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Hey guys,

The new schemes which came out with the Dark Eldar lead me to try to give extreme highlighting black with a different colour for a different look. Unfortunately, my attempts seem to be missing something.

This is what I have so far. I was trying for this effect with blue on the mount, and with purple on the hair.





I'm looking for something more similar to this:



Any hints, tips or other bits of wisdom to try to get this looking right?

Well, on the example there, I think it looks to be 'missing something' because you haven't really hard-edge highlighted it. Try on a model with sharper edges, and make sure you highlight up to a bright enough tone.

Popsicle: Thanks for the help, but this is the model I'd like this effect to go on. I'm not sure how painting a sharper edged model will help? The above model is highlighting up to Enchanted Blue. Next highlights would be Ice Blue/Enchanted Blue mixes, up to Ice Blue.

I have always thought your painting was perfect, on the beast may be a few spots of colors to break up the dark color.The eyes could be a bright color, and neck ridges could use some highlight.

my suggestion would be to completely darken the recessed areas on the mount, ie: in between those crests on the back of its neck, where the thigh meets the hip, and around the undercurves of the face and beak. The highlight doesn't look as effective because there's not the same level of contrast. The legs on that dark eldar model are totally, glossy black. As someone else said, the choice of model makes it difficult to get the desired effect because it is so smooth, so perhaps really focusing your highlights in a few key sharp areas on the tip of the beak, the raised area around the eyes, the ridges on the neck, and the point of the tail might help.

Try covering the mount with a blue wash, then do a reasonable drybrush using the base colour, add another blue wash, do a thick(ish) highlight in the base colour, then using that old brush that's knocking around with only about 3 bristles left on it, do an extreme highlight of a brighter colour, possibly ice blue on the neck spines, eyelids and the sinews on the legs and feet.

The blue washes will darken the whole model down, while the drybrushing and highlighting will add a bit more depth and colour to the model. Although to really make it 'pop' off the tabletop, try doing just a few areas (Claws etc) in a bright contrasting colour, like yellow or orange.

LordWynne wrote:I have always thought your painting was perfect, on the beast may be a few spots of colors to break up the dark color.The eyes could be a bright color, and neck ridges could use some highlight.

Since this is my first almost finished model, I'm a little confused on the first point. The eyes will be glowing blue, this is mostly a work in progress, and the crest does need extra highlights, yes.

hemingway wrote:my suggestion would be to completely darken the recessed areas on the mount, ie: in between those crests on the back of its neck, where the thigh meets the hip, and around the undercurves of the face and beak. The highlight doesn't look as effective because there's not the same level of contrast. The legs on that dark eldar model are totally, glossy black. As someone else said, the choice of model makes it difficult to get the desired effect because it is so smooth, so perhaps really focusing your highlights in a few key sharp areas on the tip of the beak, the raised area around the eyes, the ridges on the neck, and the point of the tail might help.

Thanks, this sounds like really good advice. I'll tighten up my areas of non-black colour to include everything bar the highlights (the rest was Necron Abyss with some black washes) and then highlight them further up to Ice Blue from there. Thanks again.

The_Happy_Pig wrote:Try covering the mount with a blue wash, then do a reasonable drybrush using the base colour, add another blue wash, do a thick(ish) highlight in the base colour, then using that old brush that's knocking around with only about 3 bristles left on it, do an extreme highlight of a brighter colour, possibly ice blue on the neck spines, eyelids and the sinews on the legs and feet. The blue washes will darken the whole model down, while the drybrushing and highlighting will add a bit more depth and colour to the model. Although to really make it 'pop' off the tabletop, try doing just a few areas (Claws etc) in a bright contrasting colour, like yellow or orange.

I doubt washing a black base with blue is going to help, somehow. Most of the model has been left black, though the skin on the top half has had a coat of Necron Abyss and some black washes done to it. The crest is getting extra highlighted (Space Wolves Grey rather than Ice Blue I believe), with the lightning pattern it currently sports being made to pop out. Will probably also darken the bottom and between the ridges to define them better. If I wanted a blue mount, I'd use your advice, however I want a black mount with blue highlights that doesn't look blue, therein lies my conundrum. The Dark Eldar managed it handily, as I noted in my first post. My orange contrast is on the base in the form of a rusted girder, as the daemons' fluff doesn't suit such sunny colours.

Oops, my mistake! The light in the photo and my knackered monitor make the model look more blue than black.

I get black with subtle highlights by painting dark grey, black wash, highlight with the base clour, black wash, thinner highlight and then the extreme highlight. The black wash makes the base grey so dark it may as well be black and the repeated highlights create a subtle gradient to the extreme highlight.

Have you looked at this? http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?pageMode=multi&categoryId=1100020&pIndex=2&aId=14700022&start=3 but replacing the greys with what you think are equivalent blues.

Alas, that will give a blue mount, it's what I tried originally. If I completely fail to be able to do proper extreme highlights, I may have to simply do this and give up on being flashy .

Thanks to everyone who gave me a hand in this thread, you've been super-helpful and I know what I need to do next. Especially to hemingway, for putting his finger on the problem.

It may just be the photography, but I couldn't tell that anything was done to the hair...

I like the blue on the mount, but like you said, it's not the effect you were going for. I'd definitely suggest going back with some black to separate your highlighted areas, then doing more extreme highlights in a lighter blue. Even without hard edges to guide your placement of the extreme highlights (which will doubtlessly make the effect harder to achieve), you'll get closer by restricting the blue to more limited areas. The Dark Eldar effect emulates tinted glossy reflections on the edges, not a general blueish hue, which is what you currently have. Besides, hard highlights don't need to be restricted to sharp edges - they can also be used to manufacture hard edges where only a sharp curve existed.