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Hello Dakka after some serious lurking here I felt it was about time I chipped in with my artistic aspirations. I decided earlier this year that I would try and slow up my buying and painting, to try and take more time over each model. I decided to go for a new army while I was at it, being one for outdated ret-conned or non-existent armies I felt the Dark Eldar would be a natural progression from my AdMech and Squats IG.
I wanted to try out a few new painting techniques I've seen on here such as using white primer and lots of weathering. I am aiming for a gritty 'webway pirates' look, so I bought the book got on ebay today and ordered me some pointy ears.
I found an old Urien Rackarth I had won in a painting competition when I was 12 so hes now been stripped and a quick devlan mud wash for some definition.

π

Apologies for the awful images I'm in work and wont get my hands on my camera until Monday night; but 14 hour night shifts are boring so I thought better now than never, also
I haven't quite got my head round the forum yet so apologies for any glaringly obvious faux pas!

Not quite what I had in mind but I like the idea, I was thinking more steampunky, I decided to go for a green and yellow colour scheme with red as the spot colour. Still in work so still the horrible camera but here's a quick update on the progress anyway.

First off use the macro function on your camera. Second go back to the blue background the red clashes with the green and makes it all look like crap.

Third, I would redo the yellow, and make it less muddy.

Other than that the dress looks great!

Don't worry I will get better photos soon, I'm still in work! The joys of being a night time security guard. I got the model finished wont get the base done or proper photos until this evening but here's a quick update to kill more time before my horrible shift ends.



I'm using the web cam on my mac as I don't have my other camera at the minute so I don't even have a macro function

Finally got home and got the camera out! Hes all done still not the best shot in the world but hey its my first day here! As you can see the paint is still wet so all c&c are more than welcome. I just need to wait patiently for more troops to arrive in the post!

Nice!

You've made this model look much better than I thought the sculpt would allow.

I can only imagine the greatness that will be the (eventual) redesigned Dark Eldar line as done by JES GOODWIN and painted by... you!

Thanks for the support guys, I'm well chuffed!
Well the Gods of Ebay were good to me today, I got three parcels all with some nice new goodies inside I got 12 wytches instead of 10 (didnt notice two still in blisters in the auctions photo) 3 mandrakes instead of 2 (more in the blister than I thought) and another haemonculus.
After looking at the DE range online I always wondered why people complained about the sculpts being horrible, I now know why. The hair on the wytches is immensely stupid, to the point of being insane in some cases, and the mandrakes... well lets all stand in the same pose like the village people shall we? Why not? the lack of distinct detail was a bit daunting. Also the 4 different types of model I have from the range (Urien, Haemonculus, Wytches and Mandrakes) are all on different scales! Urien is huge in comparrison to everyone especially the other haemonculus and the mandrakes look like midgets compared to the wytches.
Anyway bitching session over, I set to them with my clippers, scalpels, green stuff and greedy mitts and executed a few minor conversions and limb repositions, ovrall im much happier with them now, a few still need stripped then its undercoat time and the kabal shall expand.

I did a fair bit of arm severing on mine too, and actually chopped a fair bit of the mandrakes and used them as additional wyches. They look stylistically similar enough with a touch of work and never very 'I'm going to lurk in the shadows' in the first place.

Dead right! all the mandrakes kinda look like they are in the middle of some line dancing at an apocolyptic rave. I didnt do too much arm snipping just alot of bending, I forgot how much I dislike metal models but it is probably because I just finished a 99% plastic imperial guard force (with arbitorian style squats, pictures sometime!).

I am hopefully having a Thunderhawk Down evening tomorrow, so I've been forging ahead with my painting and have 5 wytches and 3 mandrakes at the halfway stage will hopefully get them done before tomorrow evening, although considering how crappy today has been they will probably melt on me between now and then...

Piccys time!




I finally ordered my Battle force this morning which cost £35 including postage, I have been inspired by these guys http://yearoffrugalgaming.blogspot.com/ to try and cut down the expenditure and build up more painting and gaming and the way things are heading I should have my full 1250 points for 75 quid. When I get my final few deliveries Ill post up the list.
Apologies for the dodgy pics once again, will get better ones when they are finished which is the main goal this evening!


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Progress happens by small increments, so here we go got the first squad of Wytches nearly finished and the first 3 Mandrakes too. They Still need their bases finished and the final touch ups and highlights done, especially the mandrakes. I have never been very good at pale skin so it will probably be my biggest touch up section, it always ends up a bit grey, any suggestions to remedy this? The metal will probably all need a highlight too but I'm happy with it at the moment.
Enough moaning more pictures!





Give em all the C&C you can think of! Don't be afraid to be harsh!

Wow I really thought that Dark Eldar were terrible and nothing could be done to redeem them. You sir have proved me wrong, all it took was a good painter to make them look good. Well done.

As a fellow dark eldar play I just want ot scream YAY!!! however, your painting and modeling is fantstic. I've never schem a DE color scheme quite like yours. Its subtle yet very eye catching. Yuor Urien model looks fantastic as well. The wyches so far remind me very much of mad max. I cant wait to see what you do with simple warriors and your archon!

Got the Wytches and the Mandrakes finished to a standard I'm Happy with. Also got another Ebay present in the post today, one horribly painted Talos, which is now stripped and ready for some small tweaks before I prime and paint it, not sure If I will convert it or not as I quite like the model and it looks tricky enough to paint as is. I also have a few other models I want to finish after it as well, too much to do too little time

Anyhoo without further ado, piccys!
( Just realised how rough some of these look when embiggened on screen, there may be a few touch ups to do when I finish the army)

it all looks great...i was thinking about starting dark eldar after i finished painting my csm army...but thats still a while off...glad to see that some people out there havent lost hope on these underplayed units

Nice to see someone actually playing Dark Eldar, as their 'dex is so old. Good job!

Ahoy new lifeform spotted in the webway...



Yup I spent the last three nights getting a Talos all painted, its a great model, if a touch spindly here and there. There were lots of details to make my life awkward so I hope I did it justice. It was really hard to get a decent shot of because of all its sticky out limbs and guns so I hope its clear.
I added a greenstuffed symbol to the top of the back support strut, the guns were meant to be fixed there but I thought it looked a bit odd, so I fixed them to where the silly spiky crap was meant to go at the side. I felt like it fitted better in with the fluff as well as the Talos is awful at shooting.



As it was another Ebay purchase it came without a flying stand so I improvised with a bit of Aegis defence line and plasticard. I wanted to make it look like it was swooping right down over a barricade to maul whoever was behind it. So naturally being dirty dark eldar it was sneaking up from behind it instead.
Added a little touch to my mates Ultra Smurfs 4th company with the marine head on the trophy rack. I play against him all the time so its a bit of wishful thinking on my part.



Just realised how wang my photos are again, must get that sorted. Oh and to DarkAngelsRK, just because their codex is old don't under rate the army, they have alot of punch if used right just check out Thor665's Tactica http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dark_Eldar_Tactica. Quite the epic task but its a great article.

Thanks for watching guys more to come soon.

I like it personally, but I don't think your stuff photographs well. Some peoples models look amazing in photograph but crappy in person. I think your's is the other way around that in person these would look AWSOME photograph wise it's just not comming out to well. Good stuff though so are you going to do a whole wyches army?

D'oh, one more image I forgot to upload it...


Tada All criticisms welcome!


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Hi Empchild, yea I think I'm going to have to agree with you, I'm going to try and set up my light box a bit better and re-adjust the camera when I get the chance. No I wont be doing a Cult Army, They just happened to be the first models to come in the post I am waiting on my Dark Eldar Battleforce for my troops, the joys of the slooow Roayal Mail!

Looks very promising. It's hard to do anything with the current range of models, but, your getting success after success.

Where are you going to take the project now?

Well I have 7 more Wytches, and another Haemonculus to paint, I'm waiting on 5 more mandrakes, a battle force set (20 warriors 5 bikes and a raider) and to finish off two more Jetbikes. So it appears that I'm in for the long haul, I might try and do some quick concepty sketches for the warriors and try and convert my other wytches some more.

In the mean time I have written up a quick provisional army list to try and account for everything I've bought, I know it doesn't really belong here but it gives a rundown of whats coming so here goes:-

Drachon - Reaver Jetbike, Punisher & Tormentor Helm, Combat Drug dispenser
Haemonculus 1 - ScissorHands, Destroyer, Reaver Jetbike
Haemonculus 2 - Scisor hand Stinger Web Way Portal
Haemonculus 3 - Scisor hand Stinger Web Way Portal

Wytches x 5 - 2 blasters, Succubus + Agoniser
Wytches x 7 - 2 blasters, Succubus + Agoniser
Mandrakes x 8

Raider Squad - Splinter Cannon Sybarite Agoniser
Warrior Squad - 2 Dark Lances

Reaver Jetbikes x 5 - 2 blasters Sybarite

Talos

Approx 1250points

Hope that's all ok time to get out the greenstuff and primer!




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Well the quick concept sketch is done for the warriors, I dont intend to include all the elements on every warrior. But it does give the general impression I'm aiming for, quick and messy though it is.
I will be greenstuffing the fur shoulder wraps on most of them and the flared gaiters (trouser bottoms if you will) on them all. I will try to keep the goggles exclusively for the raider squad and the cloth masks for the footsloggers. I also intend to cut down the splinter rifle barrels a bit to make them look lighter and a bit more in-keeping with the art in the codex. I also intend to shave down most of the helmets but try and keep their general profile, they are just a bit too impractical for grabbing prisoners in... I aim to use as many of the bare heads as I can for mowhawks and undercut long hair for the almost native American look.

Well here goes the first concept scribble for the Kabal of the Bleeding Eyes



As usual its a bit st but hey

love it. great work

Looking very good so far, when DE are done well (such as what you have done here) they look amazing! much better than the drab purples that GW used, to be fair as they are such frail models a good bit of colour suits them very well.

Btw, is it just me or do you want to GS the thing in urien rakarth's hand into half a coconut w/straw and tiny umbrella? just so he looks he's looking at it and screaming 'PINA COLADA'

Hey Dakka its been a while, life kinda got in the way the last few weeks. But here goes the update, got all my troops, slowly getting around to painting them. Managed 6 Warriors a raider and two mandrakes all on Friday night. The mad session was spurred on by the fact that I had a few games of Thunderhawk Down scheduled for Saturday. Needless to say they got thrashed but that's what happens when your opponents have more upgrades and skills than sense!
We started a 500 point game as well but didn't finish it, bars and music beckoned us back to real life.
Got a bit more done on said new models on the Sunday night, night shift. So tada some terrible WIP piccys!

Raider - I stripped it back a bit went for the fast look rather than the complicated floating swing set thing GW produced.




Warriors - Due to time I didn't go too mad on the conversions just stripped back the spikes and added some fur pelts for a nasty hunched look.




Terribly blurry group shot - The full 500 points can you see the webway portal marker?

Urghh just realised how bad this shot is sorry guys!

Loving the Pina Colada idea... when I have too much time and phonyshop open it shall be done!

We have a rematch of the 500points scheduled for this week sometime so wish me luck...

Dude, this stuff is class!

Really wish I could have done something more interesting with my dark eldar, but I have so much and Ive had it for so long, that it is now more of a gaming army so its just painted simpley and there are only minor conversions. Ive gone off into other directions since then like Orks and Tau, but Space Marines are holding me captive at the moment and I just want to get them all finished and do a good job on them.

Seeing how fast people work on Dakka has given me a bit of a kick up the arse!

I loke the way your army is themed and it has a nice wholesome sort of 'family' vibe to it lol.

I may have to steal your webway idea tho! I didnt even think of materializing one, I just used spare blast markers!

I think I will have to start a side project of dark eldar and put more thought into them when the new models eventually come out.

(Hurry up!) lol

Ta muchly big lawd!
Anyhoo, my sleep pattern is all messed up from night shifts, so after trying to get some kip, I gave up and did a bit more P&M so here's the results:-

The start of one Heamonculus on bike!


Also a little bonus a clearer photograph of the webway portal marker, its quick and dirty but hey it was an experiment!


Bring on the C&C!

How exactly did you make that webway portal is it blister pack plastic or somethignelse? I also really like the sort of Celtic Wood Elfy colour scheme you've got going on. It actually really suits them which surprised me at first!

The Web Way Portal (WWP from now on) started out as a piece of wire bent into shape. I then took a piece of acetate sheet (for overhead projectors) melted it onto the wire with a lighter. Then added green stuff 'rips' around it. I then used the new citadel washes to colour the warp inside it in a spirally whirlwind thang. Its mounted on a bit of plasticard I traced the blast template onto. Hope that helps!
Im planning to do something a little different for the WWP. Hopefully a big ole pile of dead bodies with the WWP below them tunnel to hell style!

Loving the Raider and the de-spiked Warriors!

You do these models a great justice with this painting. The models are normally terrible, but you've made them less so.

Great job!

I absolutley love the talos sir, awesome work.

Ahoy Dakka, just a quick update as I'm working nights all weekend so wont have pictures until Monday night.
The Kabal of Bleeding Eyes had their first proper game this evening, and surprisingly, they won. It was tight to say the least!
I played a 500pt game against my mates space marines. Needless to say I have learnt a number of things from this game.
1:- Warriors die like flies
2:- Blasters eat tanks (Like a fat kid at an all you can eat restaurant to be exact)
3:- The Talos is so broken in combat it wasn't even funny (ws 5 s7 t7 and ignores armour saves = bye bye tactical squad)
4:- Mandrakes are really useful! Also 15 attacks on the charge from 5 of them aint too shabby.
5:- Exploding Marines with the Stinger is very fun!
All things said and done I only had a few wytches and a heamonculus left at the end of turn 6, solid cover is a god and WWP's are really handy!
Best games I've had in ages, next up more warriors and another Heamy to make it a legal force