Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello and welcome to my P&M blog which chronicles the ongoing development of my Dark Eldar army, The Kabal of the Downed Gardens. I've put my thoughts and some fluff at the end of the post, but first some pictures!

The first squad I completed for the army, really pleased with the way these turned out:



Closeup of my favorite Hellion out of the squad:



A Hellion ready to jab someone:



Another Hellion:



A Ravager:



and a Venom:



I'll be updating this blog with new photos as other things get done / I manage to get decent photos of them! Finally a photo of some Hellions in action:

Death came swirling down...



Has a color scheme ever inspired you to start an army? It happened to me, but I ended up with a completely different scheme that the one that got me into the army!

I was resisting the pull of the new Dark Eldar models until I saw a Reaver Jetbike done in crimson and gold, oozing arrogance. I promptly bought some Reavers and Hellions. But it was only when I began painting a test model that I realized I was tired of painting red since I had just spent two years on an Admech army! Time for a rethink.

A few days, color schemes and a Hellion that had been stripped a few to many times later and I was still struggling. I loved the models but nothing I tried really clicked. So, I spent a few more days noodling around with different color schemes without much success before I found a short description of the Kabal of the Dying Sun in the Dark Eldar Codex. In particular the line, "renowned for their overweening pride and disdain for anything that has not endured for millennia," that put me on the right track for both the background and the look of the army.

The central theme for this army is of a Dark Eldar Kabal that treats old, chipped and tarnished equipment as a mark of pride because its level of craftsmanship is so high that it literally takes thousands of years to become a weathered and worn.

This Kabal has come to regard what we would see as objects impossibly perfect in form and function as merely the results of tedious “manufacturing” exercises. After all, the Eldar race has had the skills to produce such things for millennia. Instead, arms and armor are only truly coveted once they exhibit the patina acquired in countless battles and the residue of untold deaths.

One I had the background, the color scheme just sort of popped into my head in the form of a bright blue Hellion skyboard streaked with orange rust.

Thanks for the comments! I've actually finished a squad of Reavers as well, I'll try to get some photos uploaded tonight.

Today's update is a big unit of Reaver Jetbikes, I still need to paint gloss varnish on most of the helmets:



and at a slightly different angle:

Some other angles of the Ravager.





And a closeup:



I'm quite happy with the way the runes on the hull turned out. I've been using Google image search and the Dark Eldar transfer sheet for references. It's odd that the new Dark Eldar book doesn't have a page on runes!

Anyone know of good sources for runes?

Built some more scenic bases for my second unit of Hellions. These were made pretty much by following the slate basing tutorial by Brushthralls. I thought I'd share a brief tutorial since it's surprisingly simple and effective.



First roll out a flat pancake of putty, black Milliput in this case, let it dry. Then you can use pliers to break of small pieces until you get the shape you want. I use the small pieces to form the first layer. Then I make a larger piece and drill a hole in it for the flying stand to put on top. The whole thing is held together with more putty.



I'm also trying this technique for my regular infantry bases, but I'm not sure exactly sure how high I want to make them yet.



That's it for today!

Thanks for the comments, keeps me motivated to post! A little bonus on what I got done tonight between the last post and this one. Took me about 30 minutes or so to break up the "pancakes" in the last images. I'll be putting them together tomorrow.

I've decided to differentiate my Trueborn from regular Warriors by having them all with a back ornament and without helmets. Since Trueborn think of themselves as superior due to their "natural" breeding, they would probably want to show their faces!



I've seen a lot of really cool conversions online using Corsair cloaks, but I really liked the idea of having them carrying around trophies on giant bronze spikes! If I do any regular Warrior Sybarites they'll use the back banner bit.

The back ornament on this model is actually the leftover trophy rack railings from the Venom kit and the body is one of the riders leftover from the Ravager.

Not sure if I'll paint them any different from the rest of my army, any ideas? I'm toying with the idea of reversing my original scheme to give them copper armor and a turquoise bodysuit.

Making progress on the Trueborn:





I'm starting to really having a small unit of Trueborn sitting at the back of the board in cover. People tend to ignore it for a while so it usually get to shoot for most of the game.

Credit where credit is due, the terrain was made by our resident terrain wizard in my local store. I'll get some pictures of it the next time I'm in the store.

First Trueborn done! It's the same model as the upper model in the post above. It's amazing how much difference a few highlights and weathering effects makes. I'm still not totally sold on the basing though. Might have to make some taller stone "stacks" to fit in better with the flying bases.

I'd also love to see a Razorwing in these colors...

and a Talos...

and Incubi...

and Scourges...

and a whole fleet of Raiders...

and Wracks...

and the Baron with 30 Hellions...

and stuff I've not bought yet such as...

Grotesques converted from rat ogres like I've seen on Dakka)...
and a slowly developing project with Beastmasters and converted beasts...

That's the problem with the Dark Eldar range. Just about everything is a fantastic model

The image of Truborn sniping tanks from cover is really appealing. It just seems so in character. A bit like a bunch of bored noblemen going big game hunting, except with no animals harmed and much more entertainment. You not only get to compete to bring down a Land Raider or two, but can also look forward to watching the Hellions tear apart whatever bails out.

The fluff really makes everything come to life. Since when I think about it, in gameplay terms there's really not much of a difference between a small squad of Trueborn and a combat squad of Devastators, and I've never found Devastators to be that compelling (although the Heavy Bolters in Dawn of War are pretty cool).

Quick update showing what's in the queue! Not sure what to start with after the Trueborn. The Scourges and Incubi are calling, but I should really paint some Raiders.



The weight of unpainted plastic...is...crushing...me... What's that? Don't buy anything until you've painted it all? That would require utterly un-Dark-Eldar-like self restraint!

I'm almost done with the rest of the Trueborn squad. I'm painting the bases right now. I'll put some photos up later today.

Amusing (for me at least) anecdote from a game I played last night. My Reaver Jetbike with a Heat Lance was definitely the man of the match.

Turn 1: Moves up the left side of the board with 5 other Reavers, Heat Lance wrecks a Baal Predator.

Turn 2: 4 Reavers remain after getting flamed by Landspeeder. Heat Lance kills Landspeeder.

Turn 3: 2 Reavers remain after being shot by Assault Squad. Turbo boost to the upper left corner of the board.

Turn 4: Last surviving squadmate killed by Assault Squad shooting. Turbo boost to upper right of board.

Turn 5: Survives Assault Squad shooting. Moves towards lower right quarter and immobilizes a Baal Predator.

Turn 6: Turbo boost to lower right table edge.

Turn 7: Turbo boost to lower left table edge back to where he started the game after making a complete lap of the table, contesting the table quarter and winning me the game!

Pics as promised. Really pleased with the way these turned out!

Took me a bit longer than I expected to get the pictures taken and uploaded since I got an unexpected game in at the shop today. A hard fought draw against the Eldar. The Baron managed to survive a torrent of about 50 shots (about 10 of them instant death strength), Shadow Field ftw!

FIRE!

Kitch102,

I've been painting and playing 40k for almost eight years. I started when I was 14 or so but dropped out of the hobby for about 5 years around college. I've probably been "seriously"painting (i.e. at least one good session a week) for about 5 of those years.

I've got to admit that the GW foundation paints and washes have improved my models tremendously! I remember the horror of trying to paint red and silver Boltguns for my Dark Angels because neither the silver nor the red would cover the other in one coat.

Just Dave,

I take your point about the hair, but then again, I can't really think of another color that would work well. Now that I think about it, I picked the blue-ish white because I painted the Hellions first. They don't have as much of the blue on their body so the hair helped tie them into the skyboards.

I also like the white hair as a nod to the Drow.

Today's progress, basing them took a surprising amount of time since I had to integrate the poses with the rest of my army's bases.





I LOVE the models but have no idea on the color scheme for the wings! The current front runner is the standard GW black with purple and blue accents...I'm thinking there must be something more creative. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the suggestions! I did some research on bird wings and thought I'd try a more naturalistic look as well to see how it looks. Thoughts?

Got in about an hour of painting tonight and did the other side of the wing. I've included a base coated wing to show how the colors are built up. The armor and cables aren't painted yet.

I actually really like the idea of bright red or blue-white wings as well but they didn't seem to fit in as well with the army.

This scourge squad will be all feathered wings. I bitz ordered the two extra pairs. That's the only (minor) gripe I got with the Scourge box. The bat and feathered wings make them look like two separate squads. I'd have preferred it if they had either only included one type or had all five models with totally different wings to show how creative Haemonculi are....great, now I've got the image of a Scourge floating along with party balloons tied to its back...



Special thanks to the lovely lady above who seems to have become our top wing model.

How I paint my vehicles and armor:

1. Basecoat with Tamiya Coral Blue spray.

2. If you’re painting glyphs on the model do that now since all the weathering will go on top.

3. Spray with flat matt varnish (Tamiya, Mr. Color or Mr. Hobby).

This step is important because it lets me wipe off the weathering easily with a bit of rubbing alcohol if I make a mistake. Typically the mistake is to overdo the weathering.

4. Mix up a dark gray color (I use Adeptus Battlegray + Chaos Black).

5. Use a piece of foam or sponge with “fine grain” to sponge on splotches of the dark gray to simulate paint chips. A detail brush is also useful for touching up and adding smaller chipped areas.

I use the foam from Sabol pluck and pick trays since I’ve got lots of it. It looks best if you can make it look semi-random. I concentrate a bit more on edges and places where I think more wear and tear will occur (like the handrails of the Ravager).

It’s surprisingly hard to get the semi-random look right. On my first Ravager I found I had lapsed into a regular pattern of “blotches” about 2 cm apart. That was when the coat of varnish helped since I could actually just wipe off the mistakes or even just scrape parts off with my fingernail.

6. Once all the chipping is done, paint all the other parts of the model as usual.

I do the chipping first since it’s a waste to get everything nicely painted and then find out you’ve put a gray blotch over your nicely painted white hair.

7. Highlight the edges of the model with skull white mixed with a tiny bit of blue.

8. Spray the model with flat matt varnish again.

I usually don’t do this for infantry since I don’t usually mess up the next step on them.

9. Mix up some weathering powders (I use MIG Old Rust and Rust) with odorless mineral spirits (found in most art stores).

I’ve tried all kinds of weathering powders but have found that the MIG ones work the best. Their depth of color just seems to be better than anything else I’ve tried. If anyone knows of a good online store that carries the MIG powders and ships worldwide please let me know. No one sells them here in Hong Kong.

I bought mine in the Yellow Submarine hobby shop at the top of the Radio Kaikan building in Akihabara, Tokyo. Those powders are probably the most useful souvenirs I’ve ever bought. This is in contrast to the box of Chessex dice I bought in Paris which seem to have an aversion to rolling hits for Dark Lances…

10. Dip a brush in the mixture and touch it to a join between armor plates. It’s like using a wash. The capillary action will naturally draw it along cracks. Also paint on some streaks parallel to the direction the vehicle travels in. Again, the varnish lets you wipe off any mistakes.

11. Apply a final coat(s) of varnish to seal everything in.

12. Enjoy one turn (or deployment phase at least) of glory on the tabletop before a stiff breeze (or two twin-linked psybolt autocannons) explode your open-topped paper airplane!

I once had two Raiders, a Ravager and a Venom exploded in Turn One even though they all had Flickerfields and/or cover in a 1250pt game. It was those French dice again…

Glad the tutorial was helpful!

I got less done tonight than I had planned, got caught up playing Persona 3 instead of painting. I did get the other wing finished though. I'll wait until I have some more progress to put more pictures up. This wing looks just like the one I put up earlier. Just imagine it mirrored!

On an unrelated tangent, I've been getting some complementary PM's on my Mechanicus army that I put up about a year ago. PM's instead of comments since the thread has been locked. They made me regret not blogging that army as I built it. This way is much more fun and motivational. Good thing I got off my ass and started this Dark Eldar blog only four months or so in!

Cheers,
Jon

Tonight's progress. This is one step from completion (apart from the base), shows how things look before the rust is applied. I'm liking the scheme and I think I'll go ahead and get the rest of the squad started!

I've finished my first Scourge! These are probably my favorite GW models to date!

Again, thanks for the comments! I know how easy it is to just lurk or click away into another thread, I was doing it for years on Dakka. This thread and my previous Mechanicus army thread are sort of my way of giving something back to the community after just taking inspiration for so many years. Its still kind of weird (but also cool) to see some of my stuff on the first row of the first page of the Gallery when you search for "Dark Eldar" there though!

I got a bitz order in this weekend, got distracted by the new shinies inside and so didn't make any progress on the Scourges. Instead, I converted and mostly painted a test model for another squad I wanted to try out. I'll put up some photos next week. For a hint, let's just say I'm not too thrilled with the GW beasts models, neither the limited variation in the sculpts nor the price points.

To flamingwalnut if you find those aspects of the Dark Eldar compelling you might enjoy the Prince of Nothing series by R. Scott Bakker. Here's an excerpt that could be used to describe the fall of the Eldar, basically how some went insane as a result of living for millenia:


"their memories of mundane life fade first, leaving only archipelagos of spectacle and intensity, the confusion of a soul hanging without foundation. And how their redemptive memories gradually follow, stranding them more and more with disconnected episodes of torment and pain, until their life becomes a nightmare lived through mist, until all love and joy sink into oblivion, become things guessed at through the shadows cast by their destruction."

- The White Luck Warrior, R. Scott Bakker, 2011


Emo space elves indeed!

The background on this conversion is the Dark Eldar experimenting on Tyranids. The idea here is a Haemonculus is fascinated with Genestealers' ability to infect living creatures and is experimenting with it in a "safe" manner. i.e. After some early out of control infestations the Archon decided to ban infections on anything that:

a) Had an intelligence above a certain level, i.e. pretty much anything that was self-aware; and
b) Didn't have a "kill switch"and a strictly limited lifespan if the "kill switch"didn't work.

In this case the Haemonculi wrapped the muscles and nerves of an infected wolf-like creature around a metal skeleton. When they aren't fighting on the battlefield the bones are taken out and they're kept in nutrient vats. Even if they go berserk on the battlefield or in the arena, they don't have stomachs etc. and can't survive for too long outside the vats.





Admittedly kind of disgusting, but I had fun thinking it up! I deliberately made it look like a Khymerae so it would be clear what it was in game terms.

Great ideas! I don't have any Stealer arms right now, but I'll try to trade with some 'nid players down at the shop. I'll definitely be including a second pair of arms on some of the pack. The head isn't scratchbuilt the flat heads are just a flaw in the original Dire Wolf models. I cut down a Warrior head carapace and found that it fits pretty well!

I've also repainted part of the torso to make it look like the infection is slowly spreading into the skin and muscles. The bronze bones also weren't quite fitting in with the rest of the model so I repainted them in a more standard scheme. The model hangs together much better now! What do you guys think?

Glad to have won people over. Actually I had to win myself over too! Hearing people comment on what wasn't working helped me refine the concept. These are the first conversions I've done in a long time where I've tried to meld such easily identifiable bits. I find that the eye tends to pick out all the iconic parts and the mini just doesn't gel. I think I've just about managed to pull it off though!

Had some time after work this week and put together two more of the beasts! I'm running out of 'nid bits fast! I was going to stop at one and work on the Scourges but it's been raining everyday which has kept me from spraying stuff.

I'm planning on having at least eight of these Khymerae so there will be a bunch of different poses. That being said,I did rotate one of the arms on the "lower" Khymerae forward to match the outstretched paw.

Go right ahead and pinch! I'm not the first one to come up with the idea after all, found it on Google images! Although I think that the use of the Tyranid Warrior head crest is original.

Back to the Scourges! Got the basecoats done over the weekend. That was quicker than I expected. The lighting was a little wonky on these photos so the color is a bit off!

The one lucky Scourge who already has her wings is probably lording it over the others. The rest of the squad might have to "encourage" their Haemonculi to work a bit faster (I've got them undercoated already I swear!)

I drank what must have been an extremely over-caffeinated cup of tea today after lunch. Was feeling pretty productive at work. Managed to detail up two heads after dinner and then couldn't concentrate anymore!

Fatigue + caffeine = good for writing reports, bad for hobby?

ph34r, I wrote up a tutorial on the paint scheme on Page 3 of this thread. Hope it's useful! The blue is a Tamiya coral blue.