The WHITE TOWER Centre of Knowledge

When I want to paint high elves fast, I start by undercoating the figure white. The face (and hands) is painted with elf flesh and then washed with flesh ink, slighly thinned down with water. Then the face is semi dry, drybrush with elf flesh to bring out the main highlights then mix in a little white and highlight the very highest points on the face (chin, cheekbones, nose, and forehead).

The eye sockets are painted black then a thin horizontal white line is painted. This should leave a thin black line around the eye. Finally, the pupil is painted. A little bit of thinned red ink is used to tint the lower lip. It could also be necessary to use black in the mouth if the model has an open mouth.

The armour is painted with silver or chain mail, and is washed with armour wash or a mixture of blue and black ink and a little water. After the basecoat is dry, drybrush all the armor silver to bring out the highlights.

The white cloaks are painted (elf-) grey in the recesses and with a very light grey elsewhere. Then white is used to highlight the tops of each fold.

For belts, shoes, and so on, there is a huge choice of colours, which you probably want to select yourself.

Black lining is used between face and helmet; armour and cloak; hand and cloak and so on. Use a very small brush, black ink (or armour wash) can be used for this (don't take too much ink in the brush).

Rick Priestley also has a good article "Painting a warhammer army" in White Dwarf 192, pg 66. The army he uses for illustration is a high elf army.

Written by: Robert Sandboge