Making Ultra Smurfs stand out

[Ultramarine98]

Hi, Ive been painting smurfs seriously for about a year, so far, they've come along quite well.
But what I'm after is serious suggestions to how to make them better.
I will post a pic when someone replies here.
Now mostly, my mates reckon my dreads look slightly thousand suns with the gold being, well too gold.
So yeah right now this is how i paint my smurfy marines:

Basecoat-chaos black
Armour-mordian blue, layered on 100% armour ultra, layered on 60% armour, paticuarlly near the highlights of ultra with skull white 4:1, lower leg washed asurman blue
Highlight-ultra with skull 2:1, highlight, ultra with ice blue with skull 1:1:1
Trim-tapsef oakra(spelling?), shining gold, highlight: burnish gold
Metal-boltgun, highlight chainmail
Red-blood red, washed with badab, painted with blood red in center, leaving the crevases, highlighted with blazing orange
cloth-tapsef oakra, dry brushed bleach bone, highlighted/blended with skull white
leather case etc-grave earth, blended with bestial brown, dry brushed with snake bite leather
White-astronomicon grey, skull white, watered down skull white

so yeah, any suggestions?:curl-lip:

 

[Bloodhowl]

First, it's really hard for me to visualize in my head. Don't wait. Post pictures so we can actually see what you are describing.

Off the top of my head, Tau Sept Ochre seems to be too light as a base for the gold. Maybe try mixing your shining gold and Scorched Brown as the base, then layer up as you described, and add mithril silver as a final highlight.

Once you post pictures, other things should be more apparent.

 

[Tommie Soule]

Pics are very important. Get clickin and postin.

 

[Hoodoo_Hermit]

I vote for pics as well. I've become a fan of the way they color Ultramarines armor on the new Space Marine video game, but that's just me. I think it looks very striking.

 

[Wicksy]

I'm thinking if the dreads are looking too thousand sons you havent got enough ultramarine details on them. Consider some transfers or free hand work. From the sounds of things you are painting them as per the box art but without pics i cant really visualise what your problem is.

 

[Gannon]

Depending on how dark your blue is may determine how close to the 1k sons they look as well. If you've got a darker blue, try blending in some lighter blue. For me Cygnar Blue Highlight is a great base for UM's. I use the following steps for my 5th Company-

Cygnar Base
Cygnar Base/Cygnar Highlight
Cygnar Highlight
Cygnar Highlight/Arcane blue
Arcane blue edging
Skull White on sharp edges

Sorry I couldn't find a closer shot.

 

[Ultramarine98]

View attachment 9483View attachment 9484View attachment 9485View attachment 9486
First time posting pics in forums, so yeah, thats just a captain of mine and some old AOBR marines i just had the pic for, cheers.

 

[Bloodhowl]

Don't know if you have seen this or not. I think it might help.

http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/all-new-step-by-step-painting-guide/

And of course, the GW way:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/c...40130a&categoryId=600003&section=&aId=2500037

The GW one is probably good as a reference for basic colors and recipes.

The Sicarius one is more detailed and probably has some techniques you can use.

 

[Gannon]

Great tutes Bloodhowl, +rep.

 

[Bloodhowl]

Forgot I had this one bookmarked as well: http://www.juliencasses.com/category/articles/translated-articles

Part 3 is the one specifically on the Ultrasmurf.

 

[Ultramarine98]

Cheers Mate.