Wednesday, November 10, 2010

How do you paint Dark Eldar?


I was thinking of something really simple and easy, but looks nice.  Definitely something table-top ready but nothing too competition like.  I just to be presented nicely on the table and to say I have a fully painted army.  I'm used to bright, awesome looking Grey Knights.. so this is pretty alien to me.

So here's what I was thinking:

1. GW Primer Black
2. Drybrush Liche Purple
3. Wash with Badab Black on the dark shaded areas
4. Highlight those surface edges with Liche Purple

I'm trying for a sinister looking, dark army with hints of purple.  Does anyone have experience doing such things?

What about that Leviathan Purple wash from GW.  Is that any good?

10 comments:

Dethtron said...

if you're looking to avoid line highlighting, that sounds like a good recipe for a quick paint job. I did something similar a while back with raven wing. black-drybrush codex grey- wash the whole thing with black ink.

you'll get a little different effect from the badad black, but washing the whole model will help tone down the stark contrast that your drybrushing gives you. actually though, you may want to go a shade lighter than the liche purple now that I think about it. that way it'll show up under you wash better.

well this certainly wasn't helpful, was it?...

Minijunkie said...

I was grappling with a color scheme when I got my new models. At the last minute I decided not to do the official green edged GW scheme. I ended up really liking the purple variants in the codex (like on the corespur biker). But once I picked that I found it is harder to pull off than I expected.

Basically I found lich purple is too translucent and doesn't show up well as a line highlite on black primer. So Im using lich purple with a bunch of warlock purple in it and a bit of hormagaunt purple to make it all more opaque. However that's still a very dark highlite. So as the second sharper highlite I had to figure something else out. What I settled on is P3 murderous magenta. It's a nice, bright and striking highlite. Final tips/edges are fortress grey with a tiny bit of the magenta.

I *might* do a leviathan wash to pull it together, not sure yet. I'm finding these dark eldar are beautiful models, but also very detailed and take longer to paint properly than anything else I've painted in a long time. No pics yet but my first warrior batch is nearly done.

Sorrowshard said...

Not had much trouble with dark or purple for me usual Eldar , buried in my blog somewhere , Doing mine in deep blood coloured armour with pale skin and dark hair for the clone troops and white hair for the true born an nobility , hope to have a test model up this weekend.

http://rant1nem1n0r.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-08-30T02%3A07%3A00%2B01%3A00&max-results=7

Heres some stuff from when I forced myself to paint, happy to try and help offer advice.

Von said...

I've done an Undead army in a range of Sinister Purples before, and I would definitely say 'go a shade lighter than Liche Purple' - it's a great colour but it has a nasty habit of flattening out under a wash. Minijunkie's given better advice on technique than I ever could, so I'll just refer you back up there instead of wittering on in imitation.

Anonymous said...

The first liche purple drybrush could have trouble to hold on and create any significant effect after the black wash. Maybe not drybrush it, but simply paint it on? Or use foundation hormagount purple instead. You can also try leviathan purple wash - it is dark enow.

Minijunkie said...

Here's my fist unit finally done. I think I'm maybe gonna go heavier on wyches simply because I think I can paint them faster! The warriors are gorgeous but need a ton of edge highliting.

http://minijunkie.viviti.com/files/images/DEKabaliteWarriors.jpg

Ahrimaneus said...

Minijunkie, what did you use for the "flesh colored" tabards and such? I'm looking to go a similar route for the tabards etc. with my DE and haven't the faintest idea how to do so.

Also, the pale skin? How'd you do that it looks nice

Minijunkie said...

Mostly followed the painting guides in White Dwarf. Tabards are tallarn, a purple/flesh wash, highlites by adding rotting flesh. Pale skin is 50/50 tallarn and space wolf grey, highlighted by adding white progressively.

Anonymous said...

If the purple you want to use doesn't show up against black, you could try a light drybrush with white over the black, then a heavier drybrush of purple.

Anonymous said...

I like to highlight liche purple, then a little rotting flesh, and if you want it to pop some skull white

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