Thanks all for comments. First, replies:
And there is one other thing I have say, and this may just be me, but the shadow on the cloth looks too dark. Makes it look stripy.
I'm aware of how dark this is, it's something I do with all my models - shade to black, and highlight to white, or as close as I can get it. The reason is, though like you said when you start looking too closely at individual models it looks a bit odd, overall I find it to add more impact to a figure/squad/army. In fact it was one of my 5 "rules" for a good looking army:
3. Contrast Is Key
When dealing with a game where the average soldier is rarely taller than 30mm you can forget subtlety. The best paint jobs over-exaggerate the contrast between different areas of a model by using brighter highlights and deeper shadows than would be natural. Blacklining is also an essential (and easy) technique to master.
Yeah I actually wrote them down... was planning on starting a 40k painting/modelling site at some point
I don't think there would actually be a problem with painting stealth suits all grey, for 2 reasons: 1. There going to be "invisible" half the time 2. Being all grey is probally more indistinguishable, which is a plus for something stealthy. I know you've said your not going to get any but I just wanted to mention it.
Technically speaking of course you are right. And it's no longer a mute argument as I've since decided I like the models and have built three, two of which are in various stages of paint job. I like neither of them and am actually
totally stumped about how to proceed.
1) The "mid transformation" suit. Getting more popular around the net - I didn't do the actual transformation line very well but this is only a test model, you can see a better painted example at the GW site
here. The trouble with this is that transforming from grey to grey (would be logical in my army) looks dumb! So I tried painting the suit a neutral bone colour and having it transform to grey. It has impact, but doesn't quite seem right in the context of the army (again, the same problem I had where I tried inverting the colour heirarchy on the pathfinders).
2) Black with "matrix like" vertical lines and sharp highlights in bright blue. Intended to show the suit coursing with some type of power. Looks good up close, but doesn't fit with the army particularly well, or have enough impact from a distance (where it basically just looks primed black).
3) Plain grey - Not tried yet, but suspect it will look too drab, albeit technically correct given their role. However I will try it next, as I have no other ideas.
Does anyone think something else could look cool and fit with the army?
Wicked job, but what is the yellow stuff suposed to be(though it still looks wonderful)?
I imagine it as some type of virile fungus or plant that has begun to rapidly colonise a recently ruined city. As we're not confined to Earth-bound flora when it comes to basing I see no reason not to push the barriers a bit!
I fear that the army as a whole might come out kind of "bland" though. I can't say for sure, because I haven't seen the whole army together.
Certainly a valid concern and that's why I was
so glad to come across the yellow scatter material for the bases. I
think it's going to be okay. I have all the finished minis (all 19 of them!) grouped on my computer at the moment and they do look good. I also think the tanks are going to be key to lifting the look of the army somewhat, as overall they are much lighter and more well defined than the infantry.
More stuff:I pledged these three suits to last months Painting Challenge (and failed utterly, of course).
Magnetised interchangeable crisis suit:
Won't be doing this too often, as I found it a major hassle to fit all the magnets in and make them all totally invisible, especially in the guns themselves. There are a total of 8 magnets on this suit, and 2 in each gun, except the missile pods that only have 1. I think I'll restrict this to my commanders (of which I'm planning on making 2) in the future.
Fireknife crisis suit:
May as well make three of these that aren't interchangeable, as they're so ubiquitous.
Broadside conversion:
It's a bit shabby round the edges in places but overall I'm really happy with this one. Railguns are magnetised for storage purposes (with some HUGE magnets - 6mm x 3mm). Head is built from a normal suit head + a target lock, chest vents, advanced stabilisation system (not visible here) and additional armour from an SM jump pack and plasticard.
I'm going to make three, including a team leader with plasma rifles and multitracker. Here's my solution to fitting a multitracker on to an already busy model - integrated!
