Replicating a specific hair color

[Johmpa]

Greetings! I have just registered here and is looking for some advice.

 

I have been mostly warhammer figures up until now with varying degrees of ambition. Now, however, I've just ordered some miniatures for roleplaying purposes, which I indend to give my very best. In any case, I have found that this one fits very closely to one of my characters, the hair color especially.

 

 

What I'm looking for here is some advice as to how I can replicate this hair color effect. My current thinking is (using GW colors here) to use Shadow Grey as a base and then layer towards Skull White. But I don't know if I'm on the right track. Maybe some older a wiser minds can help me here.

[Wren]

If you were using Reaper paints, you could use the power palette tool on the main website to get some ideas. I'm not super familiar with GW paints, so I'm going to use general colours.

 

I'd mix just a touch of a bright blue into a light gray colour for the base, then highlight up to white. I would shade down with a dark gray + purple mix. (A bluer purple as opposed to a redder or pinker purple.)

[Dr.Bedlam]

I generally just mix and remix until I find a close match, then blend in some lighter and darker shades to make a shadow batch and a highlight batch.

[Johmpa]

If you were using Reaper paints, you could use the power palette tool on the main website to get some ideas. I'm not super familiar with GW paints, so I'm going to use general colours.

 

I'd mix just a touch of a bright blue into a light gray colour for the base, then highlight up to white. I would shade down with a dark gray + purple mix. (A bluer purple as opposed to a redder or pinker purple.)

 

Thank you, I wasn't aware of the Power Palette tool, that can probably help a lot. As for your suggestion I think I'll try it out. Just one question (which may be a silly one):

When you talk about "shading down", does that imply a wash or some other method of adding shade after applying the basecoat and some of the highlights?

[Wren]

I normally layer in shadows the same way I would highlights, but a wash should work fine here. You might need to drybrush or layer over with the original base colour on the areas you want to be brightest to remove any purple tint from the wash, but generally you'd do that whenever using a wash I imagine.

 

What I think you like about this hair colour (and I like it, too!) is that there's a hint of blue in the highlights and a hint of purple in the shaded areas. Whatever method you use to deposit the paint, as long as it tends towards that end result it'll hopefully capture the essence of what you like.

[dks]

This is a figure that I painted, so I'm glad that you like it.

It was the first figure that I painted with the Reaper Master Series paints in 2005, after years of using Reaper Pro Paints.

I don't think I wrote down the colors that I used for the hair, and I also don't know GW paints ... but I wouldn't use grey (even if it has some blue in it) as a base color because it will probably look dull. Try a more vivid light blue (Skull White mixed with Ultramarine Blue?), highlight up to white, and add a purple color in the shadows (a wash or glaze, but only in the low areas, not all over the hair). Remember that the colors of her dress, staff, sword, etc. all affect the way her hair color appears.

Good luck!

After you paint your figure, be sure to post photos in the Show-Off area of the Forum. (Or post in-progress photos in the Works in Progress area, if you're unsure whether the colors are working.)

 

Derek