddetted, on Flickr

IMG_1227 by teddetted, on Flickr