Dark Eldar

[Inso]

I have seen loads of pics of Dark Eldar painted black with really stark, extreme highlights that make them appear to have neon lights on them and I thought how they would look with a relatively normal paint job on them...

...so I went and bought a box:



It is supposed to have a gravestone look to it...

[dbsubashi]

Very nice! I like the difference!

[Arcturus]

Great paintjob. This is a nice alternative to the plain black dark eldars.

[AndrewBeasley]

Interesting idea - I like it 

I've never been taken by the Dark Eldar but have fallen in love with the new Hellion models (so asked wife for a box for Christmas) and if you do not mind I'll borrow your idea for one...

Andrew

[Inso]

Interesting idea - I like it 

I've never been taken by the Dark Eldar but have fallen in love with the new Hellion models (so asked wife for a box for Christmas) and if you do not mind I'll borrow your idea for one...

Andrew

I don't mind at all ...as for the Hellions, I completely see where you are coming from...they are the best things in the range so far...flying gladiators...what could be better?

[mattblackgod]

Very nice. I am not a big one for 40K minis but I must admit the new Dark Eldar range is tempting me.

[Westfalia Chris]

Your painting is, as usual, exquisite. I am not 100% sold on the grey scheme - I see what you did (and get the gravestone reference), but it does look a bit more "camouflage" than "grim reaper" to me.

I admit that I may have become conditioned to the black-ish approach. I never cared much for the Dark Eldar, but I am quite taken with the approach they took on the new basic troops and that skiff thingy. I'm seriously tempted to get a box of the troops and paint them in a very dark blood red. Rather subdued and without stark contrast, but nicely defined, anyway.

Alternatively, I may get some to use as Volgan war robots for my ABC Warriors to smush. The "Old Guard" from the original series could be done that way, I think. Just give them AK-74s instead of the splinter rifles.

[Inso]

You can think of the grey as camouflage too...the Dark Eldar appear from nowhere so camouflage is a good way to represent that.  I have been on exercises where we are taking fire from nowhere and then when the whistle blows and the sniper stands up 20 feet from where you are standing, it certainly surprises you!

[Argonor]

Your painting is, as usual, exquisite. I am not 100% sold on the grey scheme - I see what you did (and get the gravestone reference), but it does look a bit more "camouflage" than "grim reaper" to me.

The grey scheme certainly differs from most thngs normally seen in connection with the 40K universe.

As a stand-alone model, I would say it's really nice, and even in an army painted around a duller, more mute scheme than normally seen, the colour choice might work quite well, too, I would have to see such an army to judge the effect, though, as my inner eye won't let me envisage it.

To my mind, the grey scheme somehow suggests Eldar more than Dark Eldar - and I don't really know why, as Eldar usually are painted in much brighter schemes, too, but maybe it's the lack of accentuation of the spiky parts, and other 'evil iconography'.

Anyhow, it's a very good paintjob, and if this is intended as a display model, I would say the chosen colours make it much more interesting than just going with the normal black. Really refreshing. 

[Inso]

I painted this one just to see what it would look like because I really didn't like the 'tron' armour that GW are touting for these...no other reason.

I can't paint black very well, so I generally avoid it .

I will paint up the box of ten (5 will be cavalry) and that will be that.  I don't game so I don't have to relate to the fluff at all so I just went for look rather than adhering to a background...I also wanted it to be very different to the standard paint-jobs in order to open eyes a bit.

It turned out just the way I hoped it would...easy to paint but striking enough to be different .

[Argonor]

I can't paint black very well, so I generally avoid it .

I have exactly the same problem.

I think it is VERY difficult to paint black when starting with pure black right out of the pot. The thing is, pre-made blacks are usually too 'flat' to blend well with lighter shades.

I have begun experimenting a bit, though:

If instead adding a very tiny amount of bone or grey (depending on whether you want an organic or artificial look) to the base black for the base coat, it is MUCH easier to build up some hightlights without the base coat being in strong contrast to the first layer of a lighter shade. You don't get as dark a colour, but if you look closely at black objects, they are really to a large extend just different shades of dark grey, so the overall impression will still be black - if the right balance between basecoat and highlights is found; just like with white it is SO easy to get wrong...

Another possibility is to avoid pre-made blacks all together, and instead use a mix of brown and blue (knowledge from art evening classes some years ago), and then again build up the lighter parts from there.

I've also seen some people succeding in just adding very few 'hard' highlights to a totally flat dark, but I think one has to be much more talented with a brush than me to pull that off.


Sorry for ranting - the 'black'-issue is something that has been bothering me a lot