High Elf Swordmaster, tutorial

High Elf Swordmaster, tutorial

This High Elf from the Swordmasters unit is from the Island of Blood (re-released as Spire of Dawn) boxed set. I very much enjoyed painting this model! My paint-process are typically basecoating, shading, re-applying the base, then moving on to high-lighting. I generally tend to avoid too much mixing of paints, mostly out of convenience, and to avoid too much differing colors between batch-paintings. 

Paint Range

All the paints I use are from the GW range, both old and new. I denoted the old-range ones with OR (Old Range) for convenience. Here's a list of the ones I used:

• Leadbelcher Spray
• Chainmail (OR)
• Asurmen Blue (OR)
• Mithril Silver
• Retributor Armour
• Zandri Dust
• Caledor Sky
• Celestra Grey
• Steel Legion Drab
• Tallarn Flesh
• Agrax Earthshade
• Badab Black
• Teclis Blue
• Lothern Blue
• Elf Flesh
• Ulthuan Grey
• Auric Armour Gold
• Ushabti Bone
• Screaming Skull
• Liberator Gold
• White Scar
• Karak Stone
• Spiritstone Red

Undercoating

I undercoated this model with Leadbelcher Spray, as most of the model is metallics anyway.

Basecoating and Shading

After giving the model a sufficient undercoat, I lightened up the silver/armor areas with Chainmail (OR), before giving it a shade/wash of Asurmen Blue (OR) to get the nice blue-tint effect on the High Elf armour.

In the middle picture the model has been lightened back up with Chainmail (avoiding recesses), before being given a final highlight of Mithril Silver (OR). Take care to thin down the paints to get smooth coverage and as little hard lines as possible, especially at areas like the helmet and back of the torso.

In the last image the model has been given a basecoat of Retributor Armour, which - unlike the other gold-paints - does a fantastic job to cover efficiently and smooth.

Next I basecoated all the non-metallic; The hair with Zandri Dust. The blue trims, the "hair" out of the helmet and other blue details with Caledor Sky. The white cloth with Celestra Grey. The skin with Tallarn Flesh (OR) and the leather belt with Steel Legion Drab.

As seen in the right picture, the model was then shaded. The hair, face and gold where shaded with Agrax Earthshade. I only did a recess-shade for the gold. Asurmen Blue for all the blue areas (when it came to the trimmings of the mail I only shaded the recess between the silver and cloth, as I used Badab Black for between the blue and the white cloth). And finally a recess shade for the few white cloth areas.

After shading, I cleaned the model up a bit by reapplying a layer to the gold, the blue and white cloth and the face, while avoiding the recesses. This gives a really nice and smooth transition when applying highlights in the next steps.

Highlighting

Now the model really start to approach a finished one, with the highlighting being applied. In the first image I've applied a layer to almost everything except the armour. The blue cloth has been given a layer of Teclis Blue, then a fine highlight of Lothern Blue. As you might have noticed; I've given a very fine edge highlight to the blue details on the chest. The skin has been built up by a 1:1 mix of Tallarn Flesh and Elf Flesh (OR), then pure Elf Flesh. A hightlight of Auric Armour Gold (which is a painfully thin paint) to the golden parts. I also started building up the white with some very thin layers of Ulthuan Grey.
In the middle two pictures, you can see how I've layered the strands of hair with Ushabti bone, then Screaming Skull (the difference is quite hard to see on the computer screen, though).
In the last picture, I've given the gold a very fine and thin highlight of Liberator Gold, just touching the most prominent parts. Also the skin's here completed with a fine highlight of 1:1 Elf Flesh/White Scar, while the leather belt was given an edge highlight of Karak Stone. Furthermore the white was completed with a couple of highlights with White Scar.



The gems were painted with a layer of Spiritstone Red over gold. Also you can see I've painted the teeth with White Scar.

Base

The colours used here are browns from a scenery painting kit I bought perhaps ten years ago, from GW. The colour in the left picture is simply called "Brown", while in the middle I've drybrushed with a paint called "Ochre" and finally I used some old Bleaching Bone for the last drybrush. I reckon you could also use Ushabti Bone or Screaming Skull for this.

Finished!

And here's the finished model (with some static grass glued onto the base). I think he turned out quite allright, and I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Feel free to post a comment if you have a question about the painting, or if you want to give some praise or critic!

Happy painting!