Blog Ndege's painting and conversion lab - Nuff said!

Thanks for the advice, master @Crowsfoot. just tried it and I think it worked!
Stumbled over this video... It's a bit older (3 years) but I thought I'd share it here, cause that guy explains nearly exactly what I'm thinking... And what I'm trying to achieve within my army...

 

Interesting, I think it's something I'd want to use limitedly inside a unit but very interesting. The dwarfs at the start definetly look more like a rag tag militia then a military unit.

 

Yes your right. You always have to take into account what kind of army/unit you're painting... There is nothing wrong with a unit of high elf spears dressed up all the same... Here I would just do minor tweaks like skin tone or hair colour... Maybe add some individual marks of former battles... As for a unit of orks or even wood elfs (and in my opinion seraphon/lizardmen) allow a much wider spectrum of variation... As they are more warriors than soldiers...

 

Oh yes, I've done a lot of inter unit differences but not much in a unit. I may try playing around with it in a future unit .

I think another thing that's changed is that there's more variation in the models now a days. I'm working on my last plastic skink archers and there are 2 models total there, where was modern skinks have what, 6 bodies and dozens of arm combinations? When every model looks exactly the same there's more need to break them up a bit .

 

Reconquered my doom... Ahm... Room...

 

Yeeeeaaaah....I can't say that I agree with this guy's perspective on armies. He's definitely approaching painting armies as someone who knows nothing about the game. By that I mean, he is catering to the random people who might walk by and stop to look and say, "Cool looking army!" He wants people to continually be looking from piece to piece and checking out each individual one. But for the actual players, he'll be engaging with, it becomes rather important for them to be able to tell, at a glance, which unit is which, and (most importantly in my opinion) which models are characters. If I looked at the example he showed of the elves (Right after the Dwarves), I would have no way in telling which ones were characters other than the magic caster (and only because she is modeled so vastly differently from the others). If every model is unique, then nothing stands out. The overall army begins to look like a pointillism portrait.

When you move out and look at the army as a whole though, it will look like a ragtag bunch of misfits that came together for a brawl. Or as Acrocanth said, they look like Militia.

A unified army will have a certain amount of organization to it. Not just "Blue shoes here, blue gloves there, blue hat on this one, etc." Most organized armies (such as Dwarves or Empire) will take pride in what army they belong to and even further, which unit. You can achieve uniqueness within the unit by giving each model things like different colored hair, poses, etc.

Now that certainly doesn't apply to all armies, Beastmen or Orcs and Goblins for example, might be wearing whatever rags and weapons they scavenged off of the last battlefield, but there still should be some unifying elements throughout the army. Lizardmen (I feel) fall into a middle-ground area where you could go either way. There are certainly a wide variety of lizard colors and that would make sense in a Lizardman army, but the other option, of having unified warriors, bred for a specific purpose, makes thematic sense as well. I have chosen to go with the latter because I don't want to be continually explaining which models are what. (Or give my opponents any excuse like, "Oh! I didn't realize THAT one was your General! I wouldn't have done what I did otherwise!")

I started my Warhammer hobby with an Empire army. I based them from Middenheim and I wanted the large bulk of my army to represent those colors, but over time I have also added units from different provinces (like a handgunner unit from Hochland or a Spearmen unit from Nordland) to represent how the various provences come together to aid one another and form the Empire. If every single model was painted in different colors (as he suggests - again outside perspective) nothing about them would say "Empire".

While I may not particularly like his method, the differences of approach to the hobby is what keeps it so interesting. I also find much motivation and inspiration from people who do things differently from me. It challenges me to keep pushing what I can do and the way I think about my next painting projects. Good job in your research!

 

Yep. You're completely right that too much variety makes the whole thing look less like an army but like a group of people walking in the same direction or a militia... And Empire is a perfect example for this. Those guys are real soldiers... An army with uniforms... And (fluff wise) they are proud wearing the uniform or let's say their colours... Empire armies would be the armies (besides elves ) I would keep the variety as low as possible... The need the uniform look!
So much for a short reply... Gotta get my father to the hospital now... For work not medical treatment... Well he's treating people there... Medical...

I'll get back to this later...

 

Just a small idea I had when I saw what was in the mail...

Got 3 more... Two of similar size and one about the size of the old (ancient?) skink priest's helmet...
Will post some more about my opinion on variety in armies tomorrow... Promised!

 

So... Here my take on variety in armies and units... General thoughts first...
Generally I think there should be some variety in every army... not only for gaming but also for aesthetic reasons... How much variety you have in an army however is another thing and depends on the army we're talking about... As @Chicken Lips said there are armies in which you can not have much variety and some with the opportunity to go crazy and use much more different paint schemes... Empire being the perfect example for the first and orks and goblins for the last... And you have those armies somewhere in between the two extremes... The decision how much variety you have in your army would be depending on the general lore for your race and your own army's background fluff... (good example is Chicken lips empire army with the main force coming from one province and some backup units coming from other provinces...) According to this you can decide whether to have much variety in your army and units or less... Always keeping in mind that too much variety causes your army to look not like one army and can cause confusion during the game, as some of you pointed out before... (as can a lack of variety... )
*need a rest for my thumb... Am typing on the phone... Will post some more specific thoughts later when I'm on the train *

 

Here is what I do with my army... (and I think is a good way to handle this kind of in-between armies in general)
I work in two steps to keep the one army look and get some diversity in it. First I decide on a palette of colours I'm using for the whole army to work with... E.g. using silver and bronze for armor and helmets... Or a general skin colour for all models (or also a number of colours like I did actually)... These are the colours that tie your army together... After deciding on the"army palette" I switch to the unit... I take a look at the models and choose which colours of my "army palette" I will use on them... Here comes the kind of army into play again. E.g. for an empire army I would pick one colour from the palette and use it for all models of the unit the same way (all armor silver for example, or all boots black) ... After choosing the colours from the army palette I choose a unit colour... Let's say red for example... Then I decide which parts of the model must have this colour... In my army that are shields standarts and feathers... For an Empire army it would be the tunic or certain parts of the uniform... Now here is a bit of a difference between the armies according to their fluff wise level of organization... If I don't paint the whole tunic in one colour I'll pick a second (neutral or fluff wise fitting) colour to paint the other parts and keep it for the whole unit the same... An Empire unit is a uniform thing... *again continuing later... Some Christmas shopping is getting in the way...*

 

I continue...
For an imperial army it would be suitable to keep the same paint scheme for all units of that kind. E.g. all the spears wearing tunics in one colour and all swordsmen wearing tunics in the same colour but with a white (or what ever you choose) stripe from the left shoulder to the right hip... This might be enough of variety for this kind of army, but I think you can now go on and do some little tweaks here and there... Like skin tone hair and maybe the leather parts like belts and boots etc... Depending on your own taste and the time you want to invest in painting. (I have to admit that more variety in the paint scheme means it takes more time to finish the unit...)
For my army I have two kinds of things when it comes to unit colour... The first are things that must have the units colour just like the Empire example. The second kind of things are those which are optional... For example my temple guard have all purple shields and the two guys with the armor on their crest have this plates in purple as "must-haves"... Other gems and parts of the armor (details not the main part of it) are in the optional section. (like the units colour is added to the unit's palette for gems). That way I create a nice variety in the unit and still keep the"unit look"...
Another thing I do (and would not do with an Empire, dwarfs or high elves army) is using different tones of one colour and different shades when washing... (ok... Maybe I would do it in a dwarven army...)

You can see that it takes a lot of effort to make an army the way I do it, and is definitely not the way to go if you're focusing on the gaming aspect of the hobby. What is more than okay (and brings more variety into the hobby itself...) I'm more (nearly exclusively) focused on the modelling and painting aspect, but I think one of the main differences between war gaming and risk (the game) is the fact, that you play it with (more or less) painted models that look (to some point) realistic... Because of that I like to have a bit of variety in my army and also in the units... A unit is a thing made of (and by) individuals, and so I paint individuals. (and some individuals paint units... ) as said before, the quantity and quality differ according to the army chosen and the background made up for it... And every single (not to say individual) army is unique. If you can explain the differences between units and single models by fluff or logical arguments (not every man wielding a sword has blond hair would be such a logical argument ) and still can tell the units apart across a gaming table, then do what ever you willing and able to... Just take into account what you want. If your Empire army looks like a circus crew cause you gave every man a different paint scheme (like the dwarfs in the video I posted) this could be a cool display but isn't what I would consider really a playable army... If the single units have different schemes (each their own) it would still not look like an empire army should look like in my opinion, but would definitely be playable... Other armies like goblins might benefit from this circus style... But I would always not only look at the amount of variety but also keep an eye on the amount uniformity... Repetition is a good way to achieve uniform looking armies, but too much makes a boring army. (And makes it as hard as the circus style to tell units apart from each other) I guess finding the balance between individual and uniform painting is the important part.
When I finished my guards I'll take some pics to point out certain viewpoints and explain my way of choosing colours... For now I ask myself if people here would like to have a separate thread on this topic and if they are interested in my personal variety /uniformity ranking of the warhammer armies... Maybe including a poll... I sense that this could be a topic of more general interest...

 

Wanted to paint my basti more bright and colourful than my usual style... I think they are so massive and have a natural armor so they would not have to hide in the undergrowth unlike the cold ones... Tried to combine mot green and squigg orange... I'm definitely not happy with it...

Maybe it's because the areas of a colour are too big and I should break it up with a kind of pattern like stripes or dots in a third colour? Or I'll need a different scheme... Wise as I pretend to be I only painted on half of the model for that case...

 

Try breaking it up the colours not the model

 

The thought just occured to me Just it looks like a hulk inspired thing or a radioactive hulk at least

 

BASTILADON SMASH! ;P

 

I think I got a name for this fella now! Will call him SMASH!

Here a little upgrade... Got this idea when that little daughter of our friend told me about the ladybirds she caught this summer... Unsure if I should add spots to the skinny parts, too... Guess better not...

What do you think?

 

A nice side I found for inspiration by the way:
http://www.kerbtier.de/cgi-bin/enFSearch.cgi?Fam=Chrysomelidae&Sort=sys
Beetles can be quite inspirational ... At least if you're making something with a shell...

 

Got a new dry brush for Christmas!
Well... Actually not really... But got some new brushes, so I can use the old things (don't want to type"ones" to avoid confusion ) as dry brushes...

 

Today is our lazy day of Christmas... So I had some time to do some more on my bastiladon... Added red to the spikes and a small light grey rim... Thoughts?

Oh and a merry rest of Christmas, by the way!

 

He is red and green. Very Xmassy.