I found some decent examples and can't seem to execute any of them.
First, the GW paint scheme:
I actually like this approach for Reiksguard. Super-bright, clean metal, with minimal shading in the creases. That's pretty much it. This was my original plan. Didn't work.
Then I found this pic:
A little darker, a little rougher look, but nice shading. Tried this, couldn't do it. Really struggling with where to apply the shading and the highlighting on the barding. The "scoop" section is my biggest problem.
Then there's this pic:
These guys are really well done, almost perfect balance of both approaches.
Then i found this pic on the warhammer-empire.com forum (along with a nice tutorial which i also failed to execute):
This was very, very striking.
Again, i intended this to be a quick paint job. I primed them with very bright metallic silver (almost identical to the GW color). I figured a quick, thin wash of black Nuln Oil and brief highlight and i'd be done. Wrong.
The ink wash looked ok, but didn't get the "clean, Best of the Best" look i was getting for the guys that are supposed to be the Emperor's Guard. Then the disaster began: me attempting to highlight the barding. Now, a good hobby blogger would post the WIP pictures of these knights, but i didn't copy the pics to the computer i'm currently working on, so you'll just have to take my word for it and trust me when i say they look unsatisfying.
Suggestions?
