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Hey all,

I'm thinking of starting a Dark Elf army in the autumn, and was testing out a scheme. A friend was kind enough to give me 4 of his Dark Elf models for free, so I've had the opportunity to test it out on them. As a result of confusing myself with colour theory, I've tried to create a contrast between orange and blue colours. The orange comes from the skin tone (sepia wash helping here), the brass and even a subtle (i.e. invisible!) orange drybrush on the base. The blue, meanwhile, is hopefully brought forth from the white cloth, blue-black hair, and the silver weapons which are treated with blue wash. It is all a bit heavy-handed right now - I would certainly experiment with alternative styles of painting the weapons on the next test - but in theory I have done what I intended. I didn't really enjoy painting the Dark Elf Spearelf, it must be said, but the Witch Elf is a lovely sculpt.

Opinions are very gratefully sought!

They both look very nice. Only thing i could suggest is maybe a little weathering(either from the elements or previous battle worn)

Thanks for the feedback! I can see that the helmet and the shield have space for weathering. But I'm not sure what colours I could do that in? Just random specks of dirt? That would look pretty decent on the white cloth, but there isn't a huge amount of space to work with there I fear. I was wondering whether the spearelf's arms would look better if I had more grey and less white on them...

I wouldn't weather them. IMHO.

I like the crisp white that you have there as it is different than the dark blues and purple that most people do their dark elves in. There is something a bit more sinister about it when combined with your choice for the armor.

Good Job!

I'm thinking of going for an Indian theme. The Witch King exiled a bunch of Dark Elves to Ind, they spent a millenium carving out a small state there on the coast and raiding the rest of the continent, and now they've been recalled to fight in the Old World. I'll be painting Hindi characters onto the banners, and probably painting cold ones and dragons in a dull orange scheme to help work with the brass armour. They all picked up suntans in Ind, hence why they are darker skinned than usual.

I tried painting this Witch Elf in more Indian skin colours. I struggled very hard to find the right colours, but I think that it actually came out acceptable in the end. However, it just doesn't look good next to the brass, so I'm going to stick to the original colours. Because of the failure in the skin, I've not finished off her eyes. The eyes on the Executioner were also a bit of a failure; in future I'll need to do them first, rather than leaving them til the end and then being unable to do any justice to them.



I decided to add gold to the executioner's armour, which works well with the brass, although it attracts the eye more than I perhaps wanted. I also tried a blue glaze on his sword, which I think I'll not do again; the end effect isn't really what I want.


The plume of hair turned out to be quite difficult to do. The white looks ok, but no more; perhaps it needs another stronger highlight, or even a thinned-out sepia wash to separate out the strands some more.


This is the WIP Sorceress. The skin needs its final highlights, before I start bringing up the white cloth and putting highlights onto the metal and hair. It is a lovely model, and I'm hoping that I can do justice to the hair; so far I've just done Black+Mordian blue, then highlighted with Shadow Grey. Perhaps it might need just a tiny hint of Space Wolves Grey on her hair.



These last two are group photos of the completed models so far. I switched to dead grass, which doesn't draw the eye as much as the green grass on the left does.


Again, opinions are welcome. The white is proving to be something that looks a bit better in person than in the photos, although perhaps I am being overly generous to myself. I'm also a bit unsure over whether the white hair bobbles is the right approach; it might be that I need to not use Ceramite White on them, and instead a couple coats of White Scar.

These look really good Charles. We were talking about colour theory the other night and I think you've done a really good job of applying it. I don't believe I knowingly adhere to it very much, but like I was saying, it can be tricky (maybe not so much in design but definitely in miniature painting) to get complimentary colours at opposite sides of the wheel to actually appear complimentary and not garish. A blue and orange elf would be garish.

The way you've done it though really works, and suits my tastes. The models are understated, clean and naturally coloured but the subtleness of the blues and oranges really work together. I think you could even afford to lighten the skin up a bit (on No. 1, if you were going this way). Just to make it a bit more elvie, but it'd still be orange enough to work with the blue/white cloth work. I love the white cloth by the way. You could make the blue shading on the cloth a bit darker but when you're blending up to white over such a small area I know it can be difficult.

I like the dark skin on the witch elf, technically it's done very well. Just don't think there's enough contrast between skin and armour. If you were going for an Indian look, check this out.



This was the mini that Ian Morton posted on fb and gave me my haqq skin tone (though I kept mine a touch darker). You can see it looks almost green and lightens into orange. It looks lovely with the blue dress (white/blue would look equally as good) and, while looking sorta indian, is light enough that it would contrast well with the dark armour and hair.

Regards the blue wash on the metal. I'd stick with it because there is a way to make it work. Unfortunately I don't know it. My metals are a real weak part my game. But it can look great. Love the blue in the hair and SW grey is a great way to highlight it. VMC wolf grey is one of my favourite pots.

But that's my t'pence. Sorry for waffling a bit. Overall I, think you're way on the right track. The witch elf (No.1) is pretty much bang on as it is. If you aren't totally happy with the skin tone, experiment a bit yet til you are. This army is gonna look great though. Ticks all my boxes in terms of paint scheme; subtle, earthy colours, very limited palette, contrast without shock, no big bright pinks, purples, yellows. And very very well excecuted. You're tackling a lot that I'm not great with, skin, metals, cloth, leather, etc. Just WFB I suppose.