To the members of the war council of SE Michigan: Every one of you have come to me saying I'd like to get more familiar with my army and more adept at my hobby skills so I can make it look the way I think it should look... since you all have that in common we are making us a league o' friends. :)
The goal will be to support and help one another while improving our skills. Trev and I also have a lot of experience on the table and are happy to help share that. So we're watching the Voice and were remarking on why it was better than Idol. Resoundingly it was the involvement of the coaches' involvement with the players. Instead of giving them feedback and leaving them on their own the coaches are personally involved to share any expertise they have with their team to help make them better in that player's own style.
Every gamer has a style and a passion and a reason for loving the hobby. The goal is to in no way change or diminish that; only to fuel it. You decide to paint your army red we will not tell you that blue would look better. We will happily share with you 5-7 different ways to do red and see which you like and help you with the techniques to accomplish your goal.
For the veterans, I address this for anyone else reading this and wish to apply our platform to their own groups. It is our responsibility to guide, not direct. Every person will find what they love about the hobby and it is our responsibility to give them the tools and knowledge to be successful in that pursuit. I may decide that an orange and green army is a bad way to go (though now that I say that... I may have a theme for my wood elves), BUT if someone says that's the colour they want to paint their army the following conversation we need to have needs to be how to apply those greens and oranges to look their best and help those hobbyists, new or old, with the skills to pull it off how THEY want to.
On painting, there are a dozen different easy applications to make an army look clean and good. No one expects to hold anyone to any standard but that person's personal best.
In June we will meet here in Livonia. Teams will be sorted, food WILL BE barbecued, and wine shared... because Warhammer is a great beer & pretzels game.
Since we're talking color schemes here. I've been evaluating what I want to do with my elves. I'm just not a huge fan of the bright blue/white I see them in on the GW site. It just seems too clean to me. I've done some looking around and I'm considering something like this. For the main bulk of troops I think I'll do something fairly subdued like shades of gray, like the following.
ReplyDeletehttp://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb2/Monsterzonk/HighElfTempleGuard01.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb2/Monsterzonk/Archmagefront.jpg
And for shields something like this, perhaps with gold instead of the white though
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh255/andy_sayer/high_elf_spearmen_start.jpg
Then special units would be a bit flashier, like these dragon princes
http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics10/img43b41dd5cd179.jpg
Leaders of different units would have color mixed in so they show as a commander. For example the swordmasters have this hair thing that sticks out of their helmet, i was thinking they might all be white or black then the leader would be red.
I'm also considering maybe adding in one little touch of color to differentiate the units. For example maybe the trim around their chainmail jackets and such. On one group it might be gray, another a dark blue, dark red, etc. Thinking of doing them in groups of 15. In my mind I picture a large block of high elf spearmen to be made up of soldiers from the different regions banding together. So a group of 30 would be made up of 2 units from neighboring areas or something, which is why they have slightly different coloring.
Thoughts?
I think if you have the strong sense of greys throughout and change up the accent colour you can achieve a unified look to the army AND get the sense of neighbouring communities coming together without looking like a circus. Unification in an army while still having individuality can be challenging. I think you have the right idea to get both done. Also that teal is really pretty. Bold but subtle, like making a statement with impact but not screaming for it to be heard. :)
ReplyDeleteThe best way to do this also is to go with a strong neutral base so it is easier to get colours to match up with it. Monochrome armies DO look striking. And you always have the option of painting your Elyrians on zebras if you want to!