I did him completely in Burnished Gold with Dark Angels green on the highlights. I don't even think I added any gems to him. I didn't file or sand him, so casting lines abound and, as you can see, the base was no screaming hell, either. The gold, in particular, was very bright and I didn't highlight or shade it, so it really blasted in a rather monotonous way in every direction. All that being said, I still kinda like him. He looks like a giant, walking espresso machine.
Here are pics of the current Wraithlord.
The biggest difference between the first Wraithlord and the latest is that I put a tiny notch in one knee, bent it a bit, and achieved a much more dynamic pose. The out-of-the-box Wraithlord is very staid and doesn't convey much motion, so it's good to get him looking as though he doesn't just have a stick up his ass.
I use a time-honored method of treating the gold now (instead of just using the brightest thing I can find). I start with Shining Gold and, after it's dry, wash it with a bit of watered-down brown ink. After that, I highlight with Burnished Gold, which ends up looking quite nice. You can compare the pictures and see the difference; the newer gold is much warmer and has some depth to it. I've also been adding gems, the technique for which is all over the internet, but I'll describe it anyhow: I start with black, and cover the gem completely with it. I follow with Hawk Turquoise, leaving enough of the black to make it appear as though it is lined around the edge with it (some people could just line it by hand, but I find doing it this way a lot easier). I mix a bit of turquoise with black and water it down quite a bit, then adding a drop onto the gem which roughly covers the upper half. If the gem is large (as it is on the face of the Wraithlord), I'll add yet another round of even darker turquoise on the upper 1/4. If this is done right it will appear to lend nicely from the light color of the gem's lower half to a dark area at the top. I will then add the typical "white dot" highlight, but what I do is put the model under a bright light first. Then I can see where the white dot would actually appear (I used to just put it in the upper right part of the gem all the time, but this way is much more realistic). If there are several gems (like on a Falcon for instance) then this technique really helps because if you put the white dots on all the gems at once by observing where the light naturally falls, it looks great and really convinces the eye that they're actually reflections and not just dots of paint. Finally, I slather on the gloss varnish. I can't tell you how much good this final touch does. I've received a lot of compliments on my gems and, considering that I'm not a particularly gifted painter, you can see how little touches like that make a lot of difference.
I also did the base in the same manner I used for the War Walker.
It's not easy to see, but the Wraithlord's gun mount has that Rare Earth Magnet setup I was telling you about, and that gun can be popped on and off at will. I can't say enough about how much better things are now that I'm using this magnet arrangement. Gluing weapons on and then having to tear them off again when I want to change the configuration just plain sucks. Even worse is the shame of having to say "Pretend this Bright Lance is a Star Cannon, ok?". I've heard some people make different models for each weapon configuration, and I just find that ridiculous.If you are making models and you have the means, I highly recommend you try the Rare Earth Magnet thing I'm discussing here.
The only thing that kind of frustrates me from time to time is the fact that I can't swap out the Shurkien Catapult or Flamer from under the Wraithlord's wrists. I usually equip my Wraithlord with two flamers, and there's no easy way to visually represent that (even if you can hack off the Shuriken Catapult with a dremel, there aren't a lot of Eldar Flamer models lying around. Even if there were, what if you wanted to go back to the Shuriken Catapulat again?). In-game I tell the opponent that the Wraithlord has two flamers, but it browns me off to have to do so.
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