I'm working on a large batch of Haldir's Elves - 12 bows, 12 blades, 5 banners, and 5 Captains - and I've hit a bump in my progress. The Mini's all are base coated, and I used Balthasar Gold for the armor and was very happy with the look. My plan was/is to wash the armour and then highlight first with Balthasar and then do edge highlights with Auric Armour Gold.

I normally use Seraphim Sepia to wash Gold, but when I put it on the first couple models this morning, I wasn't very happy at all with how it looked, as it was much too "orangey" for my taste. I then tried a partial wash using Nuln Oil on another model, but didn't like that at all either, (much too dirty looking for elves), and I immediately washed it right off !

I do have several other washes, including Agrax Earthshade and Reikland Fleshshade, but I didn't really want to start trying every wash I had and then washing them off if I didn't like how it looked.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a Wash color for Gold armour that won't give me too much 'orange' ? I'm ideally shooting for a final color that would be pretty close to Balthasar Gold in tone, maybe about halfway between a bronze and a shiny gold. Any thoughts ?

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T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair..
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her..

I usually paint my Galadhrim units with Warplock Bronze as a base, followed by a Balthasar Gold drybrush followed by a Seraphim Sephia wash and some more gold highlights (drybrushed) on specific parts of the armor.

I'm not sure about washing the model if you used Balthasar Gold as a base. It can work, but it looks too red-goldish to me. Using darker tin colours for a base first seemed to do a good job for me.

Check out my post here:
viewtopic.php?p=387511#p387511
The colours used come from the old GW range but you can use the equivalent new ones. In addition, it worths checking out the newer washes such as Athonian Camoshade which seems like a good replacement for the DevlanMud + ThrakaGreen mix used in my recipe.

Some where on the net is a post about using Woodlands Scenic pigments as a wash for
Elven armor. It looked pretty good too. Maybe someone here will remember where it is located.

thanks for those replies - I have seen some people succesfully use a greenish tinted wash, especially on high elves, but I have also seen it used on Galadhrim Warriors and Haldir's Elves.

I'm still undecided at this point, but I did also see a YouTube video where someone used a watered down Agrax Earthshade, and that seemed to give the gold armour a decent shadow but didn't make it too "dirty" looking. Part of me wants to just leave them with the Balthasar Gold basecoat (I did do two coats of it) and then do nothing more to it, as I really like the tone of that color of Gold and it's also not "too" shiny, for me anyways.

If I get around to starting a WIP thread, I'll post pics of the finished versions. Thanks again for the advice and suggestions...

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T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair..
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her..

You could try applying agrax neatly along the recesses rather than as an all over wash. This would give definition to the armour without changing the colour.

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Scroll down to the Elves section. He describes how he used WS pigments as washes. Excellent site.