Kabal of the Esurient Blade - iPaint's Dark Eldar Blog

[iPaint]

Hey Warseer, the following will be my painting log for all things Dark Eldar. I've picked up a box of Kabalite Warriors and the new DE codex, and wanted to start a log of my progress as I test out some painting techniques for the new DE minis.

Cracking open the Kabalite Warriors box, I was amazed at the quality of the new sprues. GW's plastic sets are only getting better, and the detail and molding on this set is amazing. I only had to clean a few flash lines on the helmets and a few of the bare heads, as well as a few splinter rifles. Other than that, everything went from frame to mini without any clean up.

A few notes about the building process:

-The legs are 2 pieces, the legs and front groin are one piece, and the warrior's kit and backside are another. There are a few combination that will not work when you try and match up the 2 pieces. Not a biggie, but something they might have reconsidered.

-There are 2 torso backplates that have an oval crevice. These are for your Dark Lance/Splintercannon warrior's power pack and the Sybarite's upgrade stuff. Be aware that you need to set these torsos aside when assembling your squad as they are different from the others.

- There are 8 Splinter Rifle sets with matching arms, just enough to get you a min-maxed squad of 1 special weapon and 1 heavy weapon per 10 guys (per box in other words). There are also enough arms for pretty much any Sybarite config you might want (I didn't look too deeply into this, there may be some stuff that's not able to be WYSIWYG, but nothing some kit-bashing with Wytches can't fix. You did buy some Wytches, right? ).

- Arms may be tough to try and magnetize/pin, but with what I imagine will be a surge of bits sites breaking down these boxed sets, I would end up pinning these models at the waist to allow for extra versatility from your models. All you'd need are a few extra torsos since you can't use every weapon on the sprue in a legal squad anyway, so you'd just glue a head/arm set onto the torso and pin it to some legs, and voila, swappable weapons without the need to buy a full miniature.

Now, on to the juicy stuff. Chances are I will never actually own a DE army, but I wanted to help the community with some techniques I think may help as people start to assemble their new DE stuff. Keep an eye on a certain online auction site for the end results of these tests.

So, without further ado, here we go:

The full squad, 1 warrior armed with a Blaster and 1 armed with a Dark Lance:



Test Scheme 1:









This was a relatively no-brainer scheme, as I already had all the paints for the armor from my IG Tank turret viewports. The method was as follows:

Armor: Edged in Mechrite Red, 1st highlight with Blood Red, final highlight of Solar Mecahrius Orange.
Flesh Sash: Basecoat Elf Flesh, wash with Ogryn Flesh, wash again with Gryphonne Sepia, highlight raised areas with Elf Flesh again, final wash of Ogryn Flesh.
Eyes and Lightsource effect: Basecoat Goblin Green, highlight with 1:1 mix Goblin Green and Sunburst Yellow.
Splinter Rifle: Basecoat Codex Grey, wash with Badab Black. Chainmail with Mitrhil Silver highlights for silver parts. Shining Gold washed twice with Gryphonne Sepia and highlighted with Shining Gold again for gold parts.
Kit: Sword detail edged in Mithril Silver, handle painted Bleached Bone highlighted with Skull White. Metal bits drybrushed Chainmail then washed with Badab Black for metal parts. Pouch basecoated in Bleached Bone and washed twice with Devlan Mud.
Leg Sash: Basecoat Goblin Green, wash with Badab Black, highlight with Goblin Green again.
Bone: Basecoat Bleached Bone, highlight with Skull White.

The next scheme I want to try is gonna be something along the lines of an Orkhide > Snot Green > Goblin Green, and I may try out something with Hawk Turquoise as well.

~iPaint

[iPaint]

Here's the first painting tutorial, as promised.

This tutorial assumes that the model has been assembled and basecoated black.




Step 1: Edge armor plates in Mechrite Red. Basecoat the skin sash in Elf Flesh. Basecoat the Splinter Rifle, highlight the under-armor, and edge highlight the shoulder armor with Codex Grey. Basecoat the arm sash in Goblin Green.

Step 2: Edge highlight armor plates with Blood Red. Wash the skin sash with Ogryn Flesh. Wash the arm sash, under-armor, and Splinter Rifle with Badab Black.

Step 3: Edge highlight armor plates with Solar Macharius Orange. Wash the skin sash with Gryphonne Sepia. Highlight the arm sash with Goblin Green. Basecoat the Splinter Rifle's power supply with Shining Gold.




Step 4: Highlight the skin sash with elf flesh. Wash the Splinter Rifle's power supply with Gryphonne Sepia. Paint the eyes and highlight the armor edges just underneath the eyes with Goblin Green. Basecoat the ammo packs with Bleached Bone.

Step 5: Wash the skin sash with Ogryn Flesh. Wash the ammo packs with Devlan Mud. Wash the Splinter Rifle's power supply with Gryphonne Sepia again. Highlight the eyes and armor edges just underneath the eyes with a 1:1 mix of Goblin Green and Sunburst Yellow. Paint the wire on the model's left shoulder with Sunburst Yellow (2-3 light coats for a smooth finish is what I did since it's such a small piece to paint).

Step 6: Paint all metal areas with Chainmail. Highlight the Splinter Rifle's power supply with Shining Gold. Basecoat bone details and dagger handle with Bleached Bone and give it a quick highlight of Skull White. Once the Chainmail has dried, wash the 2 cylinders on the belt with Badab Black.

Seal the model and base as desired, and the model is ready to bolster the ranks of your growing Kabal.

Have fun and let me know how it works for you.

~iPaint

[Wise Guy Sam]

Really easy to follow guide I-paint. Awesome looking dasterdly eldar, can't wait to see more.

[kharandhil]

I suggest some brighter highlights on everything, both red or black (well dark color)
Birght highlights makes these models shine and they combine really well with the dark parts by forming a deep contrast.

[crandall87]

I am liking yout colour scheme a lot! Excellent work

[Void Reaper]

Thanks for the tutorial; I was thinking of doing something like this (with turquoise armor edging instead of red), but wasn't sure of its feasibility. They look very nice.

[OutOfContext]

Really nice colour scheme and tutorial
Althought I think a simple highlight on the black areas would make all the difference, as others suggested.

[cerealkiller195]

Love how the skin came out consider it stolen lol can't wait to see what else is in store

[Meriwether]

That skin looks great!

[iPaint]

1st 5 Warriors are done. Here's some pics:











Here's how I painted the flesh, since it's bound to come up.

Basecoat Dheneb Stone. Wash with Ogryn Flesh. Highlight with a 50:50 mix of Elf Flesh and Skull White, keeping the darker color in the recesses. Wash again with Ogryn Flesh. Highlight with the 50:50 mix of Elf Flesh and Skull White. Highlight the raised areas with thinned Skull White, almost a 1:2 or 1:3 mix of paint to water, and slowly just build up to a pure white on the highest areas.

I need to seal these guys with another round of gloss and dull coat and they'll be good to go. On to the last 5.

~iPaint

[Wise Guy Sam]

Thats such a sweet looking squad. Awesome work i-Paint. Looking forward to seeing how your other units turn out once the rest of your warriors are done. **2 thumbs up**

[iPaint]

New set of Warriors, this time with a new paint scheme.







Highlights are awful up close, but it looks great from 2-3 feet away (tabletop distance).

~iPaint

[Gloomwhisker]

Very, very nice stuff, iPaint, I definitely dig the colour scheme(s), particularly the one that uses red edging. Awesome stuff. Don't worry about the highlighting edges on the green Dark Eldar you've done either...it doesn't look at all that bad up close, and I can tell that they will look just awesome on the tabletop. Photographing always brings out all the little bumps and slightly off strokes that we, as humans, just can't help but make. I think they look stellar! Can't wait to see more!

Gloomwhisker

[D3V!L]

I like your warriors, nicely done!

But I like the green scheme much more. The black and red one is more or less total standard these days. And that is something that is allways bad, at least from my point of view.
If you like it, go with it.

Nevertheless...keep on the good work.

Greetings
Lukas

[iPaint]

Just a quick update. I bought a bottle of Jade Green and Grass Green from Reaper for the dark green paint scheme, and re-painted the armor highlights. The color is much better, and the paint covers a lot easier than the craft paints I used before.

I'll have pics up later this week of (hopefully) both finished squads, as tomorrow and Tuesday will be painting days.

~iPaint

[iPaint]

Back from the dead, this time with a third (and final) paint scheme. Bases and small details still need some work. They they'll be sealed when all that's finished.





New armor method:

Basecoat black primer
Tin Bitz
Hawk Turquoise on edges
Badab Black wash
Ice blue edge highlights
Watered down Hawk Turquoise to blend spots where the armor pops a bit too much.

That's it! Will be stripping and repainting my warriors to match here. They're currently soaking in some brake fluid.

~iPaint

[Albreck]

Nice one iPaint! I like how it turned out, and hoping to see the entire squad done. Any chance on receipt for the skintone, please?

[Earthbeard]

Honestly I prefer the red out of all three schemes, looks a lot more polished and menacing for me anyway.

[iPaint]

Nice one iPaint! I like how it turned out, and hoping to see the entire squad done. Any chance on receipt for the skintone, please?

Basecoat Dheneb Stone
Leviathan Purple wash
Dheneb Stone highlight
Skull White highlight
1:1 Water to Ogryn Flesh wash
Re-highlight with Skull White

I keep the paints slightly watered down for ease of flow and coverage. I think my white has seen better days though as it's starting to get chunky.

~iPaint

[iPaint]

Some WIP shots of a Raider and some Warriors. I modified the skin recipe posted above to:

Basecoat Dheneb Stone
Leviathan Purple wash
Dheneb Stone highlight
1:1 mix white and Dheneb Stone highlight
Watered down white highlight on extreme edges

It looks much more pasty white and fits better with the DE fluff of pale skin.





Pics were taken on my iPhone in dim light - when we get some sunshine outside I'll try and snap some better pics.

The army will be seeing some reinforcements soon, so keep an eye out for that.

~iPaint