So I must admit I've been a little sloppy with my updates, that is not, however because I haven't been making progress. In fact I think I've made quite a bit. As I write this I have completely finished my Spears (apart from the basing and attaching shields) and am about 77.58% through my Silver Helms.
Although neither units look as good as I'd hoped I still think they look ok.
What I realised while painting all of these old kits is that the minis are very unforgiving when it comes to painting. Their details aren't great and there are a lot of ridges and inconsistencies in the sculpts. There is also a lot of areas that seem to blend into each other so there is actually no definition between areas like cloaks and pants. As a result I think that one needs to be an exceptional painter to make them look really good. Because the sculpts on newer kits are so good and so well defined techniques like drybrushing and washes work really well, which helps a mediocre painter like me. This is however only a theory of mine and I'm interested to hear if anyone else finds this with the older minis.
The other thing I struggled with was getting depth into the metallic armour colour I used. I've both drybrushed different layers and used the spray and wash techniques (which I've used for Duelling Paintbrushes) and in either case I've found it hard to get great depth in the metal colours.
I also have to apologise because I've gotten so caught up in my painting that I never actually took work in progress photos for the minis, I do have some finished products here (minus the shoulder pads which arrived post these photos, and I'm too tired to take more) Hopefully I can update you guys again tomorrow.
I feel your pain about getting the scale mail right on High Elves. I've spent many years in the past trying to come up with a good way of doing it, and never found one I was truly happy with. It's easier on some of the newer, sharper sculpts where the armour does more of the work for you.
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