Dark Eldar WIP

Here's some work-in-progress shots of my friend's Dark Eldar that we've been grinding away on over the last couple months.  Just about everything still needs some basic work before it can be called finished, but the whole army is coming along quite nicely and at a rather fast pace.  We've been getting together most Sundays and spending the day painting away.  Some basic techniques for the colors are included after each picture.  Once they're finished I'll get some less washed out photos posted.  The black background makes for a cool look, but all the light colors and metallics end up getting washed out.

The warriors are some of the closest to being completed with just some gold detailing and a few tassels left.  The red armour was painting by sponging on a layer of red gore and then a line of blood red on the upper edge.  A very quick and dirty method designed to provide some instant shading and ensure the army could be completed rapidly.

 The Mandrakes I'm having a wonderful time working on.  It's really such a horrible shame that they aren't more powerful on the tabletop.  The weapons are just black primer at this stage, but will hopefully be finished up this weekend.  I'm still uncertain what I'm going to do with the skin tones on these guys.  I like the look of the matte black of just the primer as it looks somewhat like they are absorbing light.  I could go in and darken it with some chaos black in the recesses, but I think it might actually take away from the models.  The flesh clothing was painted with two coats of Tallarn Flesh, washed with Ogryn Flesh, and the highlighted with Elf Flesh.  This is currently my preferred method for doing basic skin tones.  I'll probably go over how the rest of these models were done in a later post.

Here's the Archon.  He still needs a few details straightened out and tassels on his helmet and dagger painted.  The cloak was paint with Chaos Black and then highlighted with Necron Abyss mixed with Chaos Black.  This was followed with a straight layer of Necron Abyss and then a couple layers of Necron Abyss mixed with more and more Dheneb Stone.  I'm rather unhappy with the pyramid thingy in his hand and may redo that before too long.  It should really go from light at the base to dark at the top instead of dark to light.

These are probably some of the closest to finished models in the army.  They still need a few details picked out but are nearly ready for sealing.  The green detailing on the weapons was painted with a layer of Snot Green followed by a highlight of Scorpion Green and then a few spots picked out with Skull White.  The bases for the entire army were done with a mix of beach sand and small bits of slate.  This was primed black and drybrushed with Codex Grey and Fortress Grey.

The blank faced helmets were painted with a layer of Chaos Black and then coated with gloss varnish to make them look like glass.  A very simple technique that creates a rather stunning effect.  I'll need to redo it once they're sealed but that's okay.

There's a whole lot more to the army that I'll try to get photographed eventually.  Thanks for looking.