The Kabal of the Crimson Woe, Part 2

I picked up the first batch of new miniatures for the Dark Eldar over the weekend, and sat down to figure out exactly what I wanted to build before I went about attacking the pile of boxes.

I have a common problem with my 40k armies, I tend to go all out and build thousands of points worth of models and then get discouraged when it comes time to paint "that huge pile of miniatures". To help alleviate this and to practice a little self-discipline I'm going to restrict myself to only building a few units, and then only build new units once I've managed to paint all the existing built units first. Of course, since I want to playtest the army I'll need to start off by building the compulsory HQ and two Troops choices, plus a smattering of other units to make a reasonable 1000-1500 point army. The remaining 2000+ points will remain in the boxes until I get that first batch done. That being the case I got out the ol' painting chart and made some decisions on how I'd start off.

A warrior squad, a squad of Wyches, a handful of Incubi and Reavers, and the various HQ models I'd picked up should give me a nice rounded starter army with which to run some test games. I took a little time to paint up a test model to get a feel for the color scheme I'd chosen and was reasonably pleased with the results. Not the best picture in the world, nor was it the best first test model I've ever done, but with a little refinement it should work out pretty well, I think!

 

I need to work on getting thinner lines around the edging, but that's mostly down to picking up some new finer-tipped brushes, and a steady hand. For the main armor plates I started off with a Dark Flesh liner, with a Red Gore and Blood Red highlight on the upper edges. After that I hit all the armor with a Baal Red wash which toned down the highlights and gave the black sections of the armor a slight reddish tint which worked out quite well (though it's a bit blown out with the while background). The flayed skin is Vomit Brown with an Ogryn Flesh wash, then highlighted back up a bit with more Vomit Brown, and the various weapons and details were picked out in Shining Gold and Boltgun Metal, then given a wash to knock down the shine a little. I also finally replaced the aeons-old bottle of MicroSol that I had and picked up a bottle of MicroSet while I was at it and used one of the transfers from the Raider kit on his back banner. I'm going to go back and re-do the stone on the base a little, I'm not 100% pleased with how it turned out. Other than adding a little static grass however, it's pretty much complete.

I think the Dark Eldar are going to be interesting to paint, as the style and methods I'll be using vary quite a bit from how I do my Guard (or the Orks for that matter). It's always good to try new things, and I'm eagerly trying to apply some of the lessons that Ron is providing over at FTW!