Military Orders Color Schemes

]Thanks guys!

I do have a tutorial on my Instagram (Lightforge Studio) but for those who either don't have access or want to use that, I'll happily do a little breakdown here.

Spoiler: Painting white

first I start with a solid basecoat of Celestra grey(GW). I personally build this up over 2 or 3 consecutive layers to keep a nice smooth surface, as white is a somewhat unforgiving color and will show imperfections on the surface.
Once the basecoat is down I layer over with a solid layer of Ulthuan grey (also GW). I'm not worrying about messing up other parts or painting "outside" the lines as white is usually the first thing I paint.
Build up this layer over several layers and probably thin your paint a bit either with water or medium. I usually build up over 3 to 5 layers depending on the size of the area. This is honestly the most time consuming part.
Now that the base layer is done it's time to add some shading/contrast. For that I make a mix of Ulthuan grey, Dawnstone grey (GW) and medium. Roughly 60/20/20 but do experiment a bit. You want to drag this glaze towards the dark parts of your surfaces. Building up shade on your model while leaving the lighter parts pure Ulthuan grey as this will be your brightest white, that isn't a highlight.
Then some deeper shadow by creating a glaze by mixing pure Dawnstone and mostly medium. (30/70).
Now darklining in between armor plates or clothing etc with a pure dark grey of your choice. I normally use Eshin grey (GW) as it is neutral and not too dark. Thin it down to help it seep into the recesses.
Finally highlight with pure white and done!

Spoiler: Painting red

For the red I use much the same approach as with white. The amount of medium may vary a tiny bit as red is a much denser color than white. It is however also a fair bit more forgiving.
Basecoat is Khorne red (GW)
For the shading I make a glaze of Khorne red, black and medium. Mostly consisting of medium and slowly build up the glazes and progressively adding more black to the mix until I've reached the amount of contrast I want.
Then I correct any mistakes I've made by layers Khorne red back up towards the raised areas.
Then I highlight with Cadian fleshtone (GW) and then extreme highlights of Kislev fleshtone (GW) if I'm working on armor etc.


[/SPOILER



Hope this helps!

Again thanks for the kind words

 

Which medium?

 

Any flow medium will suffice. I personally use Lahmian medium from GW but you can do cheaper and better I'm sure with any acrylic paint flow medium

 

I’m surprised you are just using grey and white! There’s a subtle cream tone to the armor in the pictures that surely comes from your light setup (given the recipe), or it’s the effect of pairing red with white. Thanks for the tutorial! I’m going to try to make my knights a little more cream/tan/beige/sand tone, and this is really helpful.

 

I really prefer using Vallejo Glaze medium, since that has surface-tension-increasers (forget the technical term), which means that your paint stays where you put it.

But there are several stores that carry Vallejo Model Color (or even Mecha Color!) nearby, so it's not hard for me to buy.

 

I really love this colour scheme, it's a true masterpiece!

 

With all these outstanding paintjobs I'm actually a little afraid to post mine, but here it goes :D
I went with a "knight-ly" looking armorplates, with a unified left shoulderpad, azt an order apropriet right one. Also with red tabards 'couse everyone knows its the fastest colour!

 

Agree with Golem, here. NEVER be afraid to show your models (besides, they look about as good as mine! )

I'm not much of a fan lots of metallics on Infinity models, but you did a good job on them. While they look a bit rough in the picture, that's almost entirely due to the magnification.

IMO, the real problem with metallic paints is to get enough contrast (it's honestly easier to do non-metal metallics, NMM!). I forget how to make good 'steel' with metallics, but I have a very nice recipe for Bronze from Privateer Press.

 

TMP is much likely like NMM. You just have to consider what color you should use for shadows and enlightments. For example, for the gold of my Seraph, I used Retributor Gold (GW) for the base, then mixed with Zameshi Desert, Balor Brown and Abaddon Black for the shadows (you don't have to use all for this, Abaddon is great to add for parts really in the dark, for example) and then just a diluted slope of Retributor to give back a bit of shine. For enlightments, mix Retributor with Auric Gold and even Stormhost Silver for the "white point" where the light come in straight.
But like NMM, it requests some practice to know what colors you like mixing and how you'll use them.

 

Some really beautiful models in this thread – I haven't painted a ton of military orders but of the models I have here they are:

and:


I wanted to do a very simple but effective scheme. I wanted them to look very cold, fighting in a very matter-of-fact way.
I've had a half-finished Joan in this same scheme i've been meaning to finish, I think this holiday break I might just get around to it. Let me know what you guys think! I haven't though too much about heraldry, but I might freehand something onto my order if i'm inspired enough