My take on the Obsidian rose

well I mean atleast you tried, right?

The trueborn's venom is complete! I wanted to make it cooler then a regular venom, but I didn't want to tie it too much to their unit, so I didn't give the gunner a lion cloak.

Unfortunately, it was quite difficult to get good pictures of it. There were almost always light reflecting from it. But I managed to get some OK pictures.


The skull was an idea I've had for some time and wanted to try. I like the result but fell I might have made it too much in the middle between a human skull and something more strange. It's weird enough that the proportions are all wrong, but still human enough that one might think it was meant to look human except for the fangs. I should probably have gone either more human-like or even stranger. But I still like it.

The skull is superb! Fantastic freehand on an awesome model. Well done!

That skull is wicked awesome

Looking very nice, I love the freehand, tattoo's i'm particuarly jelly of.
Great job.

Thank you!

I finished a Talos!



Talos/chronos is usch a cool kit. lots och nice details and fun options. Something I tired to do with the painting was to make the less obvious choice when choosing between painting something organic or mechanical. For example, the "hands" are probably meant to be mechanical, even though they have quite flowing, organic shapes. But to a Haemonculi, flesh is just another material and it did give a weird impression to paint them as flesh. It also gav the opportunity to paint some gory effects (which look better IRL), especially with the chainflail. Being turned into a Talos is a punishment, so it makes sense that the weapons should hurt the Talos as well.




Another thing I tried to do was to give the model an occult or alchemical feeling. It fits well with the symbol for "the Hex", which supplies my coven troops. Even though the Dark eldar are not religious and do not use psychic power I figured they could still use some runic wards. Or perhaps they are just playing with the superstition of lesser species...



And with the Talos I can finally try out the Dark artisan formation. I'm not sure it's actually worth its points, but it's a fun formation. But I realize now that I might have to build a new Haemonculus. My old one does look quite strange now that Shattershard no longer exists.

I think alchemy is extremely appropriate for Dark Eldar, since a lot of the Coven nomenclature is derived from alchemical concepts: homonculi, panacaea, etc.

Very nice work on the Talos.

I quite like the bits of tiles and ruins on your bases. How are you doing them? Green stuff? Card?

Very nice free hand! Wish I could do that as well as you do. The off-white really contrasts with the red/black in a nice way!

Thank you!

@Calyptra: The tiles on the bases are plasticard. The ruins are either plasticard or small stones, sometimes enhanched with greenstuff.

I finished a Razorwing!



Cool model, like most other DE-kits. I like that you can swap weapons without the use of magnets. I painted both the Dark lances and Disintegrator cannons, although I doubt I will ever use the disintegrators with the current codex. DE need all the anti-tank and anti-air they can get.

The more new vehicles I paint with yellow tribal patterns, the more I realise I have to add them to my old vehicles as well. I really like what the contrast between the yellow and dark red does for the model.


I thought for a while about what freehand to paint but in the end I settled for some sort of symbol like the ones found between texts in the codex.

This is absurdly good looking. Color choices are dead on, gradients look great, and that freehanding is truly impressive. The skull in particular gives a cool oldhammer vibe to the model.

Absolutely beautiful!

Thank you very much!

When I have been painting newer vehicles and adding yellow tribals to them I have more and more realised that I have to update my old vehicles to that style as well. It gives much better contrast and prevents the army from looking like a dark blob whenever the light is not optimal. So this weekend I finaly got around to the update. And to clarify, the vehicles were all fully painted before. The new thing is the yellow tribal patterns

And I am using the word "tribal" in a very broad sense here. The patterns are actually neither "real" tribal patterns or the western tattoo-version of tribals, bur a mix of several different styles. But I like the look of it.


The first raider I tried this on. It was updated almost a year ago, but I havn't got around to taking a picture of it until now.



Raider two. It previously had two grey runes in the front, so I painted over them in yellow and continued in the same style on the stern of the vehicle.



The incubi raider. On one side, I did a tribal version of a demon head, to fit with the painting already on the hull. The symbol was very much inspired by the League of Shadows' symbol from Arkham knight. On the other side of the hull I just did a tribal pattern.


The first ravager. I didn't want the yellow to be too dominating, so I just went for a small pattern in the stern.



The other ravager. Some runes and a tribal pattern.


The first venom.


And the second. My newer venoms already had tribals on them.

Overall I am very pleased with the result. Interesting how a small detail can do so much fo a model.

I really like the look of these, I didn't think the 'tribal' thing would work, but it really does and comes across very well!

As if the models weren't stunningly beautiful already
Yours is one of my favourite logs, everything looks so good, and dem freehands!

Thank you!

I hate all the freehand.


It's crap.


Booo.

It's ok.

It's not bad, really.

It's pretty good.
I like it.
What great work.
Fantastic!

nexs wrote:

I hate all the freehand.


It's crap.


Booo.

It's ok.

It's not bad, really.

It's pretty good.
I like it.
What great work.
Fantastic!

This was wonderfully written, and quite a laugh.

As are the models on this thread. Seriously, great job Mortarion, they look beautiful.

I fully agree with you that the white/yellow designs bring some fantastic contrast to the red and black armour. They complement the nice freehand elements and charismatic additions to the vehicles without competing with them for attention. +1

Absolutely stunning and motivational army. I love and admire your dedication, patience, and passion. Keep up the fantastic work!

Thanks everybody.

I just finished a unit of reavers!


Since reavers compete in the arenas I wanted something to reflect that with the painting. And even though eldar have good eyesight bikers would need something to help the crowd identify them. So I painted a different rune on the front of each bike...


...except for this one. He's a rebel has tribals instead of an identifying sign!


A normal reaver. That head is one of the coolest in the entire DE range.


And another regular reaver. This time with a knife.


With this I wanted to do a more interesting weapon. Sure, a perfectly executed knife kill looks cool, but it has been done so many times. So, for the more imaginative kill - a hook on a stick attached to a chain, which is in turn attached to the bike. What happens if you attach this to someone while zooming past them in 300 km/h? Fun for the whole family!


I used the helmets to mark special models in the squad. Weapons can be exchanged and cluster caltrops added.


And finally a model which can be used as a champion.

I also finished the base for my Razorwing.

With such a large base I could really do something that showed the theme I wanted with my bases.

I finished som objective markers.



I wanted to tie them to the bases rather then the army itself. They are something on the location where the dark eldar fight rather then something the eldar brought with them. And then I had this idea...
Dark eldar do not fight to conquer planets in realspace. They have no interest in controling realspace. They fight for slaves, but mostly for entertainment. They want to feel the fear and despair of their prey and feast upon it. And there is also background of them recording fights to relive them later. War is a sport to them. And that would actually fit rather well with the Tactical objectives. Additional challenges given to them by the audience or rivals in Commorragh.  
"I bet you cannot take that point in the enemy lines within 30 seconds."
"Challenge accepted!"

So the objectives are supposed to be something that the dark eldar had the civilization whose ruins now litter the bases build. To make an "arena" where they could engage the lesser races in combat and show of to their rivals. All they had to do was lure an opposing force to the arena and... let the games begin!

How are you doing thoose freehand roses? Do you draw on the models first to get outlines or just straight up free hand. Either way amazing work.

It looks amazing. I'm so jealous of your skill.