Based on the description of the elven king’s crown in the Hobbit, I’ve decided to paint my Mirkwood elves in fall colors. I’m not going for camouflage. My inspiration is the shield which looks like a stylized leaf. I’m going with red, brown and yellow. I’ve painted the cloaks red, the leather/clothing brown, and the shields yellow. The problem I’m having is deciding what to do with the trim on the shields. I am afraid that if I paint it red, I’ll overemphasize that color, given the red cloaks. Any recommendations of what would go with yellow, but retain a fall theme?

Also, I haven’t painted the armor yet. I’m probably going to go with a traditional steel color (Runefang Steel), but was toying with the idea of creating a painted, lacquered armor effect. I would probably go with yellow. This would get yellow onto the models that don’t have a shield, but I’m not sure I’d be able to do it without it looking cartoonish.

Well, GW did do a Warhammer Sylvanth painting guide. Lots and lots of elf schemes in there. I like quite a few of them. It's not any more expensive than the monthly magazine and infinately more useful. It's nice to see models painted up before you do a trial piece too.

_________________
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

if it's any help, i used a 'lacquered' effect on my galadhrim army on the leaf armour; basically it was a gold base coat with a layer of the old-style dark green ink on top. Didn't even need a highlight to gain a good result.

Based on what you've said, you could get a similar result with a liberator gold base, followed by a 50/50 orange/brown mix wash (or orange/sepia wash instead) to give you the autumn look you're after

Good idea. I may try that, but will test it with Cassandra Yellow (shade), or Lamenter's Yellow (glaze) over steel or silver since I have those on hand. Do you think a glaze or shade would work best?

i'd go with a glaze tbh ; it will maintain the 'gloss' effect of a lacquer whereas I find shades tend to be too matt effect on metal / reflective surfaces. A word of caution though - I tried something similar with a yellow ink over the old 'shining gold' citadel paint and the effect was far too strong...

You could either try diluting the lamenters yellow 1:1 with water to maintain the yellow but make it less severe or to tone it down by mixing in a small amount of brown ink. I mentioned sepia as it will not alter the colour too much with a single coat but with the light brown shading it takes the glare out of brighter colours.

Sorry to prattle on but to give you an example of why I love sepia wash: if I paint a chestnut horse for rohan, etc I paint the horse with an orange shade and then apply 2 sepia coats to give the orange-brown effect of the coat.

hope i've not bored you to sleep, let's know how you get on

I've seen khaki and red used to great effect for an autumn scheme.

Fall colors? What are they? Colours that fall over?

_________________
"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

lol! autumn to brits ; fall to americans