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.

Hey, Dakkaites,

I wonder if anyone knows of, or could upload, a Tutorial on How to Paint Dark Eldar? I've been googling my socks off, only to find a few Tutorials which, frankly, are below the level I want to achieve. I don't really want to be Hard-Edge Highlighting everything, since - with all their Layered Armoured Plating and Spikey Bits, they have so many Hard Edges - but rather, if anyone can figure something out with Washes that looks good... you've got my attention.

Cheers,

Martin

+ Edit + I don't have a specific Colour Scheme in mind, so I'm open to any Tutorials that are out there, but if I were made to choose, I'd say Dark Green or Dark Red, as shown below.


Dark Red


Dark Green

Those dudes are done with layers and hard edge highlighting. Due to the nature of the model, hard edge highlighting is unavoidable if you want them to look like that..

I appreciate those exact examples were done with extensive Highlighting, that was just to give an example of the Colour Scheme. Ideally, I'd be looking for a similar Scheme Effect achievable by Washing instead.

I know hard edge highlighting isn't that popular among most people who are good at painting, but I really like how they look. I think it works anyway.

What really scares me are the tribal-looking designs painted on some of the armor plates, that looks like a nightmare to try and paint.

I wouldn't say I'm good at painting; Hard-Edge Highlighting is quite daunting for me, since I don't have a steady hand, nor do I have much confidence in myself. Washes are much more forgiving, therefore.

I'd imagine that if you wanted to do those guys with washes you would need to do it in at least 2 stages - the upper body plates all face downwards, so you would need to hold the figure upside down to get the wash to run to the base of the plates.

The lower body plates all face upwards, so you need to have them the correct way up in order to pool the wash at the base of the plates.

I would imagine that a white base coat then either a red or green wash (with the model held the appropriate way up), then a darker wash (but more watered down) followed by a black wash (more heavily watered still) might work...

You may also have to quickly drybrush the edges with the base coat colour to keep them sharp between washes.

This is my lazy, off the top of my head Wash Yourself A Dark Eldar Army painting technique. Would have to try it out before I could say if it would work well or not

Use the side of the brush when hard lighting, the current DE are sharp enough that it works and the new ones look even sharper.

If you dont like hard-lining, then it makes it a bit harder.

Washes - Its possible, but would be a bit of a pain (infact, possibly more than lining)
I'd try silvers idea on this one since i dont use washes too often.

I would have thought it is very possible to do via drybrushing too.
simply paint it black, give it a medium drybrush of DA green (or 50/50 mech. red and chaos black), then continue to drybrush with lighter greens / red as you go, making the drybrush slightly lighter each time (so you dont cover too much of the dark areas)