Dark Eldar: Eventide Estates

[Symrivven]

Hello, and welcome to my project log.

I'm a long time Dark Eldar players, and as everyone knows by now, GW did an incredible job at their revision. So that leaves me with no other choice than to slowly replace all my old stuff with the new fantastic models.

Goals:
In the other two armies I'm currently working on I'm using mainly desaturated colours, in my old Dark Eldar and Craftworld Eldar I used mainly black and whites. So I want this army to be colourful (and yes, contrary to popular belief one can be colourful and utterly corrupted and evil at the same time). Furthermore there will inevitably be conversions. For example while I like the new miniature line a lot, I'm not to fond of the new raiders, so I'm going to retrofit my old raiders to make them fit the new range.

Background:
I think its good to have some background to an army especially for a serious project. It can give direction to conversions, is fun and makes it more unique. This is the outline, I'll probably add some more with each unit but I'll keep it limited as this log is mainly for the painting and conversions.

The Eventide Estates is a conglomerate consisting of three factions that are the remnant of the old noble house Eventide, which like many other houses that wanted to survive was forced to addopt the kabal structure.
Currently The composition of the Eventide Estates is as follows:

• Eventide Kabal
• Afterglow Academy of fine arts
• Duskworks

The Kabal functions mostly as any other Kabal, thus being the main political power of the estate and supplier of raw matterial and souls trough its realspace raids. An unsurprising high number of nobles from the old line found their way in positions of power in the kabal, though they have to tread careful lest they suffer Asdrubaels wrath.

The afterglow Academy of fine arts, is not surprisingly solely sponsored by the Eventide Kabal and its allies. It instructs its students in all fine arts deemed worthy. Encompassing the whole spectrum of arts ranging from dance to gladiatorial combat to architecture, painsymphony and anything in between.

Duskworks, these are the laboratories and industrial facilities tended to by the haemonculy. Turning raw materials in weapons, and souls into nourishment and so much more.


Units done:
HQ:

Lelith Hesperax
Prince/Archon Andrachos
Haemonculus Ma'li'tarch
Medusa
Sslyth I
Lhamaean

Elites:

Incubi
Mandrakes

Troops:

Warriors batch:1
Wyches

Transport:

Venom
Raider

Fast Attack:

Heavy Support:

Razorwing Fighter

If you like this you might like some of my other projects to:
Dark Elves and Vampire Counts
My cabinet of curiosities (random project log)

A tutorial on stereoscopic (3d) images of models.

Latest Unit:

[Symrivven]

The first unit will be warriors, I'll use them as true-born and warriors whenever I see fit, I just have to make sure I have enough of most options at the end of the day.

Group photo:


Individual warriors:










Just trying a new camera and the pictures are a bit paler than they should so I might re-upload new pics later. For now, let me know what you think.

[Sildani]

That's stupid good. Y'know, its plogs like these that make me despair ever painting my own Dark Eldar.

[ursvamp]

I really like how you manage to be colorful and glowing, while still maintaining a very "dusky" quality to the models. Nice contrast!

[Jedi152]

Love the subtle lighting effects!

[isifos]

I really like this color scheme, still dark but with enough light to make them pop.

[Spyral]

I can haz tutorial plz - because they look awesome!

[Symrivven]

@ Sildani: Thanks, Don't despair I know that feeling more or less, for a long time I wouldn't paint my characters or other cool models because I wanted to make sure that if I did paint they would be great. Of course I never got around painting them.

@ Ursvamp & Isifos: That was indeed what I was aiming for, It took me a lot of test models before I got what I wanted, colourful, exotic but not to happy/cheerful.

@ Jedi152: I'm glad you noticed. I was really doubting weather or not to do some lighting. On one hand it looks slightly better, on the other the time invested might not weight up to what's left of the effect when the models are on the table top.

@ Spyral: I don't have the time to make a full tutorial now (maybe later but don't hold your breath). I can give you a rundown of the colours I used. If you are familiar with feathering/blending and tinning your paints its all you need.

Recipe:

Basecoat and most crevasses: Black

Armour: Violet (V) 2-> Flat Red (V) 1-> Light Orange (V).

Energy/Poison: Hawk Turquoise (Gw) -> 1/2 Hawk Turquoise + 1/2 White ->Vile Green (Gw) -> 1/2 Vile Green + 1/2 White*.

Purple Gems: Base - Violet (V); Dark disc - Royal Purple (Vgc); Lower half moon - Blue Violet (V); Upper dot - white.

Black weapon parts: Black 2-> Ice Blue (Vgc).

Cloth etc: Black -> Black + Scorched brown (Gw) -> Scorched brown + Black + Dark Grey (V).

Metal: Boltgun Metal (Gw); Highlight - Chainmail metal (Gw); Wash - Black Shade** (V wash); Reapply metallic colours where necessary.

Yellow stuff: Medium Flesh Tone (V) -> Sunny Skin Tone (V) -> Golden Yellow (V).

Red grenades/cloth strips: Black -> Some Dark Red (Vgc)*** -> Flat Red (V).

Lighting: Very tinned down Hawk Turqoise (Gw) -> Very tinned down Vile Green (Gw).

Base sand: Black; Drybrush - Khaki; Drybrush - Stonewall Grey (V).

Base gravel/rocks: Black; Drybrush - Dark Grey (V); Drybrush - Stonewall Grey (V).


Explanation:

(V) Vallejo model color; (Vgc) Vallejo game color; (Gw) Citadel colour.
I tin all my paints (a lot) and add both a retardant and flow improver.

x-> Blend feather whatever you fancy from one colour to the other, x is the number of intermediate mixes I make but depending on your technique you might need more or less.

Metals and base are more rough than the rest, this is intentional.
I think that for all their technology, at the end of the day they just prefer to stab you with some crude cold iron.
As for the base, I want a big contrast between their exotic appearance and the rough dirty human worlds they invade.

* Skip the vile green and add an extra step with more white for "colder" looking parts like the back lights.
** Or make your own dark wash.
*** Cant read the name, its an old bottle

Good luck

[LuckyNo.5]

Looks amazing and a really nice tutorial!

[Shadow Reaper]

Truly beautiful work.

[Seville]

Amazing. Really nice work.

[Memnon]

AWESOME!

Seriously, top paint job- realistic, creative and striking. Golden Daemon entry stuff for sure!

Keep up the good work

Memnon

[Evilgnome]

Bloody great!

Nice combination of colours and workmanship.

[Power Hungry Monkey]

Beautiful paint job. Great choice of pallet and the lighting is fantastic. Very envious

[spekkiebig]

Those warriors look great. That's a very good colourscheme you've chosen.
So, what's up next?

[Symrivven]

It's good to see you all like it.

What's next? currently I'm working on a unit of wyches, and I'm awaiting parts for my raider conversion. After that I've got no idea, maybe some incubi. With 3 other armies I'm working on (so now and then), real life and my slow painting it might take a while.

[GodOfRandom]

Looks amazingawesomefantasticallycool, but that metal blade on the kabalite from the last photo looks strange.

[razormasticator]

Wow these are gorgeous... Nice work man. Love the Subtle colors.

[Symrivven]

Time for an update, the ladies and gentlemen from the afterglow academy.

I never play a battle without at least one wych squad so I'm glad I now have a fully painted unit of new models

I'll start with a minor conversion, the Hecatrix:

Front:


Back:


3d cross eyed (just cross your eyes till the images overlay, edit: How to watch cross eye stereoscopic images.)


Shardnet and impaler:


3d Shardnet and impaler:


Razorflails:


Continues next post.

[Symrivven]

Hydragauntlet:


Wych1 front:


Wych1 back:


Wych2:


Wych3:


Wych4:


Continues next post.