Settling on a paint Scheme

[E_50_Panzer]

Hello BnC.  Before 7th Ed. died out, I grabbed a few Dark Eldar boxes. I had an idea in mind, but I stripped the figures I did complete because I felt like I could do better. So here's a picture of a Poisoned Tongue Kabalite Warrior I did up. I used drybrushing to achieve a soft highlight on the armor.

 

 

 

I think she looked fine and had a good combination of colors. But, well, I think it lacked something to make the model 'pop.' So I stripped them. After scrounging around the net and looking at a few artworks, such as this one:

http://img0.reactor.cc/pics/post/Warhammer-40000-%D1%84%D1%8D%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BC%D1%8B-Dark-Eldar-Kabalite-Warrior-1552328.jpeg

 

And this one:

 

I figured that I don't need to force myself into doing the tried and true high contrast highlights that DE typically have, since their armor is made of metal... which means it can be weathered. It's also good, because I'm much more comfortable with weathering than I am highlighting. Now of course, they are Eldar afterall, so I won't go crazy with powders or pigments like I would on IG. I might do very slight chips, some scratched off paint on shoulders and kneepads, and maybe some powder to dust up their feet. I want it to look like they have been raiding a world for a bit and have gotten dirty, but I don't want it to look like they came out from the bottom of the sea.

 

So with that out of the way, here are a few test subjects I've done so far

 

http://i.imgur.com/DChfahV.jpg

 

I apologize for the crappy pic, but I think the red one and the green one on the left came out best. While the grey/black ones in the middle and on the far right kind of failed. I'm on the fence with the blue one (4th from left to right). I don't think he looks as good as the red or green ones, but he keeps with the blue Poisoned Tongue scheme I did earlier.

 

And to anyone wondering, the look was done by basing all the armor plates in Leadbelcher and then doing two layers of shade. The second layer on some of these figs was from another shade color.

 

I'm going to fully do up a couple of test figures with each scheme. If those fail to excite me, I will try doing flat, dark colors, and weathering those, for a more 'standard' style.

 

So which ones do you guys like? Have any advice? Or am I going about this completely the wrong way? Any CC is welcome.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I like your idea of not doing the traditional edge highlighting thing along with weathering, but aside from the red one, it's difficult to tell much at all about the other 4 figures. In fact, I didn't realize they had been painted when I first glanced at the pic.

[E_50_Panzer]

Yeah, I'm going to paint a couple more a little more completely tonight. With an actual picture booth setup for them.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I do like the red one, but better pictures of the others will let us decide on the whole group of them. 

[Brother Aiwass]

The red one remembers me to the bretonian vampire count, the Red Duke; so the red one for me.

[E_50_Panzer]

Update with new pictures for y'all.

 

Remember the blue and blue-green guys from the OP? Here are two Warriors using the same color schemes, first up is the blue-green one:

 

http://i.imgur.com/DgjeitU.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/KxyiKjU.jpg

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/QcOMbLd.jpg

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/0HBZWyo.jpg

 

Now for the Dark Blue Warrior:

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/cpTdddo.jpg

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/EqsgVs9.jpg

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/j9PEXy9.jpg

 

And here is the two of them together for comparisons.

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/14J09zj.jpg

 

I really screwed up the eyes and the green tube on their shoulders, and the guns and equipment look rather poor/boring, but the focus here is the look of the armor and the body. I have to admit, I quite like how they both came out. The green one makes a nice 'generic' Dark Eldar, and the blue one makes for good 'night raider' of sorts. I'll have to add soft highlights to the black bodysuits, I wasn't able to just shade grey and get away with it. But I do think there may be a problem with these models losing contrast with the bodysuits.

 

While I do like both, I'm partial to the green one, it's dark but there's still a visible color from a distance, and it's a bit easier to see it contrast with the black bodysuit. What do you guys say? Also, I think it's a good time to think of different basings I should choose from.

 

Anyways, since you guys couldn't fully see the other metallic Eldar I did, here are better pictures.

 

Red/Purple

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/gDeylcq.jpg

 

Grey/Black

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/YTm2Xiv.jpg

 

And finally one with black. I also tried to do a gold on one side, but that looks like a despicable eyesore.

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/MwzilOn.jpg

 

 

The red one remembers me to the bretonian vampire count, the Red Duke; so the red one for me.

 

The red one was really powerful, but it's too bright for my tastes right now. I might use it on my Wyches, or if my army grows large enough, an Allied Kabal.  

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I think the blue-green one if the color was a bit brighter. Actually, what would you think about a color similar to the Sons of Horus green? I think that would look fantastic on the dark ones. 

[E_50_Panzer]

Sons of Horus green? I'll give it a shot, I think I can pull it off by basing the armor in a brighter metal.

[Draakur]

They're looking nice. I like the red/purple right now, but agree that a SoH type green could look brilliant if done right :)

[Calyptra]

I like the blue-green one, though I think it could benefit from deeper contrasts.

 

Regarding weathering and the True Kin, I have a theory about that which I keep meaning to use as the basis for a short piece of fiction. I don't think I've shared it before, so here it is (the theory, not the fiction).

 

The Dark Eldar are arguably both the most vain and most technologically advanced race in the galaxy. The also do not fight in protracted conflicts; when they want to leave, they simply leave. I think they have both the means and desire to ensure that they appear only and precisely how they wish. I don't think a Trueborn would be willing to walk around with his beautiful, hand-crafted warsuit marred by some pathetic mon'keigh "gun." I imagine that the surfaces of Dark Eldar warsuits utilize nanotech or crystaline matrices or gravitic fields or whatever to be both self-cleaning and self-repairing.

 

The fashions of Commorragh are always changing, but I imagine one of the trends that comes and goes is having weathered armor. It's like buying pre-ripped jeans. A Kabalite might intentionally allow her armor to become weathered in order to make it more fashionable, while a wealthy Archon could spend a lot to have her warsuit scraped, scratched, dented, and dirtied by the finest artisans in the most aesthetically pleasing manner. During the raid, her armor would automatically clean and repair itself in order to retain only the intentional weathering, so that the effect is not ruined by any primitive actual weathering.

[E_50_Panzer]

I myself have toyed with an idea similar to that. The True Kin have lots of stunning technology and the only time you'd see them with serious marks or scratches on their armor is when they want it to look so. It's all so fashionably ruined.

 

Also, I've almost finished Path of the Renegade, and Chambers did mention a few characters getting lots of little dents, chips, and rents in their armor after a protracted quest, which means the armor is generally not hard to mess up. So I may add very few selective marks and chips onto some of my troop's armor. Maybe even a very small amount of pigment to dust up their feet, depending on what basing I do.

 

Anyways, as Kage and Calyptra have both stated, I should do a Warrior with a brighter green or blue-Green, to increase contrast, and I will be adding different effects to the gear and weapons next time.

[MithrilForge]

i looked at em and i'd def go with the blue/green or SoH scheme , wyches in the red would = pure win 

having them dirty and grimy seem very appropriate i think !

 

cheers, Mithril

[E_50_Panzer]

i looked at em and i'd def go with the blue/green or SoH scheme , wyches in the red would = pure win 

having them dirty and grimy seem very appropriate i think !

 

cheers, Mithril

 

Dirty + Dark Eldar =  

 

Ok, seriously though, I have an SoH style green guy that I think you'll all enjoy.... unfortunately I really screwed up the 'lighting effects' (more like stains of red on the model), so I'll do another guy up the same way - with proper eyes and a more venomous looking splinter rifle.

 

I should also get a wych prepped for some deep red armor now that I think of it...

[E_50_Panzer]

Update!

 

I did a jade/emerald green as was requested. I didn't have time to finish him all the way, so I'm afraid only most of the base colors were applied. Anyways, take a look. I should also mention that my Ipad camera does make these colors tinted more blue than they really appear in person.

 

http://i.imgur.com/RP9jlDp.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/q0Hx8iw.jpg

 

Feel free to compare him to the blue-green one, I'm torn between that armor color or this one.

 

Edit: Yes, I did get leadbelcher all over my pasty white thumb.

Edited July 15, 2017 by E_50_Panzer

[Brother Aiwass]

Really nice! Now do red wyches :P

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I really like the look of that jade green. 

[E_50_Panzer]

Really nice! Now do red wyches :P

Of course, that will be today's objective! And if I am not mistaken, you are starting a Dark Eldar army too, are you not?

 

I really like the look of that jade green.

 

Thanks, now I need to get the rest of the model done, find out a good basing style, and weather it up a little.

 

I wonder if a lighter or darker basing would complement the model better, I think a darker one might, but if you guys have any suggestions please share them.

[Brother Aiwass]

 

Really nice! Now do red wyches

Of course, that will be today's objective! And if I am not mistaken, you are starting a Dark Eldar army too, are you not?

 

Yes, I am. Sort of xD

 

What I'm currently starting is a small army of thieves and murderers using the DE index as a base for rules, but since they are mostly (deranged) humans, they are in the WIP forum instead of this one. But please, post your wyches when they are done, I'd love to see them!

For the base, a desert or snowy theme would make them to pop more imho.

[E_50_Panzer]

Ah nice.

 

As for the base, I will try out a white desert sand theme, it's either going to work or, fail spectacularly.

[Brother Aiwass]

Seeing your work on the kabalite, it's going to work ;)

[E_50_Panzer]

Update with Wyches! But first, there was work done on the warrior. I drybrushed leadbelcher and runefang steel over the armor to add edge weathing and scratched paint. I also 'improved' the eyes and green poison parts.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Q2XWuIf.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/kqk0h2r.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/FlrXCBD.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/Ki77CST.jpg

 

 

Now there are two wyches, male and female. The female has a shade of purple over the red of the armor, and the male one is pure red shade. As for the skin, the female has red shading, and the male has blue.

 

http://i.imgur.com/RgSjHUZ.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/5EsN16H.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/mYse0Jp.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/7TReYvz.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/5mG5WWq.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/83NGV7t.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/82Su0f8.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/LG6g4UF.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/wetN9iS.jpg

 

 

Now for some group pictures, happy Dark Eldar group pictures

 

http://i.imgur.com/sfPB6gN.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/1F1L8Xv.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/ZyP5GO1.jpg

 

 

Of course everything is still a work in progress, but I can safely say that the warrior is 90% done. But I will be doing one more warrior in blue green with the same effects, I think the weathering might create some nice contrasts. I'm pretty torn on the wyches, I quite like both of them, armor and flesh, I can already see my endless pondering to be done about which style to choose.

[E_50_Panzer]

A new blue-green Warrior with a desert base for you all. I wonder if I went overboard with the desert scrub, but I actually quite like that base...

 

http://i.imgur.com/07khPig.jpg

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/HvYYtSu.jpg

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/a5zGow3.jpg

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/Zp8Ygtd.jpg

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/uLjtRDc.jpg

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/8D2Nu9J.jpg

 

As nice as I think that model looks, I think I'm discover a persistent issue in that the armor doesn't have that much contrast to it. So, I wonder if I want to just leave it and get this project painted sometime this decade, or keep striving for the ​​perfect paintjob. What do you guys think?

[Brother Aiwass]

The desert base and the grunt are very nice. The issue is that without a camera and proper light conditions (in the tabletop for example), it may look very dark and most of the details will be lost.

 

Maybe adding more green to the edges and raised parts, leaving the dark blue for crevices will increase the contrast?

[E_50_Panzer]

The desert base and the grunt are very nice. The issue is that without a camera and proper light conditions (in the tabletop for example), it may look very dark and most of the details will be lost.

 

Maybe adding more green to the edges and raised parts, leaving the dark blue for crevices will increase the contrast?

 

I think I could do a first shading of coelia greenshade, and then paint drakenhof or nuln oil only into the armor recesses. Right now I do both all over the armor to achieve the solid blue-green.

[E_50_Panzer]

Ok, a bit of an update I guess. I'm putting the Dark Eldar on hold, as I've ordered a few Forge World Clear paints. I did do a few Kabalites in the current schemes with an airbrush, but I find that the shade comes out too murkily for my liking. With any luck, I'll soon have an army with a nice, sharp, candy metallic theme.