Cabal of Deceptive Hope

Greetings my fellow Archons and Succubi!

I want to show you some of the acquisitions my cabal made since I founded it. I managed to secure favours with the Coven (no name yet ) and get the Cult (no name too ) as a trusted ally.
So, let the army parade begin!


So, first off, I have started this army back in 5th, only a few months after the DE got released. But my first steps in their direction were made with the old models, I think during the 3rd or 4th ed (some 11 years back I think), but as pupil, I hadn't the money nor dedication to really collect an army.
So I got quite a few models, but I'm a really slow painter, and get easily distracted with other models (a huge lot of half finished models over a lot of different armies and even one or two other systems). I hope to improve on that with this thread


Warrior Squad (yes, my only one that I painted so far)


With their Venom


I also have a complete 9man squad of wyches ... I loved to run one or two of those squads in 5th, but now they guard their lair and wait for a better moment to unleash their fury

(I'm quite proud of those helmets, can't remember where I saw that tutorial, but the finished product is just awesome)

And a Sslyth I painted for a comp 2-3 years back, didn't got anything, but still a fun model to paint. I tried to give him a milk snake-like look to underlay the venomous nature of those mercenaries.


And my last addition is the first of my harlequin troupe. I plan to paint my small 'quin detachment and after that to go back to my DE and try to paint up 1500 points of them ... it's a big goal for me, but I'm not in a hurry

(sorry for the rather bad quality of the last picture, I really have to get better lightning)

C&C are welcome and I hope you enjoyed it so far!

Updates will follow as I make progress, currently on my second harlie

those are some good brush skills you have there - my only suggestion would be to work on the faces and skin tones, they could do with a little depth adding, maybe a wash might help. Don't let that discourage you though, your edge highlighting in particular is fantastic!

Omega1907 wrote:

(I'm quite proud of those helmets, can't remember where I saw that tutorial, but the finished product is just awesome)

You are right to be, they look great!
I also like the battle-damage and the smooth purple on the Venom.
Although it makes the other purples look a bit flat in comparison.
I think the Warriors' body suits and gems on the weapons could use more highlight.
Although that's nagging on a high level xD

Omega1907 wrote:

And the Harlequin is just wow.

Good stuff so far. I feel you about the Low painting bit. Takes me forever to get anything panted.

Love the harlie ( I have a thing about harlies ). Would love to see a whole squad painted up

Thanks for the praise!

The_Burning_Eye wrote:

those are some good brush skills you have there - my only suggestion would be to work on the faces and skin tones, they could do with a little depth adding, maybe a wash might help. Don't let that discourage you though, your edge highlighting in particular is fantastic!

Thanks!
The only true secret to edge highlights is patience ... and a steady hand (or something stable to rest your hands on, try to stabilise one hand on the other. At least that works for me)
About the skin tone: It is intentional that they are that "white". In the fluff DE are described as having a nearly white skin tone with deep black eyes. On the first model with naked skin I painted (the Gunner on the Venom), I forgo the wash, noticing that mistake, on the later models (Wyches) I did a wash of Sepia. I gave them a bit more definition. Sadly I took those pictures with flash, so they have less depth

Marrath wrote:

You are right to be, they look great!
I also like the battle-damage and the smooth purple on the Venom.
Although it makes the other purples look a bit flat in comparison.
I think the Warriors' body suits and gems on the weapons could use more highlight.
Although that's nagging on a high level xD

Thanks for the compliment about the helmets, I could post a "portrait" of one of them, if you want
Yes, the bodysuits ... I guess we all grow with every model we paint, and as much as I like the combination of deep green and dark purple, I hate to highlight purple (natural aversion of magenta and pink). Guess I could help with basecoat - highlight - purple wash - final edge highlight (same colour as first highlight).

spellcheck2001 wrote:

Good stuff so far. I feel you about the Low painting bit. Takes me forever to get anything panted.

Love the harlie ( I have a thing about harlies ). Would love to see a whole squad painted up

Thanks, mate! I really love your work, your conversions are just genius! I wish I had that creativity and dedication to pull them off. Those lollipops have a ... breathtaking impact
I wanted to try a motley, but I hate to just replicate something from someone, especially if the quality is as high as the GW showcase models. It will be compared every time, and I know, I can't achieve the same level.
You'll see a whole troupe eventually, just can't say when ... I have another 5 normal harlies, 4 skyweavers, two void/starweavers and all of the characters waiting for a little brush caress

Small update, mostly to keep myself motivated through all those motley clowns

So, I present you my second clown, finished today, just a "few" more to go



I improved the method for the mask (I think) but got a somewhat shaky hand when I did the highlights on the metals (glade you can't see the sword , maybe I'll do a few different shots when I finished the troupe). Also I just didn't manage the effect I wanted on the hair, but I guess I'll keep it the way it is, for now at least.

C&C welcome, as always

I love the contrast on your Sslyth. How did you do harlequin's pants?

Very nice, solid work on those Harlequins and their diamond pattern. Kudos.

Khordajj wrote:

I love the contrast on your Sslyth. How did you do harlequin's pants?

Thanks for the kind words. Now that I look at the Sslyth again, I think I should post a pick of his back too, so you all can appreciate the snake body

For the pants ... I mostly followed the guide from the WD when they were released.
Over a black primer I did a basecoat with light, good covering grey. Then came the real basecoat in green (Vallejo Model Colour - light green) followed by the outlines of the diamonds in thinned down black. The rest is only filling every second diamond in red. You can touch up the black lines, if you want to, but most of the time I don't do it, unless it looks really off (like two red diamonds essentially flowing in one another).

Of course you can invest much more time into that pattern, like highlighting every diamond to get a 3D effect, but they are good tabletop standard as they are ... I think.

Squidmaster wrote:

Very nice, solid work on those Harlequins and their diamond pattern. Kudos.

Thanks a lot, Sir
Will try to get more than one done before I update again.

Very nice. well done on those diamond patterns. I have just tried to paint a leg on one of my models, amd completely cocked it up, and had to paint over the entire thing. Sometimes it goes easy, sometimes not

SC

Yeah, good work with the diamonds. They are my least favourite thing about painting harlequins.

Thanks guys!

I just look forward, to be finished with all those harlies ... it can be quite exhausting to paint them