Eldar Corsairs- Lions of Asuryan

Hey guys. I've long admired the project logs of this forum, and I visit a couple times a day hoping for updates and inspiration. Finally decided I have to hop the boards and share what I've been doing.

So here is my army. They are supposed to represent a Corsair army (counts as Dark Eldar/Eldar allies). The fluff is that my archon is a exiled Autarch whose warhost followed him into exile. Over time they amassed many eldar pirates under their banner. From a modelling perspective I wanted them to feel like Eldar Pirates. While I liked the Forge World corsairs a lot, they didn't have that wild edgy Eldar renegade look I wanted so I decided to do a lot of kitbashing and develop my own look. I hope you guys like em!

Here is my Corsair Prince (Archon huskblade/venom blade/soul trap etc.) and his Vanguard (Inucbi)







Here is my Corsair Squad Leader (Hekatrix with Agonizer)



More Corsair Warriors (Wyches)







Corsair Avengers (Dire Avengers)




Corsair Biker (Reaver)



Avenger and Warrior (Avenger/Wych)


Hornet





I'm nearing completion of painting a whole 2k army. I'll post more photos as they come. I wish I had some better photos of my Archon, but the lighting in my house is super wonky. But anyway hope you guys like what you see, and all comments and crits are appreciated. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Oops. Forgot these too. Razorwing and Raider. I wish I had not blacked out the canopy, but I'll end up painting it green to match my other vehicles. But hopefully the Void Raven will come out before then as I'm using the Razorwing as a proxy for the bomber.

Looks super great, really liking the colour scheme

Truly loving the them here. Looking forward to more!

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the comments. BTW Evil Space Elves, I absolutely love your army. Its probably one of my favorite I've ever seen. The modeling, painting and just your general approach are great.

In the next day or two, I'll post some pics of the the last 2 Incubi in my four-man squad. I'll also be posting some pics of my Venom which is just about ready for painting.

Here are some shots from some of my other units:

Avenger Corsair: Second in Command Squad Leader
She's probably one of my favorite models I've ever painted. I really love how you can paint the female Dark Eldar faces really cute/pretty or like really fierce Misfits chicks from Jem. Its kind of a crappy photo though.



Corsair Warrior (Wych): His base has since been painted


These guys have since been finished, but this photo gives a good look at their faces which I'm pretty proud of.




And here are my Kabalite Warriors. These are the first Dark Eldar units I've ever painted.



Well anyway thanks for taking a peek at my guys. I'll have photos my most recent models, and try to get some good photos of my Archon. Stay tuned for more real soon.

Man your army / color scheme is just... wow.. I love it! people like you inspire me to carry on and finish my projects! Cheers and dont stop the outstanding work!

Love the colour scheme. Reminds me of some of Ming's guards in the 80's Flash Gordon film.

The skin tone on the faces looks beautiful, the red is well done, and the overall scheme ties together rather well. Very impressive

The colors are just exquisite and the paint work very very solid. I would sell my body to the local Heamonculus to have been able to paint my DE like that in the first place. Great job.

Oh gosh, how did I miss these guys? They look absolutely amazing! The contrast between red, gold and bright blue gems is fantastic. Really well done, I'd love to see more!

Extremely clear details, I could never achieve anything like this. Well done!

Hey guys. Thanks for all the really nice compliments. I really appreciate it, Wasn't sure what kind of reaction I'd get to my color scheme. As I mentioned I wanted them to feel like old school Eldar pirates, sort of bold, yet valiant renegades. Glad so many of you guys like the scheme so much.

Here is my first Venom. What a beautiful model, and its so nice to paint a small Eldar vehicle. Painting wave serpents and even the Raider is serious work. Just from the modeling/painting perspective alone II can see the attraction to a venom spam list. This little baby is just in the opening stages of being painted but its coming out pretty good so far. I'll have some updates soon so stay tuned, and thanks again for all the nice compliments.

I really love the regal theme that you have captured, looking forward to more

Thanks a lot Sky Serpent. Glad you like it. I had a huge grin on my face when I read : "love the regal theme" thats exactly what I was going for. I wanted them to feel like they truly once ruled the stars. Thanks!

Love your scheme since it's very similar to how I'm doing my army (haha), I'm curious to how you got your gold to look so clean and crisp. You mentioned testors gold primer? Is it hard to work with?

Yeah I use Testors Gold primer. Its easy enough to use, and its cheap. For most of my infantry models I just prime the whole thing gold and carefully paint around the parts I want to remain gold, because if you get even a tiny amount of paint on the gold, your out of luck because chances are you are not going to be able smudge it off. With vehicles I'll prime most of the vehicle gold, mask the parts I want to remain gold with regular old scotch tape, then airbrush the model red (or whatever color). It can be stressful because its unforgiving, but it looks good and is easy to do if you are careful. Feel free to ask me for any specifics, or for clarifications because I'd love to spread the technique to other players, because I feel it can be a real great tool in the painting aresenal especially for CW Eldar/ and Dark Eldar players.

Yeah that's a nice venom for sure!

These guys are a nice departure from the normal dark and gritty DE you see. They are unique and well executed.

Great work!

Wow; these look fantastic. Your colour scheme is great because you've chosen something that makes them look like 'light' Eldar, rather than messed up Commorites! You've got quite an anime style (particularly evident in your post from Jan 20 2013, 12:18) but that works soooo well for your models. Beautiful work, man!

This army must look incredible on the tabletop, any shots of them all together? (Go on, it's a chance to put all your stuff out and gloat!)

Thanks Eye of Error. I really tried hard to make my army look different in general. I have to say though at some point I want to paint a small contingent of really sinister Dark Eldar (probably black and gold) and a small contingent of white and gold CW Eldar, as well as Exodites so I can have all four flavors of Eldar: CW, Corsairs, Exodites and Dark Eldar.

@Dodkclaw- Thanks for the compliments. Its funny you should mention anime, because my color scheme is inspired by Hot Rod from the old 86' Transformers movie. I've always loved the red characters from old anime, videogames and 80's cartoons. Hot Rod, Kaneda from Akira, Protoman from Mega Man 3,, Char Aznable from Mobile Suit Gundam.

Hey guys. Some minor updates. The Venom is basically done. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. The gunner is nowhere near finished, and I need to finish the "lions banner" which will count-as my Grisly Trophies.







Again the gunner is nowhere near finished.



And here is my 2nd and final Wave Serpent which will transporting my Corsair Avenger Squad, and their Farseer (whence the command doohickey). Very happy with this came out, though its not quiet finished as I need to apply its squadron markings.





Anyway more stuff to come. Enjoy!

Your army looks beautiful! I am obsessed with how amazing your faces look. If you posted your method I would be ecstatic!

Fantastic work! Love these!

Thanks Deyfluff and Balisong glad you are enjoying my posts

As for how I paint faces, its pretty easy. No matter what color the model is primed, I use a layer of Kislev flesh for skin tone. It usually takes 2 layers to get a nice smooth creamy tone. The most important thing for me is to let the paint dry after each layer. I usually allow ten minutes or more to pass while I focus on other details. After each layer has dried and a smooth look has been acheived. I use a medium sized dose of flesh wash, dab away excess with a dry brush and let it sit for a moment. After a few minutes I'll go back in clean up the face with Kislev flesh and add a little wash here and there if it needs and let the whole thing dry again. Then I get a fine detail brush and black out the eyes with Abbaddon black and try to achieve a sort anime-style backsweeping eye-lash to give the eyes really body.. After that dries I dot the eyes with white, then a tiny little fleck of black to create the pupil. Just make sure the dot is not too small, you dont want them to look bug-eyed. If you make the pupil somewhat larger you can get a sort of narrow steely eyed gaze which I always like. I also paint on eye brows, which can be a challenge but makes the face really emotive in my opinion.

Sorry if this seems overly detailed or anything, and I apologize for the over emphasis on letting the paint dry. It probably sounds redundant, but I just wanted to emphasize it because with these tiny little dark eldar faces, the paint layers and collects quickly and its easy to end up with a goopy mess if the paint is not dry.

Anyway final note, I dont highlight my faces. Eldar faces are so small it just ends up looking really busy when I try. I'm no master painter but I hope what info I could offer helps. Feel free to ask more questions if anything isn't clear, and thanks for your posts.

Hey gang. Still a WIP but here are my Rangers.







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Comparison Shot:


Anyway just some notes on upcoming stuff. I just ordered some White Lions of Charce shoulder pads, which I may be grafting on to my current archon, and his Incubi retinue. Although the possiblity exists that [may[/i] want to build a new one incorporating more bits, the lion cloaks, shoulder pads, and other accessories. Not quite sure yet, I'll have to see when the bits come in. Other than that I'm pretty happy with how the Rangers are coming out. They are a little more difficult to paint than I thought. But I have 5 more metal ones on the way so I can always have another go-round. Anyway hope you guys enjoy the update.

I like your rangers, they got a very stealthy look going for them, which is absolutely perfect - the harder they are to spot, the longer it will take for your opponent to notice that you actually hold several objectives with them! Great highlighting and blending, it takes quite some work to get black look really good.

Also, the White Lions of Charce shoulder pads are pretty boss. I got a couple of my Trueborn which, incidentally, are also planned to be red and gold (it's a coincidence, I swear!). They look really good, so I can't wait to see what you do with them!