High Elf Yellow?

ManicMan

ManicMan

Lord
Okay, I would more say starting in 4ed, but maybe a bit before, there was a scheme came up with for High Elf building structures. This were large rounded (mostly) buildings with Blue roofs and.. erm.. Yellow Brick/stone. This carried on with 5ed and the card buildings in Tears of Isha...

But.. erm.. What is that yellow? I always took that colour as being a sandstone. But when I paint stuff in my Sandstone mixture (base paint, wash, highlight) it's... not where near right. When I look around online for Sandstone.. there is nowhere near that strong a yellow and it's a very dull dirty yellow..

So.. I have no clue what colour that is or how to paint it.. I keep trying to try things but.. It's kinda been bothering me a bit ^_^;

any one got any ideas?
 
If you mean the dark yellow as shown in this thread:
https://forum.oldhammer.org/threads/elf-obelisk-white-dwarf.38238/

That would have been Snakebite Leather (a long gone and sadly missed paint....3 range revisions ago? possibly 4?)

We did not use "washes" like the ones available now, shading like that was done with drops of the darker paint, drops of water mixed to a consistency like milk and then either acrylic flow improver (or a pinhead sized drip of washing up liquid) to remove the surface tension.
Then lightly drybrushed over the join areas in the original colour. Took a lot of work to get graduations like that.
 
yeah, I'm back on that project really ^_^;

snakebite is a bit dark really. I never saw that yellow as being that dark, even with the white highlights, it's kinda bright. not rich, but bright.

To my a wash is just a paint watered down. Sometimes I use pre-made, sometimes I make my own. just a bit of water is just to thin the paint, but I use water or a medium to make it more of a wash.

I could try some snakebite but... I don't really see it myself..
 
robh said:
Snakebite Leather (a long gone and sadly missed paint....3 range revisions ago? possibly 4?)
Click to expand...
That was in the Ork & Eldar paint set. I believe that was the HMG produced stuff, much of which is sold under the Coat d'Arms brand with this chart claiming 116 Barbarian Leather as equivalent.

I went with the WarColours Nostalgia '88 range. There's a pic of their "Serpentbite Leather" at the bottom of this post. It is lighter than the brown inks, which is what I remember of the original.
 
orkwrangler said:
I went with the WarColours Nostalgia '88 range.
Click to expand...

I have been looking at that WarColours range recently as they are one of the few companies that will still ship such things to the Canaries. How dense is the pigment in those?, how do they take dilution?

The Ochre 3 in their layer paint looks like a very good direct pot replacement for Snakebite (PC monitor variance allowing) it has the right yellow tone.
 
ManicMan said:
But.. erm.. What is that yellow? I always took that colour as being a sandstone.
Click to expand...
Style wise I always wondered a little if whoever did the build had subconsciously taken on all the Wraithbone type bits from Eldar and carried it over when doing these, the shaping and supports all feel like they could have been from craft world architecture. I remember building the obelisk when younger I never replicated the paint scheme very well alas. Would be nice to try again actually so I shall watch this thread with interest.
 
robh said:
they are one of the few companies that will still ship such things to the Canaries
Click to expand...
My box shipped from Cyprus. They are probably familiar with navigating island-living frustrations.
robh said:
How dense is the pigment in those?, how do they take dilution?
Click to expand...
I am far from expert & am just returning from a several decade gap. I am a tabletop-ready guy & anything beyond that is mostly achieved by accident. I've never thinned with anything beyond water & inks.

I think their paints are more consistent than the old Citadel ones, but I wasn't diligent stirring the old ones & used to get different effects based on what accumulated in that little lip in the lid vs the pot. Their white seems thinner than I remember, but I used oils & a big tube of acrylic back then too. Memory is fickle. I didn't get any of their one-coat bases. Their black ink definitely has more pigment in it than the old citadel stuff. I think the paints dilute with water & inks OK, but I don't have anything to compare it to. My extant collection is from them. I don't love the containers. You can't tell how much paint you've used. They work well for the inks, to be fair.

I have painted up a new squad member for a unit from circa 1990 & the new guy looks a bit more vibrant. Can't say how much of that is due to pigments fading with age.

Other forum members have wider knowledge of paints & I saw some past discussions on these topics.
 
Eric said:
Style wise I always wondered a little if whoever did the build had subconsciously taken on all the Wraithbone type bits from Eldar and carried it over when doing these, the shaping and supports all feel like they could have been from craft world architecture. I remember building the obelisk when younger I never replicated the paint scheme very well alas. Would be nice to try again actually so I shall watch this thread with interest.
Click to expand...
now, yes. I thought huh.. is it the same as Wrathbone? to a degree, they did try to keep some of there ranges in line so alot of lore and schemes for High Elves is repeated in Eldar, and when one changes, they other often kinda did. Atleast at the time. Empire and Impertium, Dwarfs and Squats.. not just them being space versions but well.. kinda. they kept all the tropes in line. So having the buildings which for High elves appear to be cyclopean, the same as the cyclopean wraith bone makes perfect sense. I did notice some 5ed version of the High Elves buildings used a far darker colour, like not getting the paints or the mix the same but yeah..
 
I've been trying a few tests (I use cheap non-slota bases for tests at time.. If they are having around, why not?) I tried a light brown, very much like snakebite (well.. it's a mix I made some time ago based on what is still in my pot of snakebite.. need to check out how good some of them paints still are) and did it as a wash over white.. and nope.. that is just a brown wash.. I've also tried a yellow over white and a yellow over sand/dirty browny-yellow... not getting it right at all yet.. gonna need to think and maybe cheat with a bit...
 
The primer on those buildings was armory white spray, the basecoat was a pale yellow (not a citadel pot.....think DIY store matchpots or bigger), the dark wash was various dilutions of snakebite and snakebite mixed with the yellow. The highlights are drybrushed yellow, then white/yellow mixes then finally white.
As I said, a lot of work went into getting those graduations.
 
Brother Meredith said:
....You mentioned working for GW...
Click to expand...

Don't think I did, but yeah true enough.

I had a couple of stints in the design/painting teams, a little while in casting and mail order and a couple of years as manager of one of the stores. Late 80s to early 90s. I have some stuff in the WHFB 4th ed books and White Dwarf from the era...one article actually under my own name which is kinda cool even now. I did another couple after that one but they did not get printed sadly.

I spent a lot of time behind the scenes regiment painting and scenery work, like yellow elf towers, a "Paint Slave"I guess. Nothing important.
3rd Ed was the last Warhammer I actually looked at, since then the only GW games I play are Mordheim and Inquisitor (in 28mm). The 1st ed project I am aiming to do next year will be my first Warhammer games for 35 years or so.
 
I suspect there would have been a lot less appeal of looking through all those books and magazines without the "paint slaves", err slaving :) So thank you! Was terrain work split between build and paint or would one person get to carry a project through from concept?

I think Brother Meredith picked up on (thread):
robh said:
after Rick Priestley took over (I had my fill of that when I was there)
Click to expand...
Sharp eyes that lad!
 
Eric said:
...... Was terrain work split between build and paint or would one person get to carry a project through from concept?........
Click to expand...

A bit of both, the workshop terrain articles were deliberately individual and "drop in" type pieces like hedges, walls and such were generally done from start to finish by the same person. More involved pieces or sets of structures were teamed so 3 or 4 people would be working on them simultaneously.

Most were done in stages so all the building work completed, then all the basing and finally all the painting, which was how bigger scenery sets stayed consistent in texture, colour and finish. Looking at the pictures from that era now I doubt anyone appreciates how much work went into something as simple as making sure every goblin green figure base had the same amount of sand and the same tones of drybrushing. The studio scenery and miniatures had to be as near identical as possible, at least as far as each "era" is concerned. We had virtually no leeway on the colours used.

Surprisingly there was not a lot of scenery around as it was reserved for official battle reports and mainly for photo shoots. Studio tables and figures/scenery were not used for general gaming, there was not much space really. People seeing Warhammer World and the factories now would be very surprised to see the little unconverted mid terrace house the design team occupied on Low Pavement when I first went there.
 
robh said:
the basecoat was a pale yellow (not a citadel pot.....think DIY store matchpots or bigger), the dark wash was various dilutions of snakebite and snakebite mixed with the yellow. The highlights are drybrushed yellow, then white/yellow mixes then finally white.
Click to expand...
now that makes more sense. I was talking more about what the base coat was, as You can see the washing and highlighting over it. Being non-citadel yellow might explain why some of the earlier ones are quite a different colour to the later bits (or atleast, ones which appeared first in photos compared to others).

I've got a couple of idea for a base, I'm just waiting till I can get them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top