Colorscheme

[Genesis84]

I'm pondering about the colorscheme which I will go for with my vampire army. I feel that all armies should have a somewhat uniform colorscheme which is more or less apperant on all miniatures since it will make the entire army feel more like just that, an army instead of a rag-tag group of random people. It may make the miniatures a bit more dull to paint since you're always painting the same colors, but I still feel I should go with a colorscheme.

At first glance, it might seem like there's not much colors to put into an undead army, but this is only true to some extent. They got lots of shields and pieces of cloth which could benifit from some colors. If I'll be only painting these black, then I got a black & metal colorscheme, which I personally find kind of dull.

A dull black & metal colorscheme

My second thought was to do a purple & black. I have always had a love for dark blue-purple, but this might again be a bit too dark, and we end up with the same problem as before. The skeletons themself, and indeed most undead are kind of dark and/or colorless by themself, so the little pieces of color on the shields or cloth should perhaps stand more out

The purple & black colorscheme

Some other options would be to go with a more red or green colors. Both the green and the purple are kind of dark-elf'ish, but this don't have to be a negative thing. Dark elves are cool as well The red, I find is a bit mainstream (most huge GW-armies feature the red scheme), and I kind of like an armylook that not everyone else got.

If you exclude the two rightmost skeletons, this features a red colorscheme

I've also thought about perhaps going with yellow & black, but couldn't find any images using this (perhaps a good thing given that I want an army that noone else got). This is the colors of my local soccerteam, and thus would make an excellent army. But this might be a bit too like night goblins (hmmm... what about a regiment of night-goblin skeletons?)

When it comes to the rest of the army, and not skeletons the impact on a colorscheme would be of different magnitude. Obviously it would be easy with the vampires themselves, since they got plenty of cloth or other objects which might be colored. Beasts like bats & wolves is a bit more hard, since they're mostly fur. But at first glance I don't expect my army to include many of those, so no worries (and brown & black fur wouldn't destroy too much of the colorscheme-feel). Zombies on the other hand got lots of clothes, and you preferably would like them to appear as a rag-tag bunch of random people. I'll try and get around this by applying different tones of the colorscheme which I am using, and thus using a variety of colors on their cloth, but not too much variety.

Are you guys using coloschemes on your army or do you think the idea of a colorschemed undead army is a lost cause?

EDIT: Oh, I might have misplaced this thread. It should perhaps be under "Painting & Modeling"

 

[TMS]

With the vampire counts I'd say that both the uniformed approach as well as the rag-tag one should work out well. The army can either be the raised personal army of a noble or other distinguished character (blood dragon-esque in a sense) or a horde of undeath summoned from all over the nation, featuring the livery and decals of many different lords and leaders.

Also, I doubt that your yellow/black skeletons will appear night goblin-ish, it's not like the models are swathed in robes and wearing hoods, right? And since those colours speak to you on a personal level it's all the better, heheh.

Bases can also be used to tie differing models together in your army, even though they will be using an entirely different pallette.

As for my own army, they do follow a colour scheme. In a way. They're all supposed to be ghosts and spirits, thus they all appear in the same colour (many of them, at least) with a cotton mist rising up below their feet. Follows my planned army theme and is wonderfully quick to paint and base. :grin:

 

[Genesis84]

Thx for the quick reply

Also, I doubt that your yellow/black skeletons will appear night goblin-ish, it's not like the models are swathed in robes and wearing hoods, right? And since those colours speak to you on a personal level it's all the better, heheh.

I guess that's true. I might just go with this scheme. I was at some point considering a light eerie bluish color, that would go very well with supporting ghost units, but I suppose it would also be possible to paint the ghosts in a tainted yellow color to make them more in tune with the rest of my armie. Not a hard thing to give the ghouls pale yellow skin either.

 

[The Dark Sheep]

Here's a Black/Yellow scheme you should have a look at: link. If done properly I think it could work pretty well. In order to tie the models together you should try and to add as much cloth as possible to the army.

 

[dictator]

Bases can also be used to tie differing models together in your army, even though they will be using an entirely different pallette.

Ah, you beat me to it. A light, medium, dark base will benefit a model and an army in so many different ways. If you need to brighten the army then just go with a lighter color base. If a tone-down job is what you need then go for a darker base. Either way you must include the entire model from base to the tip of their spears before deciding it's going to work.

I would suggest you start by getting a skeleton and paint one just the way you think you will for the rest of the army. If you find you don't like the color scheme just rebase the model and start over.

You can critique your colors till your face turns blue. If you don't just buck up and get a few painted, you'll never start.

 

[Devo]

Have you thought of adding color to the skeletons themselves? A swamp-themed army might have greenish skeletons. A ghost army might have blue skeletons or purple. Desert might have yellow.

They'd all be muted, of course, but you could easily add a broad swathe of color to your army by thinking about something other than their uniforms.

 

[TMS]

A ghost army might have blue skeletons or purple.

I approve of this idea. Having the skeletons in exotic colours does make you see them in a new light kind of way. Expanding the horizons et all.

 

[dictator]

I don't remember who owns this army but it is made up of entirely a "Shadow," army. Very intriguing. If you could pull this one off it would be amazing to say the least.

Really all you would need to do is to twist it a bit and be able to make them look like a swamp theme, like they were stuck in Lustria. The sky is the limit on this one I believe. Good luck choosing

 

[Genesis84]

You can critique your colors till your face turns blue. If you don't just buck up and get a few painted, you'll never start.

Hehe, I'm no stranger to this But I find making such decisions as a colorscheme hard. It is just so... permanent. Especially since it will be affecting my entire army. Did a bad colorchoice with Eldar back in the days, and tried to repaint them. After half the army was badly done repainted, then I just gave up the entire project and started on another army (hadn't too many miniatures so not too hard blow economical). The good news is that my primary opponent have finally decided on his new army, which is going to be bretonnia. This makes it a bit more easy for me to choose the look and feel of my army since I will be trying to make consist of dead bretonnians. Perhaps I'll even try to get a Red Duke converted some time in the future as well

Have you thought of adding color to the skeletons themselves? A swamp-themed army might have greenish skeletons. A ghost army might have blue skeletons or purple. Desert might have yellow.

They'd all be muted, of course, but you could easily add a broad swathe of color to your army by thinking about something other than their uniforms.

This is a great idea, and I haven't thought about it untill you mentioned it. Given that I've decided on the bretonnian dead then I guess I'll go with the regular bone-skeletons, but nevertheless it could prove to be fantastic for other armies (like the shadow-army above).

Thanks for all the hints and tips. Can't wait to get my miniatures into the house. Still waiting for GW mailorder o_o

 

[Josef]

i like the unit fillers that are posted up.