# Kabal of the Obsidian Rose



## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

Hi everyone. I've been posting in Painting & Modeling for some time now and since every post of mine is related to the same army I thought it's worth a project log.

My current 750 pts army is: 2x 5 Kabalites with a Blaster, 3 Trueborn with two lances, Archon with an Agonizer and grenades, 4 Incubi as his "retinue", two converted Venoms with cannon upgrades, a Ravager and a Raider. I've just finished putting them together today and now I'm going to spend the summer painting them (yeah I take my time when painting). I've done some conversions that I like and I magnetised everything that needed magnetizing so I'll add some words about that in the next post.

Here goes a group shot.


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## Hammer49 (Feb 12, 2011)

Your warriors look very good. Look forward to seeing your progress on your army over the summer.


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

I've decided to make my Trueborns differ from Kabalites in 3 ways:
- all Kabalites wear helmets and all Trueborn do not, since they're proud of their legacy;
- I'll paint some minor decorations on their shoulder pads, similar to what you can see in the Codex;
- I've given them either trophy thingies (that were originally intended for the Sybarite in the warriors' box) or the banner. The most useless person in the group (the one without the lance) wears a banner just to do something.

It's the "Dracon" of my Trueborns on the pic below. I've tried to make her pose dynamic and interesting (to make some additional difference) but ultimately I failed and now it's pretty obvious she just has sore bottom and she definitely tries to scratch it. The face says it all.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Looking forward to seeing this!


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

Now, to magnetizing. I've decided to magnetize arms of those warriors who have weapon choices available (because I'm slow enough with painting as it is; having to repaint the whole figure just to swap dark lance for the splinter cannon, I would just die of old age before I finish). In the pics below you can see a warrior with a blaster, a trueborn with a dark lance and an archon with an agonizer (from the warriors' kit; I like Wyches' one more but unfortunately I don't have Wyches available) and a pistol. On the next pic are the same guys but disassembled for better understanding.

*The magnets.* You can freely use 2mm x 1mm discs to magnetize both arms and feet (later about that) of the Dark Eldar. They seem to have too thin limbs but believe me - 2mm is small enough to fit nicely in the shoulder of the arm or into the foot, and not break anything. 1mm thickness of the disc is okay for the feet too, you don't have to drill it through.

*The drillling. *The only things you really need to drill even the metallic figure are the drills (metal rods with threading) themselves - I use 1mm drill to "mark" the place for the larger drill, an then 2mm drill to make a hole for the magnet. Try to center the marker hole properly, since otherwise your magnetized figure might look ugly - that's what I heard, at least. You don't actually _need_ a pin vice or a hobby drill to use the drills - fingers' strength is enough to drill even through the metal (as I did with my archon), but it does take some time though.  And the plastic can be drilled with fingers easily.

Still, the electrical drill helps a lot though if you need to make a lot of holes (and you gonna need 4 of them for a warrior with a special gun, about 7 for the Raider and 9 for the Ravager - I'll talk about that later). I bought one in my local radio shop.

*The glueing.* Here goes a list of all the tricks I used to make my life easier. Use super-glue to glue the magnets. First do mini with both hands, and then match the magnets for the other bodies/hands with the first set, so you could easily swap guns if you want to (in the pics below there's my Archon with a dark lance and with the blaster, I was just toying with the capabilities that magnets give you). Pick a pair of magnets, match their sides, and mark the ones that you want on the outside (magnetizing to each other) with a marker. Then get a drill (or any other metal rod of 1-2mm thickness), and put the magnet on drill's flat end, marked side down. Now put some glue into the hole. Now place a magnet there, and try to remove the drill. Use a toothpick to make the magnet stay in the hole. Watch carefully for the magnet to stay the marked side up. Use a piece of thick paper to remove the glue leftovers. While you do that, apply some pressure on the paper, it won't glue to the magnet if you don't stop moving the paper but it will smooth it's position down. First magnetize the weapon hand, then the left hand. It takes about an hour to make sure the super-glue sticks to magnets good enough so you can test your work (otherwise the magnets will pull out of their holes and you'll have to start over). When it's ready, glue the weapon hand and the left hand together - you not gonna need them separately anyway. There you go, now repeat that several times. 

If you accidentally drill the hole too large or too deep don't worry and just use GS to fill the empty space.

Magnets are pretty strong so they work if you make slight errors in positioning or depth, so don't worry much.


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

I also used magnets to make my Raider crew stick to the Raider. I'd like to remove them when the Raider is shot down (or empty), but they fall off after a slightest knock if just "put on" the Raider. So I added 1 magnet to 1 feet of each of the crew (except the gunman who holds his gun tight enough), and I drilled the Raider's sides to put magnets there. Here go the pics. The one with the green stuff is where my drill went awry.

My best work is the magnet below the grill for the captain. I decided not to drill the grill but to do magic instead. I got a larger magnet (3mm x 1.5mm) and I put it below the grill. I then used other magnets to *pull* it to the grill from below, then I added a drop of super-glue and voila! - my captain stays in place with no visible magnet on the floor below. The force is enough to keep him (and other crew mates) on the floor even when you turn the Raider upside down or shake it. And the snap when you put a guy near his place makes one's soul cheer with joy 

When deciding, where to put a magnet on a ship's side, place the crew member where it belongs, and try to press his foot (the one you're going to magnetize) to the surface - that's what the magnet will do once in place. You need to find a position where this kind of pressure will not make changes in the guy's pose (so he/she still holds the side of a ship with a hand or the hook, for instance). Once you're set - drill. 

I've also magnetized Ravager's gunners but that's too boring to tell about.

Cheers, hope you like it.


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## Kaiden (Apr 1, 2010)

Looks great  I like the magnets on the archon


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## KhainiteAssassin (Mar 18, 2009)

your DE are coming out nicely man. I can not wait to see more work from you. (yes i love my DE)


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

WIP. I'm not dead yet!  It just takes tons of time and I only got air brush this autumn. And for some reason I'm down from 20 minutes per layer per figure to 30 minutes. And I still don't know why the hell does it take that much time. Guys say they are at about 5 minutes per layer. I'm frustrated.


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

look good man. I find im also slow with my air brush that i just got.


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

More WIP. Incubi + Archon. No more reddish-orange layers for this army, yay!  Gonna do blacks and metallics and eyes from now on, the end is nigh


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

The bright highlights are really working well on these guys.


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

Noone expects the Drukhaki Inquisition, especially SIX years later yet guess what! Unfortunately the final feeling of finally-this-unit-is-over relief is not nearly enough to compensate for 6 years of keeping the hobby light from going out completely, yet... well, here they go. I even made a nice Klaivex which I really like.


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

Same guys, different background.


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## DaisyDuke (Aug 18, 2011)

Nice!


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

Sooo I'm now painting my veeery old venom conversion (worth mentioning that it was made based on an art from DE codex _before GW first released an official Venom model_). And I have some problems with it. How do I paint straight lines near the armor slits? I'm attaching a second pic as an example of what I'm looking for. Is it just a steady hand? Do I use a masking tape? How come those extreme highlights lines look so bright yet appear to be painted with a single move of hand? I'm totally lost, please halp.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Very thinned paint, a very steady hand and lots of coats is how I'd do it. 


But I'm shite at painting, so probably not someone to take advice from!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

eae said:


> How come those extreme highlights lines look so bright yet appear to be painted with a single move of hand?


As Brother Dextus says, you want to make sure your paint is thin enough to flow well. I'd also apply the highlight with the edge of the brush rather than the tip: bring the brush in angled slightly and with the tip over the groove then run the brush along the line in a smooth movement; because the same area of brush touches the outside angle of the edge that way even if the brush moves back and forth along it's length, it doesn't matter if your hand doesn't move in a perfectly straight line.


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

Thanks for your advice guys! Highlighting with the edge did not work well for me since there's no place to put the rest of the brush when I paint the recess in the armor. But I've cheated by painting less carefully and then restoring the recess with a 0.03 liner. Venom armor plates are now complete and I'm going for metallics:


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Well it looks good dude!


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## Myen'Tal II (Oct 9, 2017)

Those Incubi are gorgeous :O!!! Really nice work!


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

Guess what, here comes a Venom! God it feels so good to finally get it in the air fully stocked and ready to kill. Now I need just 2-3 more of these 

But really my next problem is to think up some non-trivial coloring scheme for Mandrakes that would look awesome and match their background at the same time. Black skin is great for the creatures of shadow, white hair matches black skin perfectly, a flame would use a greenish glow that is the main energy highlight of my army, and voila - I automatically get the default Mandrakes, with the only option to choose from being a color of their pants (skin / cloth). Am I missing something here?

Oooh, an instant idea! How about I paint them completely as ghosts - white with greenish shadows, you know the drill - and paint the flames and carvings in their skins in pure black? Do you think it might work?


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

So here's my initial attempt on Mandrakes. Ignore the bases, a handful of skulls is on its way and these bases are temporary.

So Mandrakes! One of the most awesome sets of minis out there in WH40K world that I was longing to paint for several years now. But you might have noticed that EVERYONE PAINTS MANDRAKES THE SAME WAY. It is of course partially based on the very precise fluff description (inky skin, snow white hair, clothing made of skins of enemies), but where's all the fun in only being able to choose the color of a baleblast fire? Another thing to keep in mind is that this color scheme really works great for mandrakes, so there's no need to look for other ways, right?

Wrong! So I decided to ignore the proposed description and paint Mandrakes for what they really are: *SPACE ELVES' MURDER GHOSTS OF EVIL*. And I love the result 

My only pending problem is the baleblast. I've tried painting it blue-ish, but since the minis themselves are really bright, it made impossible for me to stick to the main principle of painting fire: it should look lighter than the mini itself, otherwise it looks as a really bad haircut and not a flame. So any advice on how to proceed with the flame is welcome, and anyway I'm happy with it just the way it is now.

Another problem to solve is how to detach minis from the temporary bases (minis are currently positioned on the metal planks super-glued to the bases) once I get a hold of skull-filled bases.

Anyway, too much talking, here come the Murder Ghosts!


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

Next Venom is ready. I like airbrushing as a fast-painting technique, next up are a Raider and a Ravager that I intend to paint in more or less the same way.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

That looks fantastic. Loving the colours on both the venom and the rider. Have a cookie.


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

So over a month since the last update. A lot has happened hobby-wise, mainly due to the fact that I've decided to boost my productivity an so enlisted to our local 750pts newbie tournament. I then started practicing and trying out army lists in our local wargaming club, which made me thinking. Like, a lot.

Two full units of infamous Razorwing Flocks later, I realized that the Hellions that I've ordered and wanted to utilize as Beastmasters are not going to make it in time - nothing does at the New Year's Eve. Fortunately, I've found a whole new box of 3 Windriders on sale in our godforsaken city.

5 hours of head-scratching, cutting and gluing and scratching and gluing and cutting later, I'm proud to present these two Beastmaster conversions that I like more than the original model.


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

A tournament happened, I sucked at it, back to the painting desk. Haemonculus WIP. I didn't even want to paint the guy just yet, only wanted to assemble him for a game, but it is kinda stupid to assemble him before painting because it would make painting so much harder. I'm finally getting quicker with my brushes, caring less works like a charm! Only took about 6 hours to get him to this state.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Might just be the lighting washing it out, but the flesh, bone, and white leather look a touch flat together.


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## eae (Jan 3, 2011)

Thanks Dave, I see what you mean! Any ideas on how to fix this effect? I intentionally went for whitened ("faded") skin cloak and white pants - I was looking for a "mad doctor" look. But the effect that you mention is exactly the one I've feared would occur. Still, I did not come up with any idea on how to resolve it.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

eae said:


> Thanks Dave, I see what you mean! Any ideas on how to fix this effect?


Potentially you could add a very slight purple tint to the flesh, so it's still grey but contrast more with the yellow of the bone and coat.

Making the silvery metal darker would add a contrast.


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