EOE's Dark Eldar Painting Tutorials

Tutorial 1 - Painting Realistic Fluid Filled Vials in 4 Easy Steps


The idea of painting a vial to look like it's filled with fluid does seems like a scary thought… but it's just another painting obstacle that can be overcome with a little practice and a firm understanding of the principals that make it work well visually.




Initially when I set out to make a bunch of Dark Eldar Coven models I was scared to death about all the vials I would have to paint on Haemonculi, Pain Engines, Wracks, Grotesques, Scourges, etc. I developed a 4 step process that I would consider High-Quality Table Top.

Is it Golden Daemon? No, certainly not. But it does look great on the table and is realtively quick and effective process.


Step 1-2 : The Base Colors
This it the MOST CRUCIAL part of the whole process. You have to understand the process of how liquid moves in a glass vial and paint accordingly. Using the horizontal edge of the minis base as a guide, imagine how the bottom half of the vial will look once filled half way with fluid. It's crucial for each vial to have the top edge of the liquid parallel with the base edge. This will vary from vial to vial depending on how it's positioned on the model.







Step 3 : Fluid Highlight
All you do here is simply highlight the upper edge of the fluid line. The trick is to make the edge where the fluid meets the empty glass hard. The edge where the fluid highlight meets the darker fluid needs to be blended a bit. This makes it seem as if there's more depth to the bottom of the fluid filled areas.




Step 4 : Vial Highlight
The final step here is to paint the vial highlight. A simple thin line down the upper outside section will usually suffice. I prefer to use a light grey instead of white for this as to not overpower the effect of the vial painted underneath.





Optional Step 5
You don't need to do this, I usually don't. But you can paint bubbles into the fluid, by simply adding some tiny dots of a lightened up version of the base fluid color.





Here's examples of this technique in action on some of my Dark Eldar Coven models.

Tutorial 2 - Painting OSL Weapons Effects in 5 Easy Steps




Object Source Lighting (OSL) glow on your armies weapons is an extremely effective way to make your minis stand out on the table. While it seems complicated at first, it's actually not that hard and can be quickly mastered in 5 easy steps.

Much like my tutorial on Painting Fluid Filled Vials, this articles goal is to show you how to do quick and simple OSL effects on your weapons in 5 easy steps. Like the previous article; this is not Golden Deamon quality, but rather High-Quality Table Top and very effective.

Before I get into the steps, let it be known that I prefer an airbrush for this technique. However, if you do not have one, you can use a drybrush for steps 2 & 3.


If you are using an airbrush go for a dual-action for greater control over the spray width.
This article outlines the differences well: http://www.bmsports.com/learn_about_airbrushes.htm




Step 1:
Block out the illuminated area with a base color.
(In this case Vallejo Violet Red)


Step 2:
Airbrush or drybrush a blast over the illuminated area with the base color lightened up a notch.
(In this case Vallejo Violet Red mixed with a dab of white)



Step 3:
Airbrush a second blast of the previous color lightened up 1 more.
(Vallejo Violet Red mixed with more white)



Step 4:
Hand paint a strip of the color used in step 3, lightened up even further.
(Vallejo Violet Red mixed with more white, or GW Tentacle Pink)





Step 5:
Hand paint a thinner strip of color that is almost white for the final "hottest" part of the light effect.
(80% White with a dab of the base color to offset it a little)</span></i></div>


Here are the results on a few figures.

Thanks for OSL, thats really usefull. Some people on the net advise to protect mini with varnish before doing OSL. That serve 2 purpose - you can have a way back and you can modify the reslut of OSL by removing paint where its not needed for effect.

Really cool. cheers!

Could you do a tutorial on how to paint Coven Unit skin please?

Lord_Alino wrote:

Could you do a tutorial on how to paint Coven Unit skin please?

From the Warp already has the best Tut for DE Skin. It's the technique I use.

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/01/painting-dark-eldar-skin-tones.html

oh alright, Thank you, that will be quite helpful. I'll probably try out that skin technique on one of my models.

This is where I learnt to do skin as well. A really effective yet simple way for an evil looking flesh tone

Also, what about a tutorial on how you did those blood splatters? It would be quite helpful