I told myself "Paz, you are NOT gunna get into Dark eldar when they come out, no way, no how". I may have even put my foot down. Well... that lasted all of 18 seconds after seeing the new warrior plastics. I. was. Sold.

I picture the DE as baroque, ancient relics from a time of great empire, and great upheaval. I wanted to emphasis the royal, regal, but ultimately dark sense of forboding this race exudes.

i don't have a Kabal name, these are more of the utterly alien, inhuman baddies that reside, hidden, within man's worst fears.

I give you...

THE DEEPER WELL

+++++++++++++++++++
INQ. BY ORDER OF MOST HOLY MASTER...112.443265T.
REF. FILE 197.4A "THE GORZAC INCIDENT"
INQUIS EXTREMIS EXCRUSIUM CRUX.
"May our eyes see the truth, though our souls deny it"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
"the Eldar of 'the Deeper Well' (a massive corridor of navigable space that runs through the Perseid nebula), have stalked imperial shipping lanes for centuries. Striking out from massive bases hidden in Cyclopean structures that lace the nebula, these lithe aliens are the stuff of nightmares.
Deep within the folds of this mist shrouded maze, a small binary star system rests. Holding impossibly just within the gravity of a gas giant, a massive fortress broods ever upon the cusp of doom.
The colossal structure looms out of Gorzac III's storm clouds, loosing fleets of lithe raiding barges that strike quickly and without warning, smashing apart Imperial forces, and dragging the survivors back to their soaring minarets and the vast dungeons of the keep.
Linked within this behemoth is a huge webway portal that feeds supplies and materiel to Cammoragh, the ancient port city, and capital of the Empire resurgent."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



Just a bit of fluff I had floating around in the ol' noggin.

DE warrior test scheme







The two sybarites






this raider has been pimped out with extra sails and severed heads to show that this is the incubi hunting barge.



Finally, a harlequin troop master (visions of empire indeed!)





More to come...

Nicely painted warrior paz!


M.K

This is looking amazing, i especially like your gold on the warrior, keep it up. Consider me subscribed.

Hi

Nice stuff. I've managed to hold off so far but if the wracks, grotesques and scourge look as cool as the warriors I'll be splashing out.

I really like the colour scheme, its different and has a sinister quality to it. The pose of your female sybarite is spot on, I look forward to seeing her painted.

Thanks for sharing

Peter

Fantastic armour colour dude!!!! Mint.

Subscribed

I thought it was about time some Dark Eldar models started appearing.
Great way to start!

Gorgeous paint scheme. They really glow, but gravely, darkly. They definitely have a strong character to them. I'm looking forward to watching the army take shape.

Love that paint scheme, its not black!! or greeny blacky green!

Can you talk me through that first sybarites' base? Looks great! Have you added a bottom then removed the top? if you get me haha.

Citadel cutting mat , you are so rich >.<

He must be rich to buy new things!!

my armies come from forgotten bitz boxes or ebay.

Hotdamned, must be the best DE colour scheme I have ever seen.
Keep up the good work, this thread is going to be revisited a lot.

I have to agree, its the best new DE i've seen so far. I dont belive they always have to be blacky-green, blacky-blue, blacky-purple etc....

Love the bright yet still dark colors! Can't wait to see more

I like the color scheme you came up with. I started Dark eldar back with the old codex. I could never come up with a striking Kabal name either.

Thanks for all the comments gentlemen, much appreciated. Will def. keep me energized to work on this project.

As to the question on the bases. The hollow ones are regular bases with the tops chopped off, and a plasticard base glued to the bottom. They will be filled with water effects, to simulate a greenish goo. The tiles are actually pre-scoured plasticard.

Done some more work on the warrior, let me know what you think. Done some silver filigree on the armor, and worked on the rifle. For the rifle I was going for a wood and brass, archaic steampunk look, to go with the half techi-half barbarian warrior look DE have going for them.
The hair is white/grey, as I plan to have all the DE be albino's, as white skin I think would really play off the dark and macabre armor.

Here ya go








A couple of people were asking for a color guide to my yellowish armor, here ya go (colors were inspired by hellboy 2 general color aesthetics and the works of Brom)

base- scab red/snakebite leather/black
2nd coat-Ogryn flesh wash/ black wash
3rd coat- Snakebite leather/ scab red
4th- snakebite (i'm using less and less highlights as I work up to the points of armor and such, leaving areas for shadows to pool, and I always have a little of the previous color in the next mix)
5th-previous mix/tausept ochre
6th-Iyanden darksun
7th-sunburst yellow/ white (serious tiny highlights here)
8th- very important, I finish with a purple/flesh wash in the shadow highlights, to knock back some of the pervasive brown/yellow, bring the highlights out more.

Its a lot of trial and error though, eyeballing and getting just the mix I want, this was a very rough guide.

Sneak peek- the reason I got back into DE=



FROM THE SKIES THEY CAME!!!!!



More soon to come!

Outstanding! I love the color scheme!

Amazing work there. Colour scheme is to die for.

wow, super! these are honestly the first DE pictures that have ever tempted me to give them a go. Between your colour and the two sails I'm exceited to see what else you come up with.

Subscribed!

Wow, best colour scheme ever for dark eldar!

Can't wait for more!

Again, Fantastic.

Good honk (my redneck roots are showing with this exclamation, and I'm not happy about it), the yellow looks amazing, almost like the figure has been sculpted out of Amber.

_Tim?

Cant wait to see the hellions done! Those are going to be really cool lookin

I love that color scheme!
Makes me want to start DE....

Cant say Im as big of a fan of the Hellion models as you are though. They always looked so Green Goblin-esque to me. All they need it the silly Power Rangers maks
Though Im already seeing that your colorscheme migh be able to change my opinion on that.....

I really cant wait to see it on the bigger models, especially the new Raiders.

These models look awesome! Great painting.

Very, very nice (both the colours and the models).

Very envious.

Woah! That warrior looks amazing! Subscribed.

The finished warrior looks good, The red contrasts very nicely with the amber.

But what I really like is the colour scheme on the base. Please can you tell me how you did it?

I'm looking forward to seeing that Raider painted.... amber panels and red sails?

Thanks in advance

Peter

The deeper Well is a Gorgeous color scheme! It has both royal and conspiring qualities to it. I like to see people get away from the hardline punk-ish look that GW is soliciting and branch out in a totally new direction. Needless to say, you definately acheived that! You pulled the tones and blending off magnificently as well, it has an NMM feel to it. That is superlative work! The bases are also fantastic! Nothing but comments of admiration for your efforts! --please continue to post more pictures of your work

Great work! Excellent paint color scheme!

I love this thread! AND EVEN THOUGH I HATE DARK ELDAR! But I love the models =D

fantastic looking scheme. I can't wait to see this on the vehicles.

Also, i love the fact that you painted the rifle stock to look like wood, it really adds to the old and Baroque feeling you were talking about

back again! Played quite a few games with the new DE, lost or tied most. Taking me a little while to get used to this style of play, but the figs are to lovely to stop!

New fav. unit though, Court of the archon. Ran these boys a little while ago: whoo, very nice.



Thats right, agonizer and blaster archon, 2 slyths (modelled here as barghesi), 5 ur-ghuls, and 2 Medusae.

Archon



Hyper-violent Barghesi (counts-as slyth)



"whip-thin horrors, from the ziggurats of Shadom... quivering scent pits"= Ur-ghuls. Whats that, strength 5 on the charge? Yes please can I have another.



Medusae. Pretty lazy conversion, but I think it looks baller. Gotta love rolling 1's all the time for ap value! shoop de woop.

That court looks mighty fine dude!

This army is completely, utterly, impossibly gorgeous.

Congrats, you just convinced me to start dark eldar!

They are some pretty sweet aliens...ghouls are such a great source for conversion fodder.

The basing yet again is excellent. But the Archon's gets a

Peter

The slyth are definitly my favorite models that youve converted for the court

Hrm....thats hot?

I was under the impression that you must take one of each type available to the court as the unit compositions are always from 1 up. Is this true?

I love the the Slyth and the Ur-ghuls conversions. Really love them. Sick and twisted and just right.

loving what I see. Like the color scheme, now if only some more models were painted

Nice looking models, excellent colour scheme, I'll be watching.

paz i want your babies!

Thanks guys for the kind words!

I was just told on warseer as well, that you need one of each. Lame, as the lhamean is so crappy, but for ten points, meh. I'm in the midst of getting her built, just dropped one Ghul out of the court.

Also working on 10 mandrakes, will have em up hopefully tonight.

As far as painting, yeah! I really wanna knuckle down and get it done, but been rushing to convert and build 2000 pts of DE for the current escalation league we got running here in Snowy Saskatoon, Canada. Yay blizzard!

Oh yay, I am so looking forward to those mandrakes!

Beautiful models, shame about the in-game...

Wow... I REALLY like the scheme on your test model and your conversions so far are very unique and interesting. I will be watching.

Started work on the Haemi.




Mandrakes! Had to do a lot of cutting and bending, 3 different sculpts for 10 figs makes it difficult to have unique-ness.



Mandrake nightfiend. Love the idea that these creatures just appear out of your shadow, so this one will be doing just that, once its painted.






And a lhamean, since I'm forced to have one... stupid minimum 1 per court...

Wicked! Nice bending. The Mandrake coming out of the wall is great... thats showing some ingenuity.

As for the lhamean I'm a little disappointed, compared with the others in the court. Sorry. I'm not sure what I was expecting though. The gold shoulder pad is very nicely painted.

Peter

Yep, that 'drake coming out of the shadows is pretty darn cool.

small update! Paint IS coming, though with xmas busy work season and family, I've had little time! whine moan complain, I know, I'll get my butt in gear. To tide ya over, heres some silly reaver conversions!



cluster caltrops bike swooping in to deliver payload



This particular reaver pilot might not have 'balls', but she has brass proverbial kahunas the size of tahiti.



The arena champion likes to charge head long at an enemy, then veer at the last moment, leaving an exquisitely worked agonizer-spear quivering in the chest of his prey



And he brought collapsible spares!





This whole squad will be divergent from the rest of the army, using a tron orange glow effect (as these dudes have a striking resemblance to lighcycle riders)!

Paz....you really know how to pose your models.

The spear armed champion is my favourite....really nice idea.

The chick with the knives as you say has brass proverbial kahunas the size of tahiti and them some.

Look forward to seeing some more.

Peter

Dude, these guys are fantastic.

Man, now you're just feeding my temptation to grab some of these guys to add to my pile of stuff Good job.

Paz those DE are looking great!! I love the color scheme and it brings out the detail with out drowning it out with dark colors. Can't wait to see the rest of the army!

I love how you are having your mandrakes come out of the shadows.

I must say awesome dark eldar models, great work here

Wow! The colourscheme is really nice and the court superb!

/ Avach

*GASP* Me likey! Especially the painting! That, good sir, makes me LIKE DE...woohoo!

Wow, awesome blog for a start... From the sculpting, the conversion ideas, the poses, the painting, everything is just plain amazing!!!

I'll be following this...

Awesome start to the army best DE I have seen and I have been prompted to get some Hellions now to go with my Mandrakes and Incubi since they look awesome.
What did you use for the Medusae? Can't wait to see more painted.

That paint scheme is so different and well done. Good Work!

Hey Guys! Yep, I'm not dead, just beem really buys. I'd like to say I've been doing loads of painting, but that would be a lie...

Problem is, until recently, I was losing almost every game with the dark eldar. Made it kinda hard to get energized to play. Once I figured out the basis of a "win-able" dark eldar army (an ungodly number of dark lances), things have started looking up for the pointy eared space boogie-men!

here's some stuff I've been working on.


A raider (WIP)- I really wanted my vehicles to have a different color than the warrior armor, as I've seen how bright browns and yellows make the crew disappear. So, purple seemed a good Choice!







Still very much a work in progress, but I felt I was far enough along to glue in the crew. You'll notice a lot of handpainted scenes on the hull. All that blank space, I just had to use it! The murals are all images from Gustave Dore's Woodcut illustrations of 'Dante's Inferno' by Dante Alighieri. Very poignant for a race out of humanity's worst nightmare yes?





The crew's armor were all painted separately. I was rather pleased with myself in being able to reproduce the test model's armor on the crew, as it had been some time since I painted the tester.



Hopefully the effect I was going for came across. Still lots of little details to do, but its coming together nicely. Now if only GW would release some venoms, I want all those little skimmers zooming around the raiders like feeders around a shark!




Lastly, I've been trying to think of something that I can use for pain tokens. I know this is a bit sacrilegious, but Privateer press makes wonderful 'soul tokens' that look part for the "Power from Pain" tokens.




I promise I'll have more out, no more month long hiatus'!

I love the pain tokens, and the freehand on the vehicle is fantastic.

More please!

You sir should be in art school if you haven't/aren't already. Your colour schemes follow great colour theory and your free hand is stunning.

Incredible! Tour free hand is some of the best I have seen! Need more now!!

Looks amazing :-)

Gads that raider is amazing, no not amazing; the best vehicle i've ever seen! I now hate all my Dark Eldar, congratuations

Just incredible. Exquisite craftsmanship.

These are fantastic - it's so nice to see original ideas AND great modelling/poses AND well chosen colours AND smooth blending AND beautifully executed freehand work all in the same place. I am terribly terribly jealous. The freehand on the Raider is particularly nice.

The artwork on the hull is AMAZING!!

really good job

Are the sails going to stay plain orange, or will they have some artwork on them too??

Beautiful stuff. If I could paint like that, I'd start collecting DE right now.

Beautiful! I love the colour scheme. Keep up the awesome work!

Subscribed!

great painting skills here,i like the mandrake bleeding from the shadows looks awesome.

Damn. Just damn.

Your creativity is a joy to behold. The standard of painting, the free handing, the poses of the models the "outside the box" approach to coming out of a wall. What an interesting army you are going to have when it's done.

I tip my hat to you sir and am quite happy to wait for another month for another update such as this.

Great work on everything model poses paint schemes and paint jobs .

Pure. Utter. Creativity is what we have here, Dakkites! I love the freehand, and the choice of the purpleish gray for the skimmers body looks great with the amber colored Armour of the crew!

_Tim?

Awesome stuff....

Just out of interest Barghesi can play with DE?

Thanks gents for all the kind comments!

invention13- I'm half way through a BFA (bachelor of fine arts) right now, so yeah, I guess I qualify!

Doggles-

Willfrost- I was thinking screaming faces in the cloth, yeah?

Skylifter- practice bro, practice.

Taffiarti- hopefully it doesn't take that long

tim?- cheers. I had just finished a rather bland and tiresome Space wolf army commission (If I never paint another grey marine, I'll die happy), so when I began DE, I really wanted to lavish lots of time and attention on them.

Manoknok- Not rules wise, though I just assume slyth-th...th are same stats wise as a barghesi. The codex does mention them though, as fighting in the wych arenas I think?

Nice, I'm in my last year of a BDVA Check it out if you like, those artworks are from my first and second year... http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/The-Art-Of-Ashley-Grimm/172951672341


It's great hearing that other artists find the time to enjoy this hobby too.

That raider is absolutley awesome. The free hand is just stunnning

Fantastic work... from the painting and artwork to the ingenuity... i love the pain tokens and can't wait to see them painted up and the model coming out of the shadows... amazing. can't wait to see it fully painted.

Subscribed.

Screaming faces sounds cool

Awesome, beautfiul painting, conversion and basing!!

Ok, I've got a little more time now. I just wanted to say what incredible work this is. Those murals on the airship are amazing. How long have you been painting on this scale?

Love all the customisation, modelling and the painting.

Can't wait to see a unit finished painting with the water effects on the bases.

Cheers

I missed the WIP raider update

Very nice as standard with your work. The purple really contrasts nicely with the yellows. Nice use of free hand and a good idea with the subject matter. In the first picture of the raider the sail looks quite crimson, which I think works a little better that the orange. Still excellent stuff and I'm looking forward to seeing it finished...but what I really want to see is how you paint the mandrakes.



Peter

little bit of an update!

built a duke sliscus conversion, and wowee does the duke rock, esp. Against tyranids!



Was really unimpressed with how my archon looked compared to the rest of the hq figs I've done. I wanted the archon to look unique, like he had wargear no-one had seen before.





Also started work on the incubi!



And last but not least, lelith gets to take her place among the dark eldar elite of the deeper well!

whats that brown orange stuff that you use?

It's called brown stuff, a type of two part epoxy, like green stuff. A lot softer, almost like clay. Good for gap filling, i also like to mix with green stuff for details sculpting.

Beautiful work. I have been quite intrigued with the DE codex since its release. Looking at your models and painting sort of inspires me to start an army.

Mat

Lovely conversions. THe archon is freakin sweet. Except for his helmet. Sorry I dont really like that part of him. As for Sliscus he looks execellent

Great conversions

Look forward to seeing them painted

That Archonm is so AWESOME!!! Love the helm and you definitely achieved uniqueness (is that a word? ) there!

Will certainly have to steal the way you drop the basing below the rim of the base, pure genius!

Are those engines/turbines from the Valk kit, cos if so you must have a lot of modded Valks

Oooh... Those Incubi are very promising!

Also, the archon is a stroke of genius.

Thanks for the kind words gents!

Vitruvian- The turbines are from a drop pod. Those suckers come with 5 seperate ones for the bottom, but when do you ever see the bottom of a drop pod? So I end up with a bunch whenever a grab another drop pod.

I just love the paint job and colour scheme, very inspired work, they look gorgeous! i'll definitely be looking for updates on this one!

Little update, threw some color on these boys, wanted to see how they'd look.
For both the duke and the archon, I wanted to show in game that they have shadow fields generated by their respective helmets. So I did lighting effects! Still very newbish and scared of specular lighting, but live and learn I guess.

The Archon. I picture each spike giving off an eerie light when not generating the shadow field, like compound insect eyes.



The eldritch reaver corsair captain (i don't think sliscus hisself would fit with my evil cthonic DE feel, so a corsair captain works just fine)




Jack! Don't let go! I couldn't resist. The marine is a Lamenters assault marine I was practicing battle damage on.

Wow, they are freakin sweet.

The shadow field effect makes me happy, it looks really good especially on Duke Sliscus.

The Incubi colour scheme is also excellent and I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with it.

Peter

The shadow field effect is very cool. Also the archon and sliscus Look great now that the have some paint on them. Cant wait to see them finished

Your conversions are fantastic, and that freehand is awesome. Cannot wait to see this army unfold

Agreed, those blue/green hues are amazing...

That 'unique' Archon looks really wicked too, great!

I think this is my favorite Dark Eldar army thus far. I love the scheme. It's dark and brooding without actually being in dark colors. I'm especially fond of the helmet on the Archon, but I'm not sure how I feel about the blues and greens. I think blues and purples would be better.

Also, minor fluff nazi gripe, but the Bloodletter head on the Incubi Raider rubs me the wrong way since Daemons de-materialized after being killed.

Beasty.

Nice stuff.