# Painting Advice Needed: Dark Eldar



## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

I've been assembling the foundations of my army and now that its time to paint them I am unsure of just what I need to do in order to make my Dark Eldar look good. I know what kind of colour I want, see the link below, but I am unsure as to how to make it, what kind of paints will I need, and what is the best way to paint models like these.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod900151a

I am considering ordering some Vallejo paints from Wayland Games but I don't know which bundle would be the best, or if I should get some paint brushes along with them. Can anyone help me resolve this conundrum?


Lord of the Night


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## KhainiteAssassin (Mar 18, 2009)

so you want black heart scheme?

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/c...ex=5&aId=12400033a&multiPageMode=true&start=6

if it does not load properly go to the last page of that article


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

KhainiteAssassin said:


> so you want black heart scheme?
> 
> http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/c...ex=5&aId=12400033a&multiPageMode=true&start=6
> 
> if it does not load properly go to the last page of that article


I see, now that I'm actually reading what I need to do it seems more difficult for a first timer.

Would the Kabal of the Dark Mirror scheme, or perhaps the Poisoned Tongue, be easier for a new painter?


Lord of the Night


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## KhainiteAssassin (Mar 18, 2009)

I would say you should more aim for an easy scheme with no mixes. DE are notorious for needing 'thin' highlights though, see my DE as an example.

my DE have 0 mixes, save for my Archon.

To paint a good colourscheme for DE, I would, ultimately, get 3 colours.

chaos black if you want the black carapace, or the DARK colour to use as the base

a DARK to Medium colour of your choosing, to act as a medium.

and the colour you want your highlights to be, medium to bright in colour.

Base in the first, thick highlight the second, and thin highlight the third, and it comes out amazingly, once again, see my DE


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

KhainiteAssassin said:


> I would say you should more aim for an easy scheme with no mixes. DE are notorious for needing 'thin' highlights though, see my DE as an example.
> 
> my DE have 0 mixes, save for my Archon.
> 
> ...


Right now i've only got the following colors,

Calthan Brown
Iyanden Darksun
Knarloc Green
Tallarn Flesh
Mechrite Red
Undercoat Black
Skull White
Mordian Blue
Chainmail

I'll have to order a bunch of paints from Wayland once I order the rest of my army, and some more paint brushes. Just got a few questions about painting.

1. After I spraypaint the units do I need to give them a second coat of paint from a brush, or is the spray paint sufficient for the base color? Right now I have 5 Incubi, 5 Mandrakes, 1 Archon, 10 Warriors and 3 Reaver Jetbikes, all are spraypainted black except for a single reaver that I have been practicing on. Other then that I don't want to paint them until i'm ready to do so.

2. How do I make highlights like the ones you have on that Raider Khainite? Its really good. And also, is this the right kind of brush to make highlights for DE models?

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat470016a&prodId=prod20022a

3. How many coats of paint are ideal on a single piece? Say I'm painting a gun barrel, how many coats of paint would it take for it to be of good quality?

One thing that I don't need is advice on how to paint skin, none of my units have any exposed skin (all helmets :grin except for my Mandrakes and I just need to highlight their tattoos if i'm not mistaken, I could be though. But none of my Kabal go into battle without full armor, they look much more badass with helmets then faces :biggrin:.


Lord of the Night


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## KhainiteAssassin (Mar 18, 2009)

my highlights on my raider are the style i mentioned above. a thick highlight, done with a 'detail' brush, not a 'fine detail' then a thin one done with a .5 MM.

I use a .5 mm "size 0" paint brush thats not from GW, so cant help on if its good enough, but i think the fine details a .8

If you are using BLACK as your base colour, aslong as you have ALL of it covered, it should be fine, i would get some of the harder to reach spots with a touch up on chaos black in any case. If you are using any other colour as your BASE colour, IE: I use orkhide shade for my armor, then you need to cover it first.

If you want to mimic my colours aswell, i use for the 'armor' Orkhide Shade, snot green, and Scorpion Green. all three coming together almost perfect harmony.


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## MetalHandkerchief (Aug 3, 2009)

I should stress that the metal effects are what you should really study. It may not be hard to do once you get the hang of it, but choosing the first metal base is crucial in sequential drybrushing - and you'll need a small brush. When it comes to Vallejo, here is the list translating all the Citadel paints into their much cheaper, (oftenmost) much better Vallejo Game Colours. http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=31571
If you have no previous experience with Vallejo, I'd say you should get the metals out of the Vallejo Model Color range, not the Game Color range. Just remember to add some (small amount) of water. If you're a TOTAL newbie, go with Citadel metallics. Their Brazen Brass and Polished Gold are better than their Vallejo equivalents if you don't blend perfectly.


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

I was thinking of getting the ENTIRE citadel paint range, Wayland Games has it for £134. Seems like a good deal, plus i'd get the paint brushes to go with it. Then i'll be able to begin painting my army. What do you guys think?

Also a quick question. The article below says that, for example, I must basecoat the hull of a Raider with [insert colour here]. Does that mean that I must spray paint it with said colour or just make it black at the start with the spray paint and then paint over it with said new colour?

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/c...ex=0&aId=12400034a&start=1&multiPageMode=true

One other question. I have started painting a Mandrake, just the skin robe which is fairly simple, however I am encountering difficulties when attempting to paint the tattoo markings on their bodies. I lack the appropriate brush to do so, or at least I think I do, and they are extremely small markings. Has anyone here found an easier way to paint Mandrakes?


Lord of the Night


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## Shadowbadger (Jan 2, 2011)

Regarding the paint set (http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/Games-Workshop/Hobby-items/Paints/Wayland-Paint-Pack/prod_2448.html) I cannot see where it includes brushes. It looks to be the same prices as just buying all the paints 1 by 1 on Weyland albeit without having to add them 1 by 1 to the basket. Since Weyland postage is quite cheap (and they run free P&P vouchers from time to tome, sign up to the newsletter to get those) I would (and do) just buy them as needed, getting like 5-10 at once.

I will leave the raider question to someone more experienced in vehicle painting. Although you do not have to do it in any particular way since there is more than one way to skin a Catachan (although some give more pain tokens than others), some ways will be easier/faster or more suited to what you want.

For the Mandrake tattoo. I find free hand work quite difficult as well although if you are using a fine detail citadel brush for it then you may struggle more (its name is misleading in some ways). I recently switched from GW brushes when mine needed replacing, went with Windsor Newton Series 7 Miniature as suggested by someone (forget who) on here. Even the larger ones I find keep a better point and allow fine works like edging highlights. You get them in sizes right down to 000 which is much smaller than GW fine detail. The 00 could work for the tattoos as well though and with the larger brushes you get more paint on them, work faster etc etc. Again a more experienced painting member may be able to answer this, my point is smaller brushes do exists.

As I say I am not a hugely experienced painter, my answers more come from my own recent experiences getting back into the hobby after a lengthy hiatus.


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Hmm those brushes sound interesting, I don't suppose you have a link to where I could have a look at them Shadowbadger?


Lord of the Night


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Decided on a paint scheme.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/c...ex=2&aId=12400033a&start=3&multiPageMode=true

Would the Kabal of the Dark Mirror be a hard paint scheme to use? It doesn't seem very tricky from what I see on the guide.


Lord of the Night


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## KhainiteAssassin (Mar 18, 2009)

na thats as easy as necrons.

Base in black, give it your base coat of metallic, give it a few washes to darken it, pick out the extra sections with either brown or tin bitz, highlight extra sections with a shining gold and highlight the armor with the colour you based it.

trust me, they make it sound alot harder then it is, Ill give you this piece of advice, DONT RUSH, and if you want to make your models look amazing, dont glue the arms on till your done painting, using a minimal amount of super glue (i use this on even plastics, yes)


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## fatmantis (Jun 26, 2009)

have alook at this guys de, he does amazing work and a mazing tutorials


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

fatmantis said:


> have alook at this guys de, he does amazing work and a mazing tutorials
> YouTube - ‪How to paint Dark Eldar Obsidian Rose Kabalite Warrior by Lester Bursley‬‏


That is an impressive vid, problem is i'm new to this and have no idea how to make mixes yet, or how most of the terminology of painting works... Right now i'm waiting for an acquaintance to give me some advice on it, he paints professionally and knows what paints will be the very best for me to use. And he can give me advice on good ways to paint minis.


Lord of the Night


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