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Good Morning Dakka!

I've been on here for a few years now, mostly checking out the modeling and painting going on (I'm not much of a gamer of late) and I finally have decided to sit down and start a lil blog of my own. I'll admit to being caught by the allure of the +3 armor save for quite awhile but I've decided to go with something completely different, both as a color scheme and an army. Hopefully this will get my "hobby batteries" recharged and I'll have plenty of fun updates for you folks to yell helpful things at in the coming months.

Anywho, my idea for a dark eldar kabal has been awhile in the making. My local "meta" is pretty highly geared towards loyalist power armor, especially with the release of the new SM codex not long past. So I wanted something both fun and attractive to paint, as well as something completely different on the table on the rare occasions I do haul them out to play a game. I have been painting midnight blue and black for so long, I wanted something brighter and more eye-catchy. I also wanted something that didn't take me an age to paint on each individual. The days of spending eight hours on one Nightlord are, hopefully, behind me.

I'll get into my Kabal's little fluff bits after awhile, but for now, enough jibbajabba! Here's a test shot of my color scheme for perusal and helpful review.



And his flirty side. I'm thinking he might need one last light wash to tone down his bone white highlights just a tad.



Feel free to yell helpful stuff in abundance.

this is the colour scheme I wanted to go with my kabal but ended in grey lol dont ask how I managed that. Anyway looking good dude, look forward to seeing more!!

The color scheme is simple yet striking. I like it a lot.

Alright, time for some new squaddies!



Here's the Banner(wo)man for my first Sybarite. Still paging through the codex looking for a fun rune to try my free hand skills at. Maybe something from that gorgeous new dark elf army book?





And her other two sides. Yep, *plenty* of free real estate on that banner. Going to have to be something awesome there. Hmm, seems the purple wash I give all the metal didn't show up too hot in these. Oh well.



And the next splinter rifler.



Group shot!

@Darkmoon - Funny story, my dark eldar actually started out gray, since I thought that would be a good color for wraithbone. Unfortunately I couldn't get an "organic" feel to it, so I settled on a more traditional bone scheme instead. Do you have a log of your own? I've always wanted to see well done, gray Dark eldar!

@Scrazza - Thanks! Good to know, since that was what I was going for. I've spent a ton of time on individual models before, I wanted to see what I could produce giving myself a time limit (he took about 1hr 20min from base to final highlight) so I wasn't spending weeks on a single squad. I think he looks pretty good for tabletop+ quality ^_^

Alright folks, that's it for now. I need to come up with some interesting way to base them.

I've been going with a rubble/snow theme for my past armies (Warriors of Chaos and Nightlords) which looked great with dreary, dark armor. I'm afraid it'll be too much off white for a bone colored force though. Any ideas on making good black/grey ash wastes?

As always, thanks for looking!

Couple more squad members and a group shot.











Feel free to yell helpful stuff!

Hey mate, nice looking units you've got going. The paint scheme you've used is really striking. I'm not even quite sure what it is really. A silvery white? Maybe dark ivory? I dunno, but it looks good.

Great name too. Arterial Arc is very Dark Eldarish.


What else do you have lined up for them?

Thanks Snrub!

I was going for a "dirty bone" look. In my mind, eldar wraithbone is commonly depicted as a silvery off-white, dark eldar wraithbone would be a grimy-er version. It's actually Ushabti bone on top of dryad bark, washed with prodigious amounts of devlan mud.

In my current "painting pipeline" I've got 15 more of these guys, a succubus and 18 reaver jetbikes.

These look really nice, as with everyone else the word that springs to mind is "striking". Keep it up!

Evening guys!

Bit of an update for you all. Finished up a whole squad, including basing, and starting work on their transport. Also started building my lady archon. Let me know what you think!

Whole Squad!


A little closer







The Sybarite takes picturesque command! (I kinda just like this model ^_^ )



A couple of the new guys.



I'm really happy with how this topknot turned out.



And lastly, the Archon of the Kabal of the Arterial Arc. Still thinking of an awesome name for her. Suggestions are certainly welcome.



Normally outfitted with the dueling kit (shadow field, husk blade, soul trap, combat drugs) I've had some pretty impressive results with her so far. Along with her Haemy and Grot command squad, she has soul trapped a Wraithknight when she rolled a lucky +1 strength for her combat drugs. With something that cool, I had to build her a better model!

Here are a couple different angles:





And a close up. I was torn on the choice of head for quite some time. I was this (---) close to just using one of those flat mask wych heads that seem to be so popular, but went with this one last second. I love the lack of emotion besides a light sneer. Very dark eldary ^_^




Thanks for all the positive comments so far! Please feel free to make with some constructive criticism as well. It's the only way I'll ever get better.

That Archon is really spiff looking.

^^ Yes I love the Archon.

I do like a DE blog. I really have to get round to completing my army!

Also, I really like the basic colour scheme.

@RinkyDink & Snrub - Thanks for the positive feedback guys. I appreciate it. Anything you think can be done to improve the paintwork or conversions?

For today, no painting I'm afraid. I'm such a painting procrastinator! But, I *do* have a second HQ completed and ready for primer.

Meet my new liquifier haemy!











Hopefully that's enough good angle shots to give a decent idea of where she's at. I was shooting for a "fallen angel" sort of look, especially with the vestigial "wings" created by the mini talos arms. Hmm... she could probably use a little greenstuffing around the midsection to blend her upper and lower halves a bit better.

But, as you can see, she's still a WiP, so feel free to let loose with a few constructive suggestions!

Morning Folks!

Alright, hopefully this will be the last paint-less update for awhile. I've got a bit of free time today, so hopefully that means painting will happen.

So... Catty cheer-leader logic: "If one uggo friend makes me look better by comparison, four should make me Vogue cover material!"  

In that mindset, here are three of my four WiP grotesque bodyguards for my Lady Archon.

Scissorhand!



Liquifier!



Chainflail!



And the gross, from behind shots!








Let loose with some helpful suggestions! Not my first green-stuff attempt, but I'm still learning the basics.

I'm not super familiar with the current Dark Eldar fluff or their new units, so I don't know what a grotesque is or what it does on the tabletop, but your models do look suitably barbaric and monsterific so I reckon given me a pretty good idea of what their role is.

The 3rd one down (Chainflail?) really remind me of the blind slasher dudes from Resident Evil 4. I wouldn't worry none about the greenstuff on them either. I'm sure if you paint it up to look like flesh it will just look swollen and misshapen. Just like I'd imagine it would be on a creature like that, even more so if it's drug enhanced, like I suspect it is.


I'm not quite sure what to tell you about the haemonculous(?). I like the way you've gone with it, the whole fallen angel style healer turned torturer. Now it may just be the angle of the photos, but the head and torso look to big in comparison to the legs and also too well armoured. Maybe once you've GS'd the two halves it'll start to come together better.

Also that big saw sword looks a little... indelicate for someone of her craft. But that's neither here nor there really.

Thanks snrub! Grotesques are indeed pretty big and monsterrific. Kind of like eldar Frankenstein monsters, just more fighty with a poorer dispostion. They also give my haemy and archon a big majority toughness 5 meatshield between them and myriad bolters and plasma weapons. Plus the abberation (sgt equivalent) gets 6 attacks with a 2+ poison weapon... mmm...

Anywho, updates!

Hi again folks!
I'm a little pleased with myself, that I managed to stick to my word and keep the preceding post as my last "paintless" entry for awhile. I've currently got a second squad of kabalites, my archon and her haemy bodyguard primered and ready to lay down color on. I've also finished up converting those grotesques from above, and even gotten started building a coven themed raider to make sure my command squad stays punctual for various face slicing and world massacring appointments. In the meantime, however, my first dark eldar vehicle!



First time trying my bone technique on a large surface. Also first time trying my mirrored canopy idea.

I am still a bit shaky at highlighting vehicles, but I'm happy with how he turned out.

I know I've seen it a lot, so thanks to everyone who pioneered the underslung double splinter cannon before I got around to doing it!





Also tried my hand at a little dark eldar runic freehand. Came out more like an advertisement for a flower shop, but hey, I think it looks kinda cool.



And lastly a shot from behind.



Let me know what everyone thinks, and anything I can do to start improving the technique.

I like the colours - almost a metallic bone. Goes well with the blue banners/detailing.

Any plans on basing?