Great work, i am painting them at the moment, do you find each one takes ages to paint! loads of detail

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Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

Had a browse through your thread and you progress well. Wouldn't call you a beginner anymore! Great bases, I recognise that one on the front - think I bought a pack of those a while back. The faces will take quite a lot of practise, still have never got them right myself. I'd say add some highlights and dark tones in the folds of the cloth and you'll find it'll give them a lot more depth. The hair you can just give it a good wash with a darker tone. Look forward to seeing more of your work!

These wre actually my elves that I've let her paint

Took me ages to stick the little feet to branches...

The bow strings are UHU glue, a dot of it on a paperclip that I touch to one end of bow and then stretch to other end. It ends up pretty strong for just a strand!

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Yes! I agree, taking me a while to do but great models to paint nonetheless!

That's kind of you. Using the the glue is a clever idea, it is very flexible that stuff. Concerning the sticking you might try using dychlo (dychloromeathane) which will bond plastics together instantly. I use it all the time for working with and it's magic stuff. It's also known as Plastic Weld for the hobby side I believe. Make sure your room is well ventilated because it can smell if you use a lot.

Here is a finished photo of the four. Currently in the process of doing 5 others, with 10 (plus Legolas and Tauriel) to do afterwards. I really enjoyed painting these models, lots of nice detail. The bases were Tim's idea, as they were originally going to be painted by him but he doesn't really have the time at the moment with commission work. I really like them, as I feel it looks like they're running through Mirkwood. I hope that I've done a good job! Oh, and I decided against doing eyes, mainly because I'm not a huge fan of how they turn out on the models, sometimes I feel they can spoil it and make the model look a little permanently surprised. Instead, I shaded in the areas around the eyes to try give it a little definition. I also feel like the photo makes the gold on the daggers and around the arrow quivers look a little too yellow, but then again it may just be me being a perfectionist and nitpicking every part! Anyway, what do you think? Criticisms welcomed as I can use it to improve my other elves

They do look good and I am impressed. In the same way I'm disappointed that you haven't done the eyes, I accept it's a personal choice though, but I'm just interested to see how you do them, details like this really make the difference.
Start looking to extending your use of colours. Using thinned purples and blues in the shaded areas can make them look deeper. This is to do with cold colours creating depth against the warm greens.

After the initial brown base I have used purples and blues to create the cold deep shaded areas. By contrast I used yellow mixed with the base to create the warm highlights.
I hope this gives you some ideas.

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Thanks Gandlaf for your tips, I will certainly put them to use when doing my next batch of Rangers!
I agree, I know that painting the eyes on can give them that realism, I think with the non-human-like eyes I've done before it's been easier to do the eyes, for some reason. I will definitely consider trying to do something better with the eyes on the next batch, I would like to do it but I think it's more of a confidence thing as it's such a small area on the model it's easier to mess it up!

It's good that you have avoided eyes. Many a nice miniature has ended up looking like Snuffleupagus. I've been painting on and off for 13 years and seldom use them. It's one of those things that you should do right or not at all. By all means practice them, but they are by no means essential at this scale.

What I do to draw attention to the eyes is mix a little purple and grey into a wash or "glaze" and shade gently in the eye socket with that. It adds some contrast to the orangy/peachy colours of flat skin tone paint. However I've only tried this on old man faces.

In terms of more tips I'd just try some shades in the recesses, slightly darker than the base colour. And some edge highlights, again just picking out a few raised areas. Edges of cloth, nose, cheekbones and forehead. There are more advanced ways of doing this, but I think if you just get your head around that stage first then you can move on. Perhaps a shade in the cheeks too, to draw out some definition in the faces.

The main thing, as I've said earlier, is that you've managed to see what's what on the model, and have painted very neatly. The thickness of the paint seems to be the right consistency too. In time if you learn more techniques these models can be added to without having to strip or re-do them, which is a bonus.

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Wow! These turned out very nicely indeed Nice distinguishable shades of green, I like the armoured breastplate, and the glue bow strings are a work of genius. OK, in the spirit of helping you improve (I'm not the best painter in the world so take my comments with a pinch of salt), I agree that the gold is a bit too bright. Did you use a wash here? I'd suggest maybe a couple (more) coats of a sepia tone wash (don't know what the latest GW name is) to try to give more depth. You can highlight with the original colour or use something like mithril silver for the raised areas. If you want to see how this looks - have a look at my dwarf general in the non-Tolkien thread here

http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=26624

I used quite a few washes of sepia tone (more in the shaded areas) and dry brushed mithril silver on the raised areas.

A bit more shading on the red/brown hair (girl in the front) might look good. I would use a devlan mud/earthshade here.

Hope this helps!

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When painting eyes, do them first. Paint the whites and add the black for the iris / pupil.now go around the eye with your dark colour of choice .i still tend to use this method as it gets the eye in place without the worry of doing it last and messing the whole job.

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Also, when you've got the eyes right (doing them first, as Gandlaf says) then you're really painting a character. It's amazing how much having the face and eyes painted correctly gives you a sense of the personality of the model, and subconsciously improves your painting everywhere else.

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i would agree that the eyes are about 50% of the whole miniature itself. A pair of good looking eyes are giving the miniature life as metraal said!!

But your lever is really really good for a beginer! i start having decent painting level after the 4rth year of the hobby (was mostly gaming tho). You my friend are improving with every model and the basing was really nice aswell. I am not a pro to give you any better advice than the above posts but i really like your work so far. cheers

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When the Mirkwood Rangers were released to be brutally honest I hated them. I thought they looked far too Warhammerish for Tolkien's world. However, you've changed my mind. I think its partly the realistic (i.e. not too bright and clean) colour scheme and neatness to the painting and partly the basing, which allows in my opinion the overly-dynamic poses to appear natural. Whatever the reason, these look fantastic and you may have convinced me to consider getting some! If I do, this is definitely my first call of inspiration.

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I can't believe you're this good when you just started out a month ago. Amazing work. I definitely wasn't that good when I stated painting. Very impressive.

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Bow strings, i will have to add that to mine

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Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

The Bow strings take these up yet another notch. I remember seeing guys do this for battleships years ago but the strings were a lot longer.

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Thank you all for your very helpful tips, which I will certainly take in to consideration when doing the rest of the elves! I have found faces difficult to get the grasp of, I sometimes feel like when highlighting I almost ruin it. Tim's given me some pointers and also shown me some DVD tutorials to help me get a better grasp of how to do it effectively. Hoping that I can improve!

of course you will improve, you are already. it's just a case of trial and error, but one thing is for certain you have a great tutor on hand. Virtually all of us never get that , we just do what we can.

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I wouldn't paint the eyes myself, I can't even see them on the models haha, I've suggested how she can do it if she wants and how to add more shading ( was using my thinned reikland..which is a bit too thinned)

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