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Hey friends,

First, for those of you who can't stand verbose posts, I've highlighted the main statements/questions in bold to make them stand out. Just browse for those to save time!

And, for the rest of you, thanks for reading I'm finally taking the plunge and embarking on my first ever painting of an army. I've recently begun collecting and learning to play Dark Eldar for 40k. Rather than buying and assembling an entire army, I really want to assemble and paint a single unit at a time to try to keep myself from getting overwhelmed.

Sadly, I have no background in color theory and I'm finding myself having a lot of difficulty in picking out a color theme that I'm satisfied with. And so, I come here seeking your help

Ultimately, my primary purpose in posting here is to ask for suggestions regarding highlight colors to accentuate this general color scheme. My first run at painting a Kabalite Warrior can be seen below. One of my primary issues with the current scheme is that it's very, very dark. There's nothing to really make the model and, consequently, the unit "pop" on the battlefield. The majority of the armor is painting in GWS Mechrite Red with the body suit and the model's left leg being painted Chaos Black. I like the effect of the Mechrite Red on the left knee plate. You will notice that there are parts which aren't painted(e.g. - the knife, canisters, and pouch on his waist). I wasn't sure what to do with these, so, I left it alone for now.

I initially went with metallic colors for the gun(Tin Bitz, Chaos Black, and Boltgun metal), but, I really don't like the effect. Whatever accent color I end up using I would hope to use for the Splinter Rifle's frame to add some brightness to the model. Does that sound reasonable?

I'm intending on using Dheneb Stone with a purple wash for the Warrior's flesh.

At this point, I'm at a loss. I want to brighten this model up and make it stand out more. What colors would help me do that while complementing this scheme? I'm more than willing to make changes to this scheme, as well. This is the only model I've painted and I'm not in any way attached to what I've done.

Also, what highlights would you suggest for the armor itself? I'm intending on using Codex Grey to highlight the Black armor and likely Blood Red and maybe Red Gore as highlights for the Mechrite Red.

Thanks in advance for your advice! I look forward to posting updates as I make progress

Here are the images. My apologies for the poor image quality; I don't have a phenomenal camera

A good way to brighten up the mini would be to give pale skin to the face, not sure that Deneb/leviathan would work so i'd test it on a spare bit first.

as for the red, if you have the current white dwarf use the technique in it for blood angels as it looks quite cool.

For the black don't highlight straight to codex, put a couple of interim stages in.

Also, did you undercoat the mini? If not then consider doing so, spray them black before you paint as its easier to get a solid colour, makes the paint stay on better and its more forgiving if you miss bits by accident.

Finally the gun, if you liven the rest of the mini up you shouldn't need to change it too much as the rest of the model will pop around it.


For characters and such (sergeants etc too) remember spot colours to draw in the eye, so bright face, hands weapons etc like this: