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It's such a beautiful, coherent and dynamic looking army. Really this kind of blogs make dakka such a joy.

I love the scourges and the vehicles the most.

I can't emphasize how cool it is to be shown so much appreciation for my minis! It's extremely motivating.

Here's a couple photos of the army as it looks on display down at my local store, Atlier Fun, here in Hong Kong. Stop by if you're in the city! I wonder if I've got enough Dark Lances to take care of all those superheavies...





The long awaited picture of the undersides of my vehicles. Shame nobody ever sees them since they suck up a surprising amount of painting time!



I finally gave in and bought a new camera. I'm extremely impressed by how far the technology has come in 6 years. Makes taking photos so much easier.

It's been a long time since I checked out this blog. The whole army is fantastic!!!!

Your gona have to hanf you tanks from the roof, so everybody can see the awesome underside

You have a display case??! Woof! I have some "gorilla racks"... basically shop shelves.

Everything looks beautiful Jon. Very impressive. Should be in a nice case where people can enjoy them.

Hey guess what Jon I am in hong kong right now, I was already thinking about going to atelier fun. How far away is it from Langham place mongkok, which is in shanghai street?

@Techguard: Fun Atlier's website seems to be down for a server upgrade so here's the address, 2nd Floor, Bayfield Building, 99 Hennessy Road, Wanchai. Here's a link to a map:
http://www.funatelier.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=569&FID=3&PR=3
You can get there from Langham Place in Mongkok in about half an hour if you take the MTR (subway, including walking time) so you're actually reasonably close.

@Gitsplitta: That isn't my display case, it's the local shops!

Not the usual DE scheme, but it sure does look awesome. Excellent weathering and battle damage.

simply stunning.

after long long break from 40k, ive watched tons of pictures over last few days, still i was undecided what army to restart with.
ur DE army, good sir jon, is a true inspiration !

also big thanks to ur helpful tutorials on how you achieved various effects.
my first deed as new archon will be: steal and copy all the goodies you provided and combine it with a personal note.

last but not least, prolly not archon like: give credits to "turqoise 'tastic" scheme founder mech jon.

ps.: ordered already that turq primer

Had an unexpected day off work due to an unusually strong typhoon. The track was way south of us but we still got hit by some high speed wind gusts. The take away: having a painting day wins over having a work day!

The beast pack is coming along nicely, already looking quite gribbly. They're all at least basecoated now, with a few washes and details already applied. Now comes the fun bit of making the muscles look nice and gory. I just got my Forgeworld order in of flying Rippers to use as Razorwing flocks. Beautiful models. Can't wait to get them painted up.

Those beasts look great, though I'm looking forward to the winged rippers. How do you plan to paint them?

I didn't think that the typhoon was all that bad, Melbourne weather is worse almost every day in winter. I had a look at your army whilst I was in hong kong and by god it is amazing. I mean they look beautiful in person, after seeing them it makes me want to do more with my own painting. Thanks Jon for putting them on display, really was a amazing.

Just got home from a trip to Beijing! Saw some incredible sights but didn't have time to stop by any hobby shops like I usually like to do. I was staying with some relatives at Tsinghua University which has a stunningly beautiful campus but is too big to get around (and in or out of) convieniently without a bicycle.

Back to hobby comments now:

@clash0r: Great to hear I've given you some forward momentum for the hobby! I actually went out two weeks ago to buy a few more cans of the Turquoise spray so I don't have to worry about them dicontinuing the color before I finish!

@prime12357: I'm going to try either red wings with the pattern I've used on my Raider sails or turquoise wings to match the rest of my army. I'll sort of develop the rest of the scheme around one of those once I decide.

@Tech Guard: It's surprising cool to hear that my Dark Eldar became sort of a tourist destination in Hong Kong (at least for 1 person). Take any photos?

I couldn't take any photos, I was saving the battery for the national day fire works. Unfortunatly I left my camera charger back in australia so I couldn't charge the battery. It worked out well to stop by because I was on my way back from the peak. There seemed to be a painting comp on when I was there, did you enter?

Finished painting the actual beasts themselves, just need to do the bases now. I'll be starting on the flying Ripper Swarm "Razorwing Flocks"and the Beastmasters themselves next.



@Tech Guard: I did enter the painting competition but wasn't lucky enough to win anything. While I had hoped for a decent chance, I wasn't really expecting to win because, as slowly as I paint, my goal is to paint enough models to make an army to regularly play games with. There's a whole extra level of detail and polish that goes into painting smaller groups of models for a painting comp.

They look great mate, really looking for forward to the rippers and beastmasters. Are you planning on converting the BM's masks to be similar to the faces of the rippers?

Loving the shiny muscles and gore on those beasts


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Just looking back up at that display cabinet, it's nuts to think how much all of those miniatures cost, I can see £1200 in titan and thunderhawks alone!

I like them more than the GW models! Price wise they are smarter too, great job.

Three quick things:

1. Congrats on earning a spot in the display case at the FLGS. You invested a lot in that army and it shows.
2. The beasts are great and they represent what I love about 40k, namely, the possibility of great kit-bashes a.k.a. conversions.
3. Looking at your Hellions, did you paint the rider and the board separately or did you glue the riders on first?

Keep up the inspiring work.

I know it sounds like an odd question, but what are you going to do once you have finished the DE?
Also which model was it that you entered in the comp?

Mechanicum Jon
Wan Chai, Hong Kong, 1985

Dry Gardens, 2011
Sand, Milliput and Plastic: approx. 4 x 1 cm

With Dry Gardens Mechanicum Jon once again invites us to contemplate both imperfection and limitation.
We know there are 15 stones, yet in this imperfect world we do not see them all.
The viewer is free to rearrange the groups of stones.

Wouldn't it be easier to get, you know, real rocks?

Bases are just about ready to go!



@kitch102: That's a great idea for the Beastmasters' masks. I don't have any spare rippers but I do have some spare 'Stealer and Tyranid Warrior faces. I'll try to shave them down to see how they look.

@Dark_Gear: I paint the riders and boards separately. In fact, I've found that painting the upper and lower halves separately makes painting some of the copper parts easier. I love conversions too. But after doing a near 100% converted Mechanicus Guard army it was kind of refreshing to work on a straight up painting project. Although obviously I couldn't entirely resist the urge to convert either.

@Tech Guard: I honestly have no idea what I'll do after the Dark Eldar. There's still probably a year's worth of painting to do within the Dark Eldar range of models! I entered the Reavers and the Venom on the advice of the shop into the competition.

@whalemusic360: Real rocks might be easier but I couldn't find any of suitable shape and size for basing around Hong Kong. Also, the fact that the Milliput can be easily shaped (by breaking bits off) makes it easy to fit the "rocks" to the base size and adapt the base to a model's pose. Finally, the bases are also still really light so I don't generally worry about the mini flying off the base if I drop it.

Really nice bases and your entire army is just amazing. Also congrats on getting it into your local FLGs.

Nurgle seems to have taken an interest in me today. Just a minor head cold for now since I seem to be passing my Toughness tests.

These Winged Rippers are going to be used as counts as Razorwing Flocks. Gorgeous models. Quite a challenge to put together though since there are so many small breakable resin bits involved.



I also made good progress on the Khymerae bases and intend to post pictures of the completed models tomorrow! Unless I'm afflicted with something else during the night...

@Farty Wiffmas: Thanks for the comment! My FLGS said that anecdotal comments from customers suggest that I've increased their sales of Dark Eldar.

The rippers look nice. It must be interesting to hear that you're increasing sales. You should ask for a commission

So, those of you who have been following this conversion project on this blog will know that I was having some trouble getting these to look right. Your suggestions and constructive criticism really helped me to pull this unit together through several iterations. But enough talk, time for the wildlife photos!

First, two photos taken among the beasts:





Big photo from above, Wilde-beast stampede style:



The "magazine" cover shot:



Finally, the end you'd want to be facing you on the battlefield!

I applaud your effort on these Jon. I know you've struggled with them but the final result is well worth while.

Agreed. All the effort has really paid off. They look great together as a unit, and should contrast really well with the rest of the army. The exposed muscle is a nice touch.

I Love this scheme the colors and all. GREAT work The Kymeraes are beautiful, great idea fluff-wise. I especailly like those glowing green eyes

Amazing...your first Khymarae were, I admit kind of iffy, given the outstandingness of your other models...now they are definitely the best I've seen, and that includes my friends (and he's pretty awesome too). Very nice.

Great looking army. Awesome minis getting awesome paint job.

The contrast between the bright turquoise base color and the dirty weathering and chippings is really nice.