My Dark Eldar have always been my biggest 40k mistake. Not the army themselves (despite their 17 year old codex.... and I'm only exaggerating a little with that), but the way I painted them. I was getting them ready for another tournament and didn't have much time, so I painted the entire army from scratch in about 3 weeks. I had thought that a white basecoat, followed by picking out some bits, followed by a light brown dip (with the army dip product) would provide a quick and nice bone scheme.
I was wrong. Very wrong. It just looked like I'd undercoated them and stuck a light woodstain on. So, with much derision from the GOGs ringing in my ears, they went away after the tournament, only coming out very occasionally to be used (and mocked for their paint scheme).
So, in much the same way that I rescued the Sisters-of-battle for my first GOG army, I decided to try to rescue the Dark Eldar with this, my third GOG army. To be fair, the army did win 2nd best army in the tournament (of about 40 people) which was doubtless entirely for the conversion work as opposed to the paint scheme.
I've not posted for a while as I've been working on the first figures. I dug out all the plastic bits that I for them and managed to get 30 warriors from the original army and any other leftover bits. As the Dark Eldar plastics are so.... let's be nice and say average, I converted them by using the cloaked legs from both the high elf archer and dark elf warrior figures, stuck with the bodies and arms for the most part from the Dark Eldar figures and then used as many bare elf/eldar heads as I could find and used some dark elf heads for the rest. Went for a green armour & grey/purple clothing colour scheme and a very pallid fleshtone to enhance their evilness.
Pretty pleased with the results and I'm now working on the raiders. Then it's on the the raider squads (for which I have something a little different in mind), then wyches, then ravagers, then..... Hmmm, not sure I'll have time to get this done, but painting to a deadline is the only way to get armies finished I find!
3 comments:
I wouldn't say biggest mistake - that is not true. As you insinuated, your conversion work on the vehciles, as usual, magnificent.
We all slip from the golden path for the sake of getting them on the table as soon as possible. I like the look of these, now mean dark and dirty - they way DE should be. I look forward to seeing these on the table in March - which is only 20+ days away
Wow, they now really look the part Varistat!
Before they did look like High Elves, but now you've brought them up to your normal standard, the paint job matching the conversions standards we've come to expect in one of your armies.
I just hope they remain soft and squishy! (Even though they'r barbed!)
Cheers chaps for your kind words, but the paint scheme really was pretty rubbish. The conversions needed some updating too, the high elf archer heads all had to go and I've got some ideas for the rest of the army too, which you'll see in due course.....
Soon the Dark Eldar will be able to hold their spikylittle heads high amongst all the other armies in our little group :)
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