Coven of Ascended Flesh

Hello, brothers in darkness

I started my Dark Eldar army about two weeks ago. I've played a few friendly games using proxies, and now the time has come to buy and paint some true Dark Eldar minis. I've started with my two taloi; I know they are not very competitive, but I just love the models and I think the rules for them are still pretty decent. Without further ado, I present to you one of my finished taloi and a second one, still in progress





Still working on skin shade.

Very nice! I espesially like the blood on the first ones claw

Tamiya Clear Red works wonders when it comes to blood splatters Mix in some black ink, let it dry a bit into this gooey jello Tamiya Clear paints turn into after a minute and stipple where desired

Damn, I wish I could paint like this: https://thedarkcity.forummotion.com/t253-the-invidious-requiem-kabal

Are you painting the second Talos without an undercoat?

Of course I'm using an undercoat. But it's neither white nor black - it's grey I don't know why but I like it more than any other

I often use a grey undercoat too, but there is a reflection in the hip of the Talos that fooled me.

Very nice.

Please show us more.

I'm very happy that my paint-fu gets appreciated, as I'm still not very content with it. There is so much room for improvement and so little time to practice that I'm afraid I'd never paint as well as I would like to. Today, I've made some progress on the second Talos and when I have a moment, I'll post a picture of those two happy butchers together

Finn wrote:

I'm very happy that my paint-fu gets appreciated, as I'm still not very content with it. There is so much room for improvement and so little time to practice that I'm afraid I'd never paint as well as I would like to. Today, I've made some progress on the second Talos and when I have a moment, I'll post a picture of those two happy butchers together

I feel your pain. I have to struggle to keep in mind the figures I am working on are for a game table, not a competition, although I do enjoy winning best painted army to be sure. So I limit the amount of detail I put into them. Especially so because I know I am going to use/handle these a lot in a tournament and they are likely to get scratched and I want the repairs to me easy to fix.

No worries, these look just great thus far.

GAR wrote:

I feel your pain.

Oh, poor you, may the Dark Muses grant you your first kill

GAR wrote:

I have to struggle to keep in mind the figures I am working on are for a game table, not a competition, although I do enjoy winning best painted army to be sure. So I limit the amount of detail I put into them. Especially so because I know I am going to use/handle these a lot in a tournament and they are likely to get scratched and I want the repairs to me easy to fix.

No worries, these look just great thus far.

Thanks again. However, I want to learn how to wetblend - this technique is still black magic for me - and I need to develop better brush control (or patience). I like painting; to be honest, I prefer painting to gaming. But I don't have the time. The only place where I can actually paint a model from start to finish is my local gaming store. At home, there are so many distractions, it takes ages to complete even a single infantry model...

Ok, a small update. Finally I managed to take photos and upload them

The Talos Brothers! (sounds like some band's name )




Hook is finished, but Cleaver is still WIP and needs some more work. What bothers me most is that he lacks this purple tint of the skin and I'm afraid to wash him with Leviathan Purple. I don't want to spoil my so-far effort on him.

Looking really good.

Are you going to do anything to their bases?

I base all my miniatures (with the exception of Rhinos and such), as a good looking base makes even a mediocre painted mini look nice. I will sure do SOMETHING, but at the moment I don't know exactly what First I have to figure out how I'm going to base the whole army.

Nice work! I am going to try your trick with Tamiya Clear red for gore. Two great looking Talos make for a good start to any DE army. What's next?

I do a lot of wet blending, and there are numerous ways to learn how to do it.

My method is to get 3 to 5 colors ( Shade, base, highlight and maybe depending on my mood and what I am trying to do, a few extreme shade or in-between colors) ready on the pallette.

Then I apply my base and go from there using the same brush I have my clean water ready so I can quickly clean the brush and apply fresh color on a clean brush or just recharge my brush as is. It kind of depends on how much paint is on the brush when I am ready to apply the next color.

When I was learning, I used a retarder to help with the drying time, but I have gotten to the point where I no longer need that, I've just learned to be quicker.

I like the Talos, but the picture has too much yellow in it. A little photo shop I think would do wonders or if indoor, increase the exposure to +1 to help with the low light.

if I see it right, you are going with pure black as the base color, but a almost black. I like that a lot! Now your shadows actually show up on the black.

Evil Space Elves wrote:

Nice work! (...) What's next?

Thanks. When I finish "Cleaver", it's time for some warriors

GAR wrote:

I like the Talos, but the picture has too much yellow in it.

Better?

GAR wrote:

if I see it right, you are going with pure black as the base color, but a almost black.

The black is actually charadon granite washed with badab black and highlighted with codex grey.

Very nice!

And I also think Charadon Granite is one of the best colours GW ever made.

Very nice and glad to see it works as I'm using a similar scheme for my Sliscus.

OK, thats just plain creepy. The pictures are much better and I am liking what you have done.

Awaiting painting. I'm scared already

It's only 30 models

But 3 million highlights

I need to speedpaint them somehow, but I also need at least some quality. Taking into account I barely have time to go out with my gf, painting 30 models to satisfactory level becomes Mission Impossible.

Plus, they're not Space Marines (Undercoat, base colour, shading, highlighting, voila). They require a fair amount of work.

ditch the GF then Priorities man! Trust me, I feel your pain. It is taking me forever to get the first 1750 of the new stuff painted to replace my old DE.

I'm with Finn,

I'm still working on my painted 2K army, and its painted!! All those details are worth taking the time on.

Fortunately in my case, I got my required 3 colors and then have been going back and finishing them to the standard I want. its slow going, but at least I have a playable army that will be very good looking when its all said and done. But I digress...


My point, was not about my army, but about taking the time to do it the right way. You will be much much happier in the end, and these Dark Eldar look so good when they are done well and Finn is off to a great start.

More please.

GAR wrote:

I'm with Finn,



My point, was not about my army, but about taking the time to do it the right way. You will be much much happier in the end, and these Dark Eldar look so good when they are done well and Finn is off to a great start.

More please.

With you guys 100%. Finn-what color are you looking to do your infantry? Your Talos look great.