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Welcome

I've only just finished my first ever model today, and my fiance convinced me to make a blog on here tracking my progress on my army and a few other bits and pieces... And that's how this thread was made I guess.

For now I'll be just uploading progress photos of my army but I hope to be painting other models, both DE and others. (I've got a Dweller in the Dark still sitting in it's box, and some mandrakes.)

Painting List:

500 Point DE Army:

HQ:
Succubus (Lelith Hesperax Model) + Shardnet & Impaler, Haywire grenades

Troops:
7 Kabalite Warriors (2/7 Complete)
1 Kabalite Warrior w/ Dark Lance (Complete)
1 Kabalite Warrior w/ Blaster (Complete)
1 Sybarite w/ Venom Blade (Complete)

7 Wyches
1 Wych w/ Shardnet & Impaler
1 Wych w/ Hydra Gauntlets
1 Hekatrix w/ Venom Blade

Dedicated Transport:
1 Raider w/ Dark Lance, Night Shields

Fast Attack:
2 Reavers
1 Heat Lance
1 Arena Champion

Other Models:

40k Models
5 Mandrakes
5 Dark Angel Ravenwing Bikers

LOTR Models
Dweller In The Dark

I haven't got all the layers I wanted for this, so chances are I'll make little adjustments as I get the paints etc.

Any creative criticism is appreciated

Apologies in advance for the photo quality, my camera decided it didn't want to focus properly unless I had flash on.
Colours are slightly altered from the original model because of the flash.

Here's my first finished, painted and based model:

Very nice for your first model. Colours are in the right places, and highlights are neat. Basing is also well done. You must have a steady hand to be able to paint those eyebrows on, I still can't so lines that thin and I've been painting for a while now. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the squad and how you progress from here, especially once you get the rest of the paints you need

Only thing I'd say to improve on is to have the highlights coming from a more direct light instead of from each side.

Thanks

I did paint this guy with the intention of having the highlights present, I'm hoping to finish up some fluff for the army, which explains the armour. (basic idea is that the armour is newly made from a material that emits a shine of it's own.) Still need to think of a faction name though.

I'm a sucker for Ice/Snow/Cold themed armies

As a first miniature it looks great! Those eyebrows look cool. The eyes and teeth look good, but some of the highlights look as if the paint didn't flow that well. The leg ones for example, they look a bit rough and faded, something that happen to me when the paint just doesn't flow from the brush to the miniature. The Shoulder pad highlight on the other hand looks great.

Love the combination of colors on the weapon.

Finally, I think it looks a bit like it was a missing a shade. Did you use a shade on his armor and face? It makes a huge difference after all.

Overall, great looking first mini, keep up the great work!

I really like the colour scheme. Icy, like their hearts

 TheDraconicLord wrote:
I'm a sucker for Ice/Snow/Cold themed armies

As a first miniature it looks great! Those eyebrows look cool. The eyes and teeth look good, but some of the highlights look as if the paint didn't flow that well. The leg ones for example, they look a bit rough and faded, something that happen to me when the paint just doesn't flow from the brush to the miniature. The Shoulder pad highlight on the other hand looks great.

Love the combination of colors on the weapon.

Finally, I think it looks a bit like it was a missing a shade. Did you use a shade on his armor and face? It makes a huge difference after all.

Overall, great looking first mini, keep up the great work!

Yeah I had a bit of trouble with getting the highlights on, sometimes they went on fine (like on the shoulders) and other's, mainly the legs, I did do those first so I wasn't too sure what I was doing with them, didn't turn out so great. I was painting as we were putting the model together, so the blue isn't as even as it could be either.

Yeah I don't have any shades at the moment D:
I am looking to get some soon, I just haven't had the time to paint until recently so my paint collection is very sparse haha.
I've just been making do with mixing bases and layers for lighter colours most of the time. Hopefully getting a shade or two will help alot.

Falhurk wrote:
I really like the colour scheme. Icy, like their hearts

Thanks haha, yep, I'm mainly taking inspiration from Norse mythology, one of the nine worlds: Niflheim.

Well, since you are starting, I hope you don't mind if I give you a tutorial to read. From the Warp is a very good blog with lots of techniques and help for us. This one is about edge highlighting, something the Dark Eldar models really love with all those sharp angles.

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.pt/2011/08/basics-line-highlighting-made-simple.html

Search around, lots of good information out there. I'm subbing this, I want to see those Dark Eldar improving

 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Well, since you are starting, I hope you don't mind if I give you a tutorial to read. From the Warp is a very good blog with lots of techniques and help for us. This one is about edge highlighting, something the Dark Eldar models really love with all those sharp angles.

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.pt/2011/08/basics-line-highlighting-made-simple.html

Search around, lots of good information out there. I'm subbing this, I want to see those Dark Eldar improving

Thankyou for the link to the tutorial it helped a fair amount, and I feel that my highlighting is a little bit more cleaner now (though still in need to some improvements in places)
I painted a second model today, after reading the tutorial.

I've ordered some more paints, which should be here soon, including a shade.

The improvements are clear already Have you got any plans to do anything with the base of the middle one? I think it stick out a bit as it's sort of plain currently (I know you didn't do that one, it shows )

Thankyou
I might do, not sure yet as I'd rather not touch it, sentimental value etc.

Much better already on a first try! Your feeling is correct, the highlighting IS cleaner

Keep up the great work!

Vastly improved. Keep practicing it. If you highlight first with a mid-tone and then with a brighter tone, it may help you too!

great detail on the highlighting and the colour scheme works nicely with the snowy bases.

As a fellow Dark Eldar blogger, consider me subscribed

Keep up the good work!

Thanks guys
Sorry for the late replies and the lack of an update painting wise this time, been busy with work last two days.
Should have an update for you on Monday though, as that's when my first day off is
The paints I ordered arrived yesterday so I'll probably have a fiddle about with them on the test model ork we have lying about.
Having never used shades before I'm a little wary about just whacking it straight on a kabalite haha.
Also got some pink in and a few more purples so I should be able to highlight the cloths and start on my sybarite. (the banner's going to be black, purple, pink colour blend with silver detail outlined in icy blue if I can get my design finished for it.)

Falhurk wrote:
Vastly improved. Keep practicing it. If you highlight first with a mid-tone and then with a brighter tone, it may help you too!

I have been going base - layer 1, then highlighting with layer 2 and then the white. I'm not sure if that's what you meant, but I've been thinking the white looks too harsh in some places.
Would it be better to try and put even less white on or mix the layer 2 with the white and highlight with that colour instead and maybe dab on a tiny spec of white?

 Scoundrel13 wrote:
great detail on the highlighting and the colour scheme works nicely with the snowy bases.

As a fellow Dark Eldar blogger, consider me subscribed

Keep up the good work!

Thankyou
Checked out your blog quickly too, subbed, I really like the colours :3

 SilentEcho wrote:
Thanks guys
Sorry for the late replies and the lack of an update painting wise this time, been busy with work last two days.
Should have an update for you on Monday though, as that's when my first day off is
The paints I ordered arrived yesterday so I'll probably have a fiddle about with them on the test model ork we have lying about.
Having never used shades before I'm a little wary about just whacking it straight on a kabalite haha.
Also got some pink in and a few more purples so I should be able to highlight the cloths and start on my sybarite. (the banner's going to be black, purple, pink colour blend with silver detail outlined in icy blue if I can get my design finished for it.)

This is probably late, but if you don't want an overall shade, just apply it on the areas you want to create a shadow.

Also, show that design!

 TheDraconicLord wrote:

Also, show that design!

I live with her ad I haven't even seen the design xD Show us

j29reborn wrote:

 TheDraconicLord wrote:

Also, show that design!

I live with her ad I haven't even seen the design xD Show us

that's because the only design I have is in my head xD not made it onto paper yet.

 SilentEcho wrote:
that's because the only design I have is in my head xD not made it onto paper yet.

Any chance of seeing it on a piece of paper prior?

Just a quick update, finished another kabalite (This time a dark lance holder) using the new paints.
No pictures as my phone decided to run out of battery, and I still need to base him.
@TheDraconicLord you weren't too late haha, I used the shade in most of the recesses, and it does look alot better.

I'll be posting pictures of the finished model tomorrow aswell as a design for my sybarite's banner.
Sorry for the slow progress guys.

Great, looking forward to seeing the effect of the new paints. I'll be checking in tomorrow to see

Finally got the design finished. Had to fiddle about a bit with it to try and get the colours more accurate to how it looks irl.



And here's the other Kabalite.
He's very delicate, his DL arm has already fallen off D: highlighting him was a bit more difficult than the others for some reason. Just realised I didn't apply shade to his back pack or his helmet... Oops :c

Thinking about using an editing software to try and clean up the pictures a bit more as I can never get the lighting just right, so half the colours look off/ details can't be seen D:
Any ideas? Same thing happens using both my camera and my phone.

First of all: DAMN, that is one awesome banner. The whie doesn't look perfect in some places, a bit faded even, but wow, nice design and job!

This new Kabalite looks pretty good and you definitively getting the hang of it. Looks much better than the very first.

About the light, taking very good pictures is an art in itself and a topic that deserves some study. The best way to take photos is using a light box, something I don't know if you are using, but I'm guessing not.

Here's a read about the importance of a good setup for photography: http://cipher-studios.com/2009/09/photographing-miniatures-by-ryder-gaddis/

Several articles on dakkadakka aswell: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/categoryhotography and one in particular, improving the pictures using photoshop http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/How_to_prep_an_image_with_Photoshop

and here's how to make a light box inexpensive style: http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Inexpensive-Photography-Lightbox
another tutorial here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Creating_a_Cheap_Lightbox_and_taking_photos_with_an_iPhone_Camera

Corvus has some good looking backgrounds you can print to make the miniatures "Pop": http://corvusminiatures.blogspot.pt/2010/04/cloud-backdrops-for-your-miniature.html

Sorry for the massive amount of new information in a row Keep up the great work!

@TheDraconicLord

Thankyou :3 The reason why the 'White' (It's actually silver but lighting makes it look white D is so thin in places is because I used gel pen over the coloured pencils and it didn't quite agree haha. All the runes are from the Nordic Runic alphabet, and I used a combination of 3 to make the main symbol. The Wyches will be having a slightly different symbol and banner. Most of them mean something to do with either pain or destruction, which I thought fitted quite well.

I did take photography years ago (Did BTEC Art in college) but I've forgotten most of what I've learnt sadly.
I'll definately be giving those links a look through, though I think I'll try and get most of my sybarite complete first.
You're right, I don't have a lightbbox, something I've been looking into for ages for my drawing so the make your own link will definitely be of some use I feel
Don't worry about giving me lots of info at once, I enjoy reading through and learning new things!

Also as a side note I've edited the first post with a painting list, and hidden the first few images with spoiler tags as otherwise I felt the post was becoming too long.

Liking the design, can't wait to see it on the banner itself You should be able to do justice judging by the rest of your work. I like the new Kabalite, and can't wait to see the full squad when it's done. After you've got that first squad out the way you should find the rest come with ease

Looking good Echo, keep up the good work

In terms of photography, I think DL is giving good advice with the light box, and I too struggle to take photos which show the paint job on my models best.

Just a gameplay note, what are you planning to be the aim of this kabalite unit? Anti-tank with the Dark Lance?

And don't worry about the highlighting, I think the photo just isn't doing it justice.

@ Scoundrel Thankyou!
Yeah I had a quick look through the first link, and I've taken a couple of photos of my finished Sybarite, but made slight adjustments to how I've taken it and took to adjusting it in an image editor. It's looking alot cleaner and brighter now. But this is only a temp fix till I can grab some bits together (Badly in need of more desk lamps. Currently don't own any.)

Yeah, the Kabi's were intended to be an anti tank unit.


Anyway, here's the Sybarite, banner and all haha:

Ah this looks much better,perfectly in focus and we can see all the lovely details
The banner is incredibly detailed, I'm very jealous you must have a steady hand! Was there anything in particular that inspired you to use Nordic runes?

In any case they undoubtedly look good and work with DE.

Is that also a PURPLE power sword I spy? Sweet!!

@Scoundrel13
Yeah, I'm alot happier with these pics.
Sometimes I do, I just happened to post the pics showing the cleaner side of it, though the runes were smaller on the other side.
Partially a love for norse mythology (I've sort of based the planet my army's using as a base on one of the nine worlds, Niflheim, primordial world of ice and coldness.) and a series called The Forbidden Game. The author took Nilfheim and gave it a race of twisted evil creatures who used runes in their magic called the shadowmen. When I first saw the DE models I knew I wanted to base it off a mix of the two things. That and runes have always intrigued me haha. One day I will get round to writing some fluff for them. And giving them a name (Still haven't come up with one).

Not so much purple, it's actually leadbelcher with a few layers of Druchi Violet over it so it has a more metallic sheen irl.
And the reason for the colour is to match the vials, my sybarite has a venom blade, so I figured I'd do it so it represented the fact that some of their weapons are coated in poison.

Yep, that banner really kicks butt. Now that the flash isn't eating up all the details I see the runes are looking very good. Excellent!

Pictures are definantly looking a lot better now Show me how to do Can't wait until your armies finished so I can play against it, be an amazing sight to behold