Dark Moon Kabal

Ok

I've been painting, very busy, very slowly too. I usually paint per squad, usually like 5-7 at the same time, but here I started doing a whole bunch, a very bad idea ^^. In the end it all gets done, but it's all seems to go very slowly and motivation is crushed.
I started painting 12 wyches +1 succubus + 5 hellions at the same time. Too much if you ask me, too much variety amongst the models too, the HQ adds too much extra time too.

My hellions are going through their last highlights and they're done, I've painted all the details (btw remind me to NOT put skulls on every single hellions in the future). I just need to do final highlights on the purple armor and on the black leather suits, highlight the metal, do the freehand on the boards + some battle damage and they're finished.

The wyches are simpler and faster to paint than hellions (except for the hekatrix), they're also close to being finished, but I focussed on the hellions first, finished them to get my motivation back up, though being this close to the end is very motivating already and then I'll go back to finishing my wyches.

Did I just come to talk? No.

I finished a few wyches, trust me you want to see them .

First time I tried this: making a mini based on artwork. I found this first piece of artwork so cool, when I saw the real models for the first time, I knew it was possible, but it was only recently that I finally started working on the model. A very fragile piece, broke like a million times during and after construction, but I'm extremely happy with the result.







Second piece, a Succubus; same principle, I saw this artwork piece from Jes Goodwin and I though to myself: damn, this looks so much better than the actual model I have before me. I started cutting it up, adding bitz, adding greenstuff and this is the result. I know it weird calling your own stuff awesome, but these 2 models are just so awesome !!! : D








Like I said hellions are closed to being finished, I'll post the pictures when I'm done, afterwards I'll post the wyches

Looks fantastic! Very well done. I like your color theme and your highlightning!

Very impressive, if you paint that whole army to look that good, then you know one thing. To... much... time... on your hands.

Absolutely nasty. Classic looking Dark Eldar. Fantastic work man, I absolutely love your army.

Wow, how did I miss this treasure trove of a project log! With the sheer number of models alone it's impressive, and they're well-painted to boot! The new range seems to mix together quite well with your old stuff, and the newly painted Wych and Succubus look great!

thx for the compliment guys, I always appreciate those ^^.

Quote :

Very impressive, if you paint that whole army to look that good, then you know one thing. To... much... time... on your hands.

Not really, this year I painted almost nothing T T. I painted 1 full beast squad (quite big, but still one squad), 1 Lhamaean, 1 Ur-ghul, 3 wyches so far,1 succubus a a razorwing jetfighter.

Considering we're in november that's not a lot. I had several periods were I painted nothing during months. I only painted in march/may/june and september/october. the hellions and wyches are close

__________________________________________________

Some progress on the hellions: I did the freehand on the hellion boards yesterday, today I didn't even pick up my brushes, basically just have to do the final highlights on the purple, black and metal parts and they're finally done.

I spend most of the day playing video games like a lil noob, playing DOW soulstorm skirmishes in Insane mode. it was a lot of fun.

No excuses tomorow I'm painting nonstop, will just stop to eat or to strech out, the neck area hurts when I paint for too long. I really but really want to finish these freaging models ><, been working on them for weeks T T.

I'm back with updates finally!

December was a pretty dark period when it comes to painting and 40k in general, even beginning this month I was still celebrating a birthday or whatever.

Something I find pretty important to share about my personal life: I decided to try out enlisting in the army. I need to pass some tests on February 28, I'll know the answer a couple of months later, but if I'm accepted instruction starts in october. 40k will take a pretty big hit and be slowed down considerably. It will suck for this army, but it's my future after all. It certainly won't mean I'll quit 40k, I intend to continue this hobby till my last breath. You do have holidays,etc... for hobbies, even when you're in the army.

I've been working out like crazy for these army tests, this was also one of the major reasons why I didn't paint anything lately. I honestly ran out of inspiration and will to paint too. I still enjoy the models, but I just couldn't bring myself to paint for more than an hour or two. I tried several times to continue working on my hellions, but I simply had no will or patience to paint anymore. This weekend I slowly started painting again, till on monday I finally started painting like in the old days. I do admit I stop regularly, I don't seem to have the patience I used to have anymore.

I had forgotten to post my third wych, I had painted this girl quite some time ago, but forgot to post pictures, I had them around the same time as the succubus frankly.






Now more serious stuff. The hellions.

Honestly I hated painting those models, they took so much effort to finish. First difficulty: they're all very individual pieces, not a single similar body, all five different torsos and legs. The torn cloth pieces added more work and were quite difficult to deal with frankly. Painting so much skin was troublesome. Then there was the hair, some kind of rasta hair, I had to invent a whole new technique to paint it. The masks were pretty small also very difficult to deal with. The weapons were quite large, compared to the little knives wyches have, quite a lot more work. In short the whole hellion model was quite difficult to paint, a real challenge.
Then you arrive at the hellion board: it's not that small you know, a lot to paint, even if it's simple to do. I'll need to paint it separately next time though like I had done with my beastmasters. The freehand was actually fairly easily, but it was still extra work, added several extra hours of painting to the mini. You don't see it that well on the pictures, but I also did battledamage on the boards. The sucky cam didn't get those details, I'm sorry don't have a better one T T. You'd have to see them IRL to see those details.

Honestly a full hellion army must be hell to paint, this is also only half a usable squad, it will be used mostly for display purposes for now, though I have used it for kamikazi purposes in real games lol.

Enough talk =>





Lady scorpion, an old aristocrat like the baron. Her pistol looks like a claw, her stun claw acts like a scorpion claw, her hair looks like a sting, it just seemed natural. Very fun model to use, got to love snatching a guy from the enemy squad to feed to the lions. Huge fan of the stun claw.










Next in line are a couple of wyches, which are about 80% painted



So much easier than hellions, the only troublesome piece will be the hekatrix. The normal wyches are painted in no time.


After the Wyches I'll start my year like I should have (if I had finished the wyches and hellions before 2014),like I had planned for a long time: tons of vehicles!



I'll need about a year to paint all these (except for half the flyers who are already done, 4 of the other flyers are mostly done too frankly.

I'm really looking forward to painting the venoms and the new raiders & ravager, but only once I finish the wyches.


Also a pretty big deal for those who care: follow me on Facebook (click on the page and like it)=>
https://www.facebook.com/DarkMoonKabal
Should interest those who have less patience than others, I post updated on FB before anything else. I also keep people informed on the current WIP. I also post stuff on there I don't post in here, for the simple reason that the FB 40k community is pretty active. On FB you post something, 1 min after you have a reply, in here it takes several days to get 2 replies frankly.

Some WIPs , I tested out my color sheme on some vehicles. I'll continue these vehicles later on this year, as soon as I get various other stuff painted first, I got too much partially or almost finished stuff.





___________________________________________________________________________

I'm finishing up my 10 Wyches this week, I just need to do their black suits, highlights on the metal then the bases to finish and I'm done.

I'll paint the remaining incubi I got, they're half done, but frankly they don't take much time to paint, I really need to finish stuff I start painting instead of keeping it half painted or even 95% painted. The old incubi are a lot simpler than the new ones, the painting technique was also simpler. They didn't take that much time to paint, yet they look so good lol.
Next in line are the 4 FW flyers, it's really retarded, but I just need to do the final grey highlights on the black and that's it.

I'll also take a couple of days to paint my Lelith, I'll paint her at a higher standard than usual, but it will only take a couple of days.

I might do some harlequins, I'll see once I've done all the stuff above.

Then I want to paint the 2 venoms I got and the raiders afterwards, the vehicle painting spree will have started by then.

I finished my wyches in the meantime, a whole bunch of them. Apparently they were a very big hit on my Facebook page! In one night they got 700 views wtf!!!














and the Hekatrix









____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


If you like my work and got Facebook, I'd suggest you follow me on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DarkMoonKabal

I update that page more often and faster. There's more activity on facebook than on forums & blogs, people don't even reply in here anymore T T. It's very disappointing if nobody replies, on facebook you have views & likes, you know people watch you stuff at least.

Lovely work! The skintone on the Wyches is fantastic and their faces are so animated. Love 'em!

thx pal, yeah I I love these wych heads, the haircuts, the faces, they're awesome

Beautiful level of detail, and extremely well done. I can't do eyes to save my life.

I really like the patterning on the aggie.

Cheers.

Thx Gob, compliments are always appreciated!


Anyways slow progress but always some progress.

I tested the new technique and colors on an old warrior:





new & old

If you're guessing why the purple seems different: it's exactly the same purple, except that with time it fades and becomes more like pink. Eventually he'll turn pink with time, I prefer the original purple, but the faded version isn't bad at all.




Also got a Reaver done, main wanted to paint a reaver to see how he'd look in my colors.
I didn't do freehand, been conflicted with whether to do or not, what color to do the freehand. I can always do it later on. I'm a huge fan of freehand, it was obvious on the hellion boards, but when I saw the reaver hull painted I thought: this looks excellent like this, without any of the GW freehand.

Anyways, the reaver:







It's not glued, the pilot stays put very well, I changed my old phylosophy were I'd glue everything on. Same for the base, as long as you don't touch it and move it a trillion times it's just fine.






Old vs new. As far as I'm concerned the old design wins, no words awesome enough to describe it. The new reaver jetbike looks cool, much better than I expected now that I see it painted, but all the blades on the old ones are just so badass.



The rest of the squad will be for later, I do intend to paint all my new range vehicles before the end of the year, this will include the new bikes.


____________________________________________________________________________

Right now I'm a bit thorn between what to paint:

I got those 4 FW flyers I need to finish, they've been 3/4 painted for about 3 years now (put them to the side when the new range came out, I was painting them at that point, same happened with the last few old incubi)
I also got that last squad of old incubi that are half painted, the squad is done fairly fast, they're not as detailed as the new minis. It shouldn't take too long to finish these few models.

On the other side Lelith keeps looking at me, same as the new vehicles. I'd like to start/finish the 2 venoms and I got , then I'll do the raiders +ravager. Problem is: these new kits have the passengers and they'll take forever to paint probably. Also have the second razorwing to do.

Luvely painting. You must have infinate patience to do all that line highlighting and blending. They are looking great. My preferance is to the newer dark eldar models so i like the new reaver better but old one is still cool. I hate painting vehicles and have about 7 waiting for me to summon up the courage to get them done so i dont envy you your vehicle paint list

oh boy, seeing how original you went with your army, I'm really curious what weird things you'll do the your raiders, venoms & ravagers. That combined with your painting skills should make very ineteresting vehicles.

You can thank GW for the new sheme, when I saw the new minis, I just had to do something similar. I'll try it out on more old models, to blend in old & new, I'll also do some new stuff in the old style (basically more purple, less dark). Some of the old stuff did have dark armor, take the incubi, some raiders, they blend in with the new stuff very well.

As far as incubi I also prefer the old ones. The only thing I like about the new ones is their Klaives, their armor is too similar to the warriors, the helmet is horrible.

Been working on some old incubi at the moment.

Got something else done meanwhile. Took longer than I imagined, I finished all my FWs finally!
Just needed to do highlights on the black and some minor details on 3 Ravens and 1 razorwing.

The 4th Raven (The first 3 + the razorwing were already posted, but they basically look the same)




5th Raven, a leader type, for apoc formations






The second razorwing bomber





and the last raven





Pretty badass seeing all these painted flyers:










I still want more, I want some FW Ravens, which I'll paint in the new color sheme, I didn't want to repaint the current ones I have since I had already started their paintjobs, I have enough to paint already, it would be dumb to repaint stuff over and over again, besides they blend in greatly with the new stuff. I might get quite a lot more, I have all these color shemes in my head, so many ideas I want to see come true. The third FW Razorwing (which I'll get for sure) will be something different than the previous 2, haven't decided how I'll paint that one yet, but I won't go look for more than 3 of these OOP flyers.

_______________________________________________________________________________

I had some problems with a couple of these flyers, paint had started to come off, the resin nasty stuff somehow came back. I fixed it with varnish and black layers before continueing the highlights. I had put the flyers near a heat source, with the cold weather outside the models & their paint started to crack, messing up the paintjob. I decided to store these flyers, with my reavers underneath them. I kept the bases simple exactly for this and same in an apoc game, the base doesn't both other models. You can put models on it if you have to.




2 days after I had finished the Razorwing, I was grabbing it to check something and ...I dropped it lol. I fixed it later, but it was pretty horrible ><.



For those who don't know: the Raven & the GW Razorwing are pretty similar in size, not the same shape obviously.



A size comparison of the old & new models :



A lil sideproject I did: the gunner was already done a long time ago, but not the pilot. I baisclaly cut the raider pilot in half, put a wych torso on it, to have a full wych raider. I also wanted a Kabalite Venom, it all worked out greatly. I'll make more of these when I get more Venoms & raiders.



This year has been quite productive so far, I've managed to finish quite a lot of models, it's all going smoothly so far.

_____________________________________________________________________________


Anyways, I had continued to work on the Incubi, next week I'll continue (I have some stuff to do this week, can't paint during that time)



Shouldn't take too long to finish them once I resume painting. After these last incubi I'll start working on skimmers again, I'm probably going to paint the 2 venoms first, then then the raiders & ravager, the razorwing will be done after and then I'll probably do the 5 current range Reavers.

Once I've paint all the current range vehicles, I'll paint some more old raiders & ravagers. Apoc is all about skimmers I need my ravager formations. I have around 300 infantry models painted so far, not enough vehicles painted (11 raiders, 3 ravagers and 9 flyers). I got 12 ravagers, they're useful in apoc and they need to be painted urgently!

I had to go through this project log another time. My god man, this collection is just freaking amazing. The evolution of your painting is on full display while maintaining a coherent scheme through all of the years of collecting. I know where to go when it's time to paint the Raven  

Been painting this army for almost 7 years now (well re-painting it), yeah I keep testing new stuff, I keep finding ways to improve some things slightly, though my old color sheme was very different from the newer one, but I'll do some new models in the old sheme too, there are some differences in the highlights, I used more purple on the old stuff and instead of using midnight blue to do the shade I used purple + black mix (like you should be able to see above on the Ravens)
You can thank GW for the improved color sheme, new models, but the beautiful dark color shemes was just too good to not immitate.

I just keep following one simple rule: purple & black as the main colors, with some metal and gold. it's a pirate army anyway, everyone doesn't have to look the same, we're not marines.

I will need a couple more years lol, but I still got a whole bunch of painted stuff, right now I can finally focus on vehicles, I have about 350 infantry painted, but only 14 skimmers, 9 flyers .

Anyways, about a week ago I finished some incubi, the last few I owned ,though you know me having 4 squads isn't enough, I'll probably enhirit more incubi through ebay armies I'll take over. I need more current range raiders, what better way than to buy a whole army at 200 pounds instead of buying them all seprately.




These were the last couple of incubi:
all modified, cut of arms, re-arranged arms, added some greenstuff where it was needed, I wish GW had made such incubi with cooler poses.









Some old incubi with guns, from now on I'll count them as trueborn with blasters, the old shredders too, those weapons look incredibly cool.






I took some better pictures of the other incubi, the current pictures I had were all low pixels small pictures.






Re-baptised from Incubi Masters to Incubi Klaivex



Squad 1



Squad 2



Squad 3



and Squad 4





My coolest incubi is without any doubt this one =>

She's called Khera (huntress) An incubi assassin, a custom HQ






Found a good place to store my Razorwing flyers to keep the dust off them, it was obviously, just didn't think about the possibility.




Right now I'll start the vehicles ,with maybe some infantry units, right now I was painting 3 Raven Pilot, as objective markers, I was also thinking about making a Crashed Raven terrain piece, maybe I'll do some wyches, some harlequins on the side, but I'll work on the vehicles right now! The vehicles got plenty of side passengers, gunners, etc... those raiders with passengers really add a lot of work with the hanging guys.

I'll post some WIP on my vehicle progress, I'll start with the 2 venoms, I don't think they'll be that much work.

I finished off my Raven Pilots. They were finished in a night, pretty fast, I'm very satisfied with their endresult. Now I got fancy objective markers!





_____________________________________________________________________________________

I started working on my 2 venoms and well on all the other vehicles.

This evening I slowly started working on the venoms after I did the final touches on the Pilots.

One major pain in the bum when painting dark eldar vehicles: tons of extra infantry minis to paint!

My painting space looks a bit like this now:



This is the base I use to prime my DE skimmers.



I recommend you leave your raiders only half build like this before you paint them. Paint the enterior first, then glue them.



21 minis + 3 pilot torsos!!!!





I spend the entire day making the temporary bases, there's barely any superglue on the feet (contact area), you can easily snap off the model when it's fully painted. Then I cleans the moldlines I hadn't cleaned yet, some fast cleaning the models (dust), then I primed them ready to be painted! I'll paint these last though, pilot & gunners first, the passengers will be done as the very last pieces.



All this represents a couple of months worth of painting, I'll post WIPs from time to time, otherwise you'll have to wait too much time before it's all done.

Question - Why do you continue to buy models when you have... probably the biggest army I've ever seen. I personally don't see the point. Why not put the money elsewhere? Unless you have enough to blow on this game for no reason I see no reason to continue buying stuff. Although, I enjoy seeing your army so if you're doing it so you can just set your army up on a 12ft by 16ft display board to look at I understand. Although.... I really find it weird to continue buying models.

Lord_Alino wrote:

Question - Why do you continue to buy models when you have... probably the biggest army I've ever seen.

Sometimes the point is: Because you can  

Well you are right, they will be displayed, once I've painted most of the army (possibly if I painted it all) I'll start working on the terrain, Commorragh style. Terrain will serve 2 purposes, to display, to play. I'll make several tables , interchangable and linked to eachother.

ESE got it right though, I know that not everyone can afford to buy huge armies, but fact is, I can. Had an excellent job before, right now I might enter the army as an officer, I'll make ridiculous amounts of money, why not spend some of it.

I got serveral purposes in mind when building up this army though. I'll explain

=> somewhat geared towards apoc, meaning lots of skimmers, flyers and anti tank weapons. Got 3 superheavies, I'll add like 3 tantalus, more flyers (eldar ones as well) some eldar titans.

You have transports for example, all the non kabalite units need one for sure in apoc, some of the kabalites also need their transports to be of any use in apoc.

I won't be buying much more old stuff except raiders (which I don't have enough considering how many warriors I got) and something like a second hellion unit (though I'd like to build up 2 oldschool hellion units of 10 guys). I might get some more oldschool stuff through ebay.

I spend a little bit under 1k (euros) on new range dark eldar, a couple of hundreds on FW. I still need to increase my current range minis, to have enough to play new stuff only, I almost consider it like a second DE army, which it kind of is, considering it has a different color sheme and different style.

I've spend mostly money in paint these last 2 years, I've bought very few models.

It's not all about apoc, I also aim for multiple normal battle options. I want all the options in short XD. To sum up;

6 troop choices for all different armytypes
=> 6 kabalites squads
=> 6 wrack squads
=> 6 wych squads
=> 6 hellion squads

Trueborn and bloodbrides will depend on my converting mood.

Incubi => 3 squads

Grotesques => 3 squads (not max sized, 1 GW grot sqauds, 2 converted with other GW models)

Heamonculi => no limits, depending on my inspiration to make one.

Harlequins, I got 7 units already XD, but to be fair, they used to be a codex on their own, maybe GW will give them back that status.

Scourges => 3

Beasts: Another squads, maybe more, but only composed of Khymera or maybe composed of completely new beasts.

Talos => 3, cronos =2

Razorwing=> 3

Voidraven 3 mini, no limits though, S9 Lance weapons on a flyer, it's pretty awesome.

Ravagers: no real limits either, 3-5 current range at least

I've got some ideas for some more ravager sized variations, I'll also build more scratch build superheavies (current range ones, based on the FW open day 2011 artwork). If FW releases any more DE vehicles, you can be sure I'll get them ^^.

From what I estimate the current range DE army I'm aiming for will be something at 20k? I won't make it much bigger though, I got enough oldschool units.

I'm not the biggest fan of battles, but I can enjoy them and looking at all the options I got, I never get bored of this army. A lot of people get bored of their single FOC armies and switch to other armies or simply sell their army.

Another thing you have to understand, I buy through ebay as well as from GW or FW. Usually I buy entire armies, It's what I'll do to get my hands on as many transports and ravagers, I'll use GW to complete what I can't find or don't have, FW for the other stuff I'm missing. (I might get unwanted units through buying entire armies, this explains why I have 48 reaver jetbikes and so many warriors)

I only went apoc with my Dark Eldar because I absolutely love them, my eldar will also go apoc, but never this big for obvious reasons, my nids will also go apoc, less big than my eldar though. my necrons and Tau, might maybe go apoc, but they're mostly normal battle armies for me.

I'll also start a limited Eldar Corsair force this year, no big plans though, just a small 2500 pts sidearmy with some different options.

If GW really wants to screw me, they could release another cool looking xenos army with tons of units ><.

From what I know: I'll be spending at least 20 more years painting stuff XD. In any case I'll always be busy :p. I love painting, this hobby is the best thing that ever happened to me. Frankly GF or not, I always want to paint, if I ever get married it won't change, that's for sure.

In the next 2-3 years, I should make some excellent progress on this army, I already have quite a lot painted, but now I'm focussing on skimmers and particularly on painting every single ravager I own, some tantalus & Reapers near the end of the year, some more Current Range skimmers will be added next year. Then I'll paint some more Kabalites with tons of blasters and Dark Lances.

The old warriors are done quite fast even with the current color sheme. I'll pretty much speedpaint a whole bunch of them, no need to go all out on all 430 warriors I own. (around 330 unpainted anyways) Some simple painting will be fine on those.

The 150 non warrior models + what units I'll buy in the future will add tons of extra work :p, then again like I said, consider it like a second army, like I'm doing different army.

__________________________________________________________________________________

For the record, this is far from being the biggest 40k army in the world, it's the biggest DE army, but you've got much bigger armies in the 40k world. Last year GW displayed the entire Ultramarines chapter at warhammer world, 100k of smurfs... all painted by a ton of GW staff guys though.
Seen a couple of huge Imperial armies, marines, IG, SOB, mix of all imperial forces. Also seen some very fair Chaos forces, a couple of months ago I was talking to a staff guy at my local GW and he told me he had around 40k pts of chaos Marines stuff.

One of the many examples of the even crazier people than me, a buddy of mine =>
90k of eldar goodness. He does use commision painters to get his stuff done. (frankly I've also been thinking about it)

http://wcwdb.blogspot.com.au/

20k points? The biggest army I've played against was 15K, ork ork ork ork. His wife has started making him sell off a ton of the models (He only has about 6K of it left at the end) That army was hugeee We played against it in Apoc, it was 4 or 5 of us versus him XD

At one point I started asking people how big their armies were (at my local GW); pretty much everyone had several 8k pts, that was pretty much the average size for an army (or several 8k pts armies) Frankly amongst the people I know pulling out 10k pts isn't a problem, a fair number of people with way over 10k pts armies, it's nothing rare.

When you go online you find people with easily 20k forces and way more. On youtube you can find a lot of apoc battles fielding above 100k, huge tables, a lot of table, a lot of players.


It's best to split up an apoc army into 6-10k pts per player to make the battle smoother, it's what Intend to do. Right now I got 40k pts, it takes a complete day to deploy it. I need a couple more hours to put it all into a car, move it to another place, you can pretty much count 2 days. Most I've used was 10k pts, I'll play bigger battles eventually. I might field it all eventually, but in most cases I'll use parts of the army.

I'll keep increasing the size, but it's mostly like I said, units I'm missing, stuff I still want. I can afford it, I don't mind. Sell my stuff? downsize it? Funny ^^.

Don't forget I've taken over a couple of armies from ebay, yeah I've spend a lot of cash on thsi hobby, but not as much as you think.

O.o I don't even have 2500 pts Although I also only play smaller 1500-2000 pt games for fun. When I play apoc I pull out my dad's 4 shadowswords.