Drug-Crazed Psychic Vampire Space Elves

This plog is intended to be for my various Dark Eldar, Harlequin, and Craftworld projects, though other stuff may sneak in as well if I think it's related in some way. Or I just want to.

Here's the beginning of my Haemonculus Coven, The Cycle of Dust. They're the first half of my Scalpel Squadron, with an optional hexrifle Acothyst.



I based the Dust Cycler's sigil on the recycling arrows on plastic bottles and the like. I've always loved the chalked-in look of Coven designs, so I tried to emphasize that here.



The other freehand on the Venom is based on diagrams of the human nervous system.
























I hope you guys like them! Questions, comments, and criticisms are welcome and appreciated.

Very nice! Look forward to seeing more of these.

Two very enthusiastic thumbs up from me, I only hope mine come out anywhere near as good!

Wow! I love your painting style. These are just fantastic. SHOW ME MOAR!

SC

Lovely!

How on earth do you get them to look so smooth?

Thank you! There's definitely more coming, though I prefer to post in meaningful chunks rather than trickling in a model or two at a time, so this thing's gonna update pretty slowly.

Barking Agatha wrote:

How on earth do you get them to look so smooth?

For the most part, I base coat, wash, and then do 3 or 4 stages of highlighting. I avoid drybrushing except in certain circumstances, and though I've messed with two brush blending, I haven't really gotten the hang of it. The armor plates and bases are nested line highlights, again in 3 or 4 steps.

If I end up with too sharp of an edge when I'm highlighting, I just glaze a slightly darker tone over it to smooth it out.

I am, admittedly, going kind of nuts with these models, because they're Dark Eldar and they deserve it.

Is there a specific part of them you're wondering about?

Very nice! I love how you've done the skin/musculature.

What was the progression of colors you used on the hull of the venom?

You sir are a freehand ninja. Excellent stuff!

Outstanding!
I have to agree with the others, freehands are beautiful, the skin, or lack thereof, reminds me of Tool videos, which is very good!
Also the vials make me envious xD

Calyptra wrote:

I am, admittedly, going kind of nuts with these models, because they're Dark Eldar and they deserve it.

Totally worth it!

Having seen your Vampire Counts I knew this was gonna be good but...
You have exceeded my expectations by miles these are just stunning, I'll be watching and waiting with baited breath for more. Thanks for sharing

Thank you! You guys are definitely helping to keep me motivated.

Bugs_N_Orks wrote:

What was the progression of colors you used on the hull of the venom?

I paint using mostly P3, and a little Vallejo. The colors used in the hull plating are all P3.

I had to mess with it a while before I realized that a "less is more" approach worked better on the vehicle. I started with a black undercoat, then painted it 1:1:1: Beaten Purple/Coal Black/Thamar Black, leaving the black in the lines between the hull plates. I painted the concave areas, such as the grooves between the engines and fins, black, and the outer parts of the convex areas 1:1 Beaten Purple/Coal Black, so that the hull had some clean contours. I used more of the 1:1 mix to line the edges, added an inner layer of line highlighting mixing in a little white, then added a little more white and picked out the corners.
It would have been relatively quick if I hadn't already painted the hull with a 4-step nested line highlight when I settled on it.

Marrath wrote:

Also the vials make me envious xD

Thanks! I got the effect from using Eye of Error's tutorial, which you can find here.

Some small conversion work I did to create more diversity among the Wracks:

Very nice, subtle changes, Calyptra. They will definitely add a bit more character to the squad.

Your painting, as to be expected, is just awesome. The Cycle of Dust coven (great name!) will have a wonderful presence on the battlefield.

My Solitaire, whose reception motivated me to start this plog.

Seeing this again just reminds me how awesome it is stunning!

SC

Consider my jaw dropped. It's all just so beautiful! Of special genius to me is your Coven symbol. That's creativity, my friend!

Your work is really impressive

Impressive work indeed!

That Solitaire gives me the feeling of bubblegum for some reason though...
Excellent freehand work on the coat, care to share your recipe of the pink?

Thanks!
I love pink, though I tend to find it comes in only two flavors: awesome (hot/flourescent) and lame (pastel). (Except on the the old Rogue Trader Chaos models, which were frequently painted in pastels and looked gorgeous.)

I basecoat with P3's Murderous Magenta (similar to GW's old Warlock Purple), block in a mix of Murderous Magenta and P3's Carnal Pink (similar to GW's old Tentacle Pink), then do a few stages of highlighting with incrementally more Carnal Pink in the mix.

I regret having to report that the result is not UV reactive. I just checked. (Green stuff on the other hand totally glowed.)

The second Wrack cell is done! (Well, at least until I get around to converting up a hexrifle Acothyst for them, but I'm not planning on doing that any time in the near future.) And I took pictures! (Lots of pictures.) Are you tired of Wracks yet? (I am.)



I also put together a step-by-step on how I paint the Wracks' flesh. I put some extra time into their skin tone, because it seems to me that a sufficiently pallid, bruised, fleshy look is the most important part of their color scheme. Here's what I did:

Step 1: base coat a mix of P3's Beaten Purple and Vallejo's Pale Flesh.



Step 2: wash with purple ink. (I used Citadel's Purple Wash, which was a more traditional ink wash that predated Leviathan Purple, because I still have some left. I find the (really) old GW washes to be more or less interchangeable with P3 and Vallejo's.



Step 3: paint Pale Flesh over the raised surfaces; pick out all the muscle striations and contours in the hump.



Step 4: wash red. I used Vallejo's Game Ink here. Red washes tend to be really weak, and I usually mix a little green in to darken them up, but in this case I wanted a really light, translucent effect, so it was perfect as is.



Step 5: crushing existential angst.



Step 6: pick out contours, muscle striations, etc with Pale Flesh mixed with a little white.



Step 7: second stage highlighting, this time white mixed with a little Pale Flesh.



Step 8: line/dot highlight white on places like the knuckles, clavicles, striations on the shoulders, etc.















Next I need to finish up their ride.

Awesome tutorial, and the minis are stunning!

I really like the red wash stage on them, it gives a nice tonal variation to the skin that works really well, makes them look inflamed.

SC

Lovin yer work! I like that the Venom scheme matches the bruised and beaten flesh of the Wracks. The iconography on the Venom is excellent, particularly like the coven symbol. Be nice to see a Haemy to go with them now :-)

This is stunning. Your freehand work is amazing, and all the details look great. I particularly love the vials, shading on folds of cloth, and the scheme as a whole ties together incredibly well.

Too perfect.
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