Dark Eldar of the Frogotten Realms Persussian

[constant_ones]

I figured I couldn't post images of my Dark Eldar in my Imperial Log... well more than I already have done, so time to start an Xenos log

I always thought the Dark Eldar were such horrible miniatures back when I played 40k, (2nd/3rd?) but I liked that they weren't simply the doomed race, who coincidentally should consider running away more often if they that much of a greying population.

So when the new Dark Eldar came out, I was blown away by the quality of the minis, knew immediately I must have a few. So I picked up a box of the jet bikes, figuring I would get the painting bug out of my system with something fun and easy. To no avail, these minis are just so great to paint, so much detail squeezed onto such tiny things.

I also decided to push my basing skills here by incorporating several new things, resin bits (started this process with my Blood Angels), seasonal colors, thematic hues (ie I painted everything fairly darkly to represent these guys attacking at night fall or at night), and water effects. I used Enviortex Lite, which is a bit of a hazard to your lungs, and was a huge pain to mix. Now I use Woodland scenic, which is no fun to have to repour 10 times, but sure beats the trouble of Enviortex.

These guys and ladies were definitely some of my favorite models to date and it was really great taking up close shots of them.

First an army shot, excuse the horrible lighting, my work lamp broke, but I got creative and made an ad hoc light box for the close ups.

[constant_ones]

Next up, the boss, or la jefa


Lots and lots of layering

[constant_ones]

Wyches

[Inquisitor Engel]

Very nice! I love the "drow" skin jobs on them. Very unique for Dark Eldar and makes them stand out absolutely. Your colours are interestingly muted, but still pop. Very impressed. I look forward to seeing more.

[constant_ones]

Thank you Engel, I enjoyed looking at your eldar quite some time ago, sorry I didn't leave a comment back then, I don't think I had ever really logged into warseer back then, as I had forgotten my password

The two special wyches:


Man I love how these turned out.

And extra bases, built for a beasts pack, but I found them cost prohibitive


Oh and by the way, these empty bases are my girlfriends favorite model in my entire collection, something I find very funny "you mean you don't think the model I basically sculpted from scratch using careful research of proportions in cool? No, you like the empty base better still ".

[constant_ones]

So when I took these photos I realized I never finished my warrior's eyes!
Bummer. I was working on these guys when I had my injury and the mess really have messed with my ability to keep everything straight.





I think Ryan asked for a tutorial on the basing:
1st, drill some holes with your pin vice where you want the water to be, then using your knife and clippers remove the layer of base, this is probably the hardest part, but with practice you get good at not a.) cutting up your fingers and b.) not breaking the rest of the base
2nd, cut roughly the shape of the base out of thin plasticard and then glue that to the bottom of the base, once it's dry it is easy to file down any rough edges (because cutting little circles out with scissors is hard!)
3rd, put down your major elements, this is normally any significant ruins or rocks. Then create the transition points to the new bottom of your base with green stuff, I used a 2 clayshapper, tapered point, since you could get very nice and realistic mud looks with it quite easily.
4th, texture the base, I use a mix of tea, coffee, sand, modeling turf, and cork. Then paint everything, I worked from a black base, just working different highlights into the different aspects of the bases. Also you need to dull coat after this stage since you can dull coat the water effects, makes them filmy, might be a good idea if you wanted to do smooth ice, but I really like the ice method I use on my space wolves, which is borrowed from another warseer fellow, whom I can't remember his name to give him his credit, sorry!
5th, water effects, like I said in the first post, I highly recommend using a single catalyst resin, unless you are good with casting/mixing chemicals, this step reminded me of the horrible 6hour 1 unit chem labs in college.
6th, add the foliage and grass, I used static clumps and birch seeds dyed with fall colors.
7th, add your mini, finished!

[constant_ones]

These guys are actually the real reason I caved in a did some dark eldar, well them and the jet bikes.... And the raiders. Man such great minis. Loved detailing these, but I didn't put the riders on them, makes them look a bit bulky but the raider does have crew.

[constant_ones]

Raider:


And it's base

[h_x]

Love the dried leaf effect looks sick. Goes really well with the yellow colour scheme and small hints of purple.

Just had an idea that would make really cool bases, UV LEDs shining down from the model with UV reactive paints or even resin dosed with straight fabric whitener. You can get 10 that are tiny and include batteries at dealextreme for $5 with free worldwide postage. Little flick switch on them and they're quite bright. Ill have to try this if I get modelling again.

[constant_ones]

Thanks for th comment h_x, I agree, doing something with uv sensitive paint would be very interesting, only problem I could see would be consistency issues, I'd think most uv paints would be fairly thick, which might prove to be a problem for minis. I use some craft paints for my painting but I also mix them with thinners or other additives until I can get their consistency correct.



These 6 riders were actually what really got me inspired to paint these guys, lovely sculpts, we can only hope the craft world version is not too far off in the future.

So that's pretty much it for the de, I decided if I find someone who would really like to play with these guys, I'd be willing to let them go, so I put them up on eBay, but if anyone is interested, I'd prefer to work out an arrangement here on warseer, like I did with my BA, so send me a pm.