Help me with my stormcast scheme

[Scurvydog]

I recently started a Stormcast force focusing on the "old" models. My goal was a slightly darker knights excelsior look, using their scheme except the "white" being a darker. I am kind of torn about my results so far, as I have based my scheme around the grey seer base color. 

In some ways I like it, but I also find it to almost look "unfinished" although I am not a master painter and my approach is already taking a lot of more spare time (2 toddlers will do that!) , but I would like some opinions and maybe pointers as well, if anyone got ideas for a nicer finish or if I should just entirely redo the armor.

My approach for the plain armor is currently grey seer base spray, reapply grey seer paint, apothecary white contrast, edge highlights. My celestant and concussor was done wiht Ulthuan grey highlights while I used white scar for the liberator to get a bit brighter highlights for more "pop". I feel like a middle ground might blend a tad better, so will try with corax white next time, but I just wanted some second opinions before I put time into even more models.

Here are some examples:

 

Edited January 16, 2020 by Scurvydog

[torsten7048]

Hi, your stormcast look very clean and bright, which is not that easy to achieve. 
I really like them. 

[Casandora Yellow]

I agree with torsten, the bright colors are great!👍

Only thing I would add is maybe do a thinned down recess shading, just to make the whites pop a little more.

[Toptramp]

Looks really good, perhaps use both ulthuan grey and white highlights?

ulthuan around all edge highlights and white edge highlights on more prominent edges?

should give a ‘dull’ highlight and brighter highlight on sharper edges or points you want to draw attention to.

effectively makes a transition of highlights on the armour edges

it should add more contrast and make things  ‘pop’ more, which I think you are trying to go for?

[Scurvydog]

35 minutes ago, Toptramp said:

Looks really good, perhaps use both ulthuan grey and white highlights?

ulthuan around all edge highlights and white edge highlights on more prominent edges?

should give a ‘dull’ highlight and brighter highlight on sharper edges or points you want to draw attention to.

effectively makes a transition of highlights on the armour edges

it should add more contrast and make things  ‘pop’ more, which I think you are trying to go for?

that could also work, takes a bit more time, but at least it is a low model count army  

[Toptramp]

Yeah it will do, but should look good

it s only a final highlight though and should just go over the top of about 50% of the ulthuan highlight - you still want ulthuan grey visible on about 50% of the areas you ve highlighted so you can see that colour ‘blend’ into the white.

Shouldn’t be too time consuming, only small touch’s of pure white  

no need to make the highlight white line smaller than the ulthuan,  can just run over it as mentioned above, so easier this way and don’t need to damage your eyes or concentrate to much!  

i would mix white with lahmian medium and draw your brush over the ulthuan edge highlight then remove the brush at the point you want the white pigment to settle, small amounts of pigment/paint on brush - should create a blended light grey to white highlight.  Also some reflection points on the armour.

On smaller edges/angles you may want to add dots of white where two ‘lines’ of the ulthuan grey meet - at the angles.

give it a go

To build up even more contrast you can do the same with apothecary white but draw the pigment for the light areas into the shadow’d area.

if you want to increAse the depth of the shadows further then you could add a light blue to the apothecary white and repeat for a cooler tone in the shadows or use a grey instead of the light blue for a mid toned white, creamy colour instead for warmer white.

 

hope this helps and you like the results if you choose to give it a go  

[Fulcanelli]

They're beautiful, very clean and precise touch. White is a very difficult colour to handle, nice job!

Only thing I dislike: the light brown on the bases edges... It doesn't fit. I suggest to go black, it will add contrast and help the model to stand out.

[Baron Wastelands]

9 hours ago, Fulcanelli said:

Only thing I dislike: the light brown on the bases edges... It doesn't fit. I suggest to go black, it will add contrast and help the model to stand out.

That’s personal choice, I think - I would disagree personally, as I think the light brown makes the base less visible, focusing more on the model! But a lot of people are using black rims.

@Scurvydog Again, personal take, but for me it isn’t the grey of the armour that’s giving them a slightly unfinished look; you could indeed go for a fine highlight to make it look less matt in effect, but at the moment it just looks like a different material than usual. But I think the blue on the armour could use some more highlighting, for example the standing figure’s shoulder pads and shield, or the dragon’s breastplate and shoulder. At the moment they look slightly flat, even where you have edge highlighted a bit. Of course it might just be the photograph - generally I agree with other comments, nice clean work, and I like the grey.

[Fulcanelli]

2 hours ago, Baron Wastelands said:

That’s personal choice, I think - I would disagree personally, as I think the light brown makes the base less visible, focusing more on the model! But a lot of people are using black rims.

Of course it's a personal choice, but OP asked for personal opinions :) Anyway I understand your point so, in this case, I think grey it would fit better, because imho that light brown clash with the model scheme.

[Baron Wastelands]

9 hours ago, Fulcanelli said:

Of course it's a personal choice, but OP asked for personal opinions Anyway I understand your point so, in this case, I think grey it would fit better, because imho that light brown clash with the model scheme.

Yes, sorry, I meant that I personally prefer brown to black bases, not that your view was singular! I also take your point that a darker colour might be better with the basing.

[Scurvydog]

10 hours ago, Fulcanelli said:

Of course it's a personal choice, but OP asked for personal opinions Anyway I understand your point so, in this case, I think grey it would fit better, because imho that light brown clash with the model scheme.

Thanks for the input, I have been using that color for my base edges for every single army I guess it is just a habit and not a conscious choice at this point, so opinions are nice to consider new angles.

I will stick to my white/grey boys and experiment a bit more with the double highlights at least on the most eye catching parts, combined with a bit of focused extra shading next to the apothecary white and see how I like it