Kabal of the Slit Throat

Hi All-

Thought I'd take a stab (har) at documenting the pupal stages of my Kabal. Its been a long while since I've painted any miniatures, at least 12 years, and I was stone cold crap back then. These days I'm a competent penman/jeweler, and I'm hoping those fine motor skills will communicate onto my army. The DE range is damn intimidating, the new models are so good looking that as a newbie painter I'm apprehensive to apply my untested brush.

My plan for the army visually is to have an extremely cohesive palette. After much mulling and colorwheeling/dreaming, I decide to go with the GW-standard black-with-glowing-green-glints look, accented by purple. I come to this decision not without reluctance, as I like to think of myself as independent and creative, capable of inventing a unique and satisfying scheme for my army. Out of all my options, it is simply that none match the aesthetic appeal, nor the relative (perceived) ease of application.

Any feedback appreciated, just bear in mind that 1. I know I'm as-yet unskilled, and 2. I am aware of the safety/tepidity of my color choices. I hope to update this with pics on a fairly regular basis, but I have 2 jobs and twice as many hobbies, so I won't be providing daily reports. Enjoy!

To set the scene: Some views into my cramped, multi-use, cluttered painting corner


A closer look


Three warriors (out of the old starter set, gifted by a friend) have ascended from the lightless murk of black basecoat to the corpse-light gleam of the tortured suns of Comorragh.




For first attempts, I'm cautiously optimistic. the leftmost warrior (first pic) was painted with a drybrush technique, and while quick, I wasn't terribly happy with the level of control my skill level afforded, so for the ensuing models I am attempting to freehand the building of the highlights. These "test" models were basecoated with Armory Primer, which is disgusting. It came out with that awful, granular, "flocking", so bad on most of the models that I had to strip and switch back to the trusty Rust-Oleum "Painter's Touch", which while somewhat less matte than the Armory crap, provides a reliable, thin, quick drying and smooth coat that obscures none of the details of the models.

The face on the helmless model I am repelled by. Not enough to strip the one and start over (yet), but I really need to practice my flesh technique and color layer combinations.

@Cavash - sorry! I can see how it's annoying. A bit new to forum posting in general...

Wow, you must be really busy.
I'm looking forward to seeing your models painted, and don't worry about being unskilled; even the greatest of painters have to start off somewhere.

Just on a side note, in the future could you use the 'edit' function if you are going to post something just after you've posted something? It's just to keep things neat and uncluttered. Thanks.

Yeah, the Dark Eldar do seem intimidating at first. The models can be really fragile, and some can be tough to put together if you accidentally lose the instructions to your first raider, but they are very rewarding.

I do have a tip: you don't have to worry about highlighting edges at first, as drybrushing edges and using washes can get great effects!

Good luck with your Dark Eldar!

Got some more pictures taken, finally. Been working more on the old style warriors, and started some old metal wyches too. Want to get my practice in on these as the sculpts are ugly compared to the new stuff, IMO.





WIP wyches:



A couple close-ups on warriors I was mostly pleased with:






....all said, I'm feeling good about my progress and what I'm learning, even if the pace is glacial.