My take on the Obsidian rose

I've just started a Dark eldar army so I thought I'd start a project log about it. Hopefully, this will grow from a few painted models to a full size army in about a year.

The colour scheme I've choosen is the Kabal of the Obsidian rose with a few very minor adjustments. I really like how it looks in the codex, except for the weapons.

First up, a few warriors:


And a close-up of some of them:


I wanted to try something different with the eyes for many reasons. First, I really don't like painting eyes. And I also wanted them to look less human then usual. When thinking about ideas for the eyes I remembered some book cover from Black library where they had painted a Dire avenger (I think) with blueish white eyes, that looked really cool. So I tried that, and I am happy with the results.

Some recently finished wyches:




I really like the sculpts on these models.

And finally a venom:



Detail of the freehand:


What do you think?

Very nicely done. The rose on the side of the Venom is wonderful, and the pure white eyes on your one Warrior certainly portrays the sociopathic villainy that makes the DEldar so interesting.

So, seeing as the Obsidian Rose is fond of Splinter Weaponry, are your squads going to be bristling with blades and Splinter Cannons?

Also, what are you hoping to get to build up your army? Is it going to be all Kabalite or will it have elements of Wych Cult and Haemie Coven?

I'm looking forward to hearing more from you, and good luck with your army.

That looks really good! Love the Venom, that rose is awesome. I also like how you did the red on the armor, what I normally see is a very bright red which is too bright IMO. This looks much better. I am also going for a similar scheme but with a homebrew Kabal.

And maybe a minor detail but that cockpit on the Venom looks great. Still doubting whether to paint it over or leave it semi see-through.
And yeah the eyes really work, positively creepy.

Nothing to add to what's already been said Mortarion - absolutely luv'ly work! A beautiful looking army.

Dead-sexy stuff!!! Your take on the scheme is NICE. I really like the beautiful freehand and canopy paint, but the blue tone to the tip of the Venom blades really grabs the eye nicely. Are you thinking about adding a bit more of of that bluish tone? It really pops with the green and red. Either stuff, sexy stuff-I'll be watching this plog with keen interest!

Thanks everybody!

@Cavash: At this point I havn't really thougth too much about what to include in the army. I'll probably just paint models that look cool and then try to make something playable from it. So it will most likely have elements from both Kabalites, Wych cults and the Covens.

@Firdeth: I thought a bit about whether to paint the cockpit or not as well. In the end I decided to paint it because it seems more creepy if you don't see the pilot and it is a way to add a bit of colour.

@Evil Space elves: All units and vehicles in the army will have black areas, and on the larger ones the highlighting will be more visible as blueish-grey.

Love it, that paint job is awesome!

Nice flower =) Well... nice all around. The gems are real smooth on the venom too. Good job!

Thank you!

Right now I'm working on a couple of more warriors that will complete the first warrior squad. Hopefully they will be finished early next week.

And now the warriors are done!

Two warriors and a Sybarite.


The sybarite from one side. With the more stylized kabal symbol from the codex.


And from the other side, with a more artistic version of the symbol.

And these new additions mean that my first squad is complete!

Woah. Simply amazing.

That banner... it's wonderful.

Truly exceptional freehand on those pieces (Obsidian Rose is my favorite of the kabals made by GW) - however, I feel somewhat that the red highlights that you have painted on their armour, could lean a tad more towards a brighter red (like Blood Red, or as it is now called, Mephiston Red/Evil Sunz Scarlet).

pretty pretty. You seem to have got a really good matt finish to the models too, is that something you've done on purpose?

Those warriors look killer! The freehand on the flag is exceptional, really well done!

Thanks!

@Saintspirit: One of the highlights on the red is actually Blood red. But it is watered down and quite thin. I don't want the highlights to look too sharp and tron-like.

@The_burning_eye: I havn't really painted them with the specific goal of getting a matt finish, but my painting style usually gets that result. And I don't varnish my models.

Just beautiful, great detailing on the bases too btw. with the cobblestones here and there.

Wow, these look great Mortarion. It's a very nice take on the colour scheme and shows you don't need the extreme highlights used on the GW scheme.

The venom is also fantastic. Any tips on how you painted the canopy?

Preacher wrote:

Wow, these look great Mortarion. It's a very nice take on the colour scheme and shows you don't need the extreme highlights used on the GW scheme.

The venom is also fantastic. Any tips on how you painted the canopy?

Thanks. The canopy is painted like it was a giant gemstone. First all of it was painted Dark Angel green. Then I painted Snot green in the lower right part of it (when seen from above) and a bit around the edges. I also painted a small dot as a reflection of a light source in the upper left part. Then I continued with Goblin green, Camo green and finally skull white. Every colour done in multiple thin, watered down layers. The white was really, really thin, except for the reflection dot.

Nice use of the green and red contrast and the red doesn't look like the neon 'WE'RE HIDING HERE' I've seen others with.

I like your style. Your base work is really great, even though you have a dirt/cobble stone/grass/mossy/water effect thing going on it still looks coherent. I also like the near blackline effect around the eyes, makes me want to darken that area on my own models, well done.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been busy with work and other things. And these models took a bit longer then expected. But now I have finally finished some...

Hellions!



Originally I wasn't going to include them in the army but I got a hold of a box from a friend who didnät want them. And the models are quite cool, so I guess I'll have to include a unit of them anyway.

I gave their look quite a bit of thought. I didnät really like many of the heads included in the box. They all looked too feral. In terms of background the hellions are basically gangs of rebellions dark eldar youths, and I wanted to show that in their appearence. In a society where some sort of twisted goth-ish look is the norm I guess the logical way to paint rebellious youths would be white and pink with pretty flowers and cute bunnies and stuff on them. But I didn't want that. After some thinking and searching on the net I decided to go with some kind of cyber-goth-look. And to paint all the skyboards different. I didn't want them to look like a military unit, but rather a gang of individuals who all tried to stand out.


(I see now that I forgot a thin layer of blood on the detached ear-nacklace. I'll fix that.)





What do you think?

Those are very good looking hellions. Your freehand on the wings is incredible!

Hubba-hubba, these are gorgeous Mortarion! Beautifully painted, great colour scheme - nice and bright - and excellent freehand as Siticus noted. Your basing stands out nicely, as well.

Like you, I don't like the heads they come with and I actually didn't use any.

I really like your line of thinking about them being a gang and thus would not be too uniform, makes huge sense and you could even expect to see individual board shapes as well. You have differentiated each board quite well with your painting.

Siticus the Ancient wrote:

Those are very good looking hellions. Your freehand on the wings is incredible!

nothing to be added. Great work. I love them!

Michael

Thank you!