I am really excited about this kit! The prototype unit took a bit of time to get sorted but, with the lessons learned from that the remaining units were quick, easy, and fun to assemble and paint.
I really got into the backgrounds for these. I have them referring to themselves as "Death Guard" and will spin that into a rivalry with my CSM Death Guard! Anyone know how to write "Death Guard" in Dark Eldar?
As is often the case the production groups were both easier to do and looked better when finished! In this case after painting up the production groups I went back and brought the weapons of the prototype group into compliance with the production group scheme.
One of the big improvements was in the assembly. On the prototype I broke a couple of parts using tools to take these off the sprue... then I remembered something Benoit at Raging heroes mentioned... that the guys had a way of just popping the models off the sprue without using tools. After a couple of moments I discovered the parts were attached in such a way that they could be popped off the sprue very cleanly and never broke another bit! Thanks for the tip!
My initial use of these will be as Dark Eldar Trueborns in Ynnari service. As as such I wanted to go with a deathly bone color of armor and to have the flowing bits resemble grave shrouds using cool colors like tiel and blue-green. This makes the unit a lot more colorful and interesting to look at on the tabletop.
The units are divided up bu the color of the pony tails with the blue unit as the prototype and the magenta and orange being production groups.
The general procedure was:
Whole Model:
Prime with Khaki paint and primer combo.
Heavy Dry-brush Graveyard Bone (Reaper).
Dry-brush Splintered Bone (Reaper).
Wash with Sepia Ink mixed with Glaze medium and Thinning medium (Vallejo).
Drybrush Graveyard Bone.
Layer Splintered Bone.
Weapons:
Wash with Armor Wash (Secret Weapon)
Dry-brush Rustungs Farbe (a bright Silver)
Paint Gory Red (Reaper)
Layer Blood Red (Reaper)
Layer Carrot Top Orange (Reaper)
Shrouds:
Inside Surfaces:
Paint Dragon Blue (Reaper)
Layer with Voidshield Blue (Warpaints)
Layer White (Reaper
Outer Surfaces:
Paint Copper Verdigris (Reaper)
Wash Green (Secret Weapon)
Faces:
White Flesh (Vallejo)
Wash with Flesh Wash (P3)
Layer White Flesh.
Ponytails:
Wash with Ink heavily mixed with Glaze Medium and Thinner Medium)
Highlight top strands by adding some white to the base mixture.
A sneak peek at some of the stuff on the table for next time... Techies and Scientists for Star Saga!