So, I decided I need a break from 40k, and I've been wanted to paint a Dark Elf army for about 25 years. I love the spiky aesthetic, where even the most heavily-armoured warriors look graceful and sinister. I started these guys about 6-7 years ago, but got sidetracked by Confrontation and enjoyed their smaller, better-sculpted armies. Of course, Rackham killed that fun for me. (a moment of silence please ) So the last few months I've been sick of painting marines, and a buddy of mine decided to start a Forge World chaos dwarf army. I had sold him my Dark Elves years ago, but since we're both excited about Fantasy now (locally it's more popular than 40k) I decided to buy them back.


These was one of my test minis:




I had always planned NMM but realized I needed to find a faster way to paint. So this time around I'm experimenting with tinting my metals instead. I'm happy with the speed and color, and it's still fun to do, so I think I may actually get something accomplished.

Not too happy with the quality of these pics, I'll try taking pics in outside again and see if I can get cleaner shots.

Repeating Bolt Thrower and Crew
I love these weapons! I had some old 80mm bases from At-43 that I wasn't using, so I drilled out 1" holes for round bases to fit into. Then I modified the crew so they weren't all the same. The telescope is made from a Space Marine back banner pole. The arms and blades are from Dark Eldar Wyches and Dark Elf Corsairs plastics. Love plastics, they make perfect conversion fodder.

These guys gave me a chance to figure out my colours too. Armour is chainmail base, and mithril silver highlights. Both steps have had small amounts of Regal Blue mixed in, and Asurman Blue and Badab Black washes.







I really tried not to use purple, honestly! Seems like purple is mandatory for DEs. But I tried Scaly Green with the blue army on my Spearmen, and it just doesn't have the same impact. So, purple it is. Dammit.


Sorceress and Scroll Caddy:
Absolutely love the new plastic Sorceress! The legs seem a bit off for some reason, and I wanted something a bit more dynamic for my Supreme Sorceress. So, I used Wych legs, and sculpted a new ass to join the two. I bought the Isle of Blood boxed set for the mini book in London (the whole thing was cheaper than just the hard cover book here in Canada) and had planned on using the ball of magic as a base for her. Didn't quite work for me though, so I decided to sculpt something that looked like a wave of dark fire. Took some work, but I'm pretty happy with the end results.







Finished her face tonight;






Here's the scroll caddy. She' from Avatars of War; a buddy of mine had a spare.


You can see GW's "Big Hat theory" in place here; The bigger the sorceress, the bigger the hair. The head that came with the model looked terrible next to the GW sorceress, so I replaced it with a Wych head. I also scraped the back of her dragonskin skirt flat to remove a dagger and pouch, so I could add a dagger that came with a DEldar vehicle. The low-slung dagger breaks the silhouette a bit, as it runs parallel to her outstretched arm.

Feedback and commentaries appreciated. Puns will be ignored.

...and some more recent pics of the sorceress. Hair and staff still unfinished, as well as base.



Really having fun with this mini.

Ähm… wow!
Not often seen a paintjob like this. Her face actually looks alive!

Awesome work - I'm inspired... keep posting your great work please.

Some truly stunning painting there! Can't really say anything more useful than that unfortunately.

I have never really liked darker skin tone dark elves before, they just never looked quite right. The skin tone you have going though looks amazing.

I wasn't convinced on the greenstuff base you had for your sup sorc but once I looked at the painted photo of it I completely changed my mind

Great stuff, I hope you post more in the future as its some great inspirational work.

Really amazing paint job!! Keep posting pics plz, ur army is going to be one of the best paint if u keep it up like this:)

really nice conversion and paintjob, really like this drow sorceress!

While I'm not a fan of the skin tone (non-pasty elves just seems wrong to me somehow...) the paint job is really excellent. Can I ask what the recipe is for that long mane of white hair?

Must agree about the skin colour, but hey does make them different. wicked painting keep posting.

Thanks very much guys! I really appreciate the support; I haven't started playing fantasy yet, and my buddy is still waiting for the Forgeworld Chaos Dwarf book, so I've really been struggling to make progress with these guys.

I find the darker skin tone more fun to paint, especially with the contrast of the white hair. In part it reminds me of the old D&D drow, in part it feels a bit more exotic, but mostly I'm bored with painting pale caucasian skin.

phierlihy, the hair in that last pic is spacewolf grey, possibly with a very thin shadow grey wash. I've since finished painting the hair using those colours, plus pure white for the highlights and a mix of asurman blue wash and badab black wash. I'll try and get some finished pics this weekend.

I've really been surprised by how good the GW washes are.

Guh. Black guard.

I used to love these guys; they were the main reason for wanted to start a dark elf army. The spiky, ornate heavy armour just looked so fun to paint. And it is.

But ranking them up? It took me weeks to figure that out. My chihuahua could figure out the New York Times crossword in less time.

Anyways... Here's the leader in progress;


This is the third halberd I've tried for this guy, so despite the dodgy looking left hand I think I'm done. Time to throw some paint around before I give up completely on this unit!

Mastiff, great use of colours and highlights on your sorceress (and her base) but i have a little traitorous thought in my head when i look at it. Although i agree that your re-posing of her is better than the default GW pose, it looks like she's trying to escape from the dark energy on her base! Maybe it's because (to my eye) it looks like a hand reaching up to grab her- i hope she doesn't miscast too often ^^.

I also like your tinted metallics and it's something i've dabbled with a bit in the past also- do you use a lighter ink or a lighter base metal for their highlights? I made an ever-so-slightly pinkish silver colour on the blades of my Cult of Slaanesh devotees which i was quite pleased about, but never highlighted them.

Yeah, it does look like a hand, doesn't it? I debated changing it, but I'm lazy I fully expect to miscast at least once every game anyways.

I've mixed regal blue and boltgun metal for the armour's basecoat, then highlighted with mithril silver/regal blue, and a asurman blue/badab black wash. I wanted the armour noticeably blue, rather than tinted. I like the subtle effects washes give, but in this case I wanted speed and predictability.

Beautiful work so far, looking forward to seeing the whole army painted up. Don't despair, the purple really does add a nice accent to the blue tinted armor.

amazing work! I love your colours! what did you use for the witch skin ?

i had missed this before. very cool stuff

Certainly one of the most refreshing DE blogs I've seen in a long time, much kudos!

I think a tattoo or 2 may be in order to break up the skin.

I hope you're planning a unit of WE as I reckon they'll be superb if the rest of whats been painted is anything to go by

Very pretty, and i do love the skin tone.

Great work so far. I love all the little conversions you've done simple but very well done.
I might have to steal the AoW sorceress head swap idea as I just can't make the regular head fit!

Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful works mate!

Superb Dark skin, care to share the steps for it?

Wow. Lie down for a nap and seven years fly by...

I sort of lost steam with WH Fantasy, and AoS murdered it completely. Actually, GW was dead to me for the last few years. With the General’s Handbook and the reintroduction of point values again, however, my gaming group took an interest in it. So, I’m back at it again, and, of course, that means repaints for everyone!

I’m FINALLY satisfied though.

Really, this is it, no more repaints!

Nice work Mastiff they look great!

Very neat painting scheme, they look amazing! Welcome back and so great to see a PLOG again.