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Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 6:31 am
by cultofkhaine
So my current corsair army is almost coming to a close and I am looking to start work on a new project.

I have decided to work on building an army based on the city of Ghrond with a Slaanesh influence. I have a fair number of models together for it including

- Morathi
- Supreme Sorceress
- Sorceress
- Master on a Dark Peg
- Assassin
- 2x 20 Darkshards
- 2x 5 Dark Riders
- Gorgon Guard (Black Guard) Morathi's personal body guard
- Bloodwrack Shrine
- Sisters of Slaughter

About 2500 points total - this will be a shooty/ heavy magic based army.

So what do you think it should look like?

I have done a search and not found a huge amount of inspiration with Dark Elves and Slaanesh models.

What colour scheme should I use, basing? conversions? etc....

If you find anything post it up I would love to see/hear your thoughts.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 9:19 am
by Darkprincess
In terms of basing, if you're going for a Ghrond themed army, you might want to go with a winter-themed base scheme, given how far north Ghrond is.

As for the look and feel of the army itself, I wrote an article some ten years ago about the Bel'Kheriour - the secret cabal of Slaanesh-worshippers in Ghrond. Since Ghrond is primarily the city of Khaine, being a Slaaneshi up there is a difficult and dangerous path to tread, so they tend to be highly secretive and have a tendency towards conducting bloodthirsty rituals which, on the face of it, appear to be in keeping with the practices of the Temple of Khaine, but are in fact dedicated to the forbidden veneration of Slaanesh.

The article was published in the January 2006 issue of the druchii.net herald;
http://druchii.net/initiatives/monthly/ ... uary06.pdf

At the time of publication, there was a requirement from the editorial team that articles should be 6 pages or less, which has resulted on it being a little shy on detail, but I feel that the article does give a rough feel for the cult. Maybe this will be useful to you if you're going for a Ghrond-themed Cult of Slaanesh army.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 10:02 am
by Lord Drakon
Cool! My perception of Slaanesh is lots of pink and a strong focus on sensuality and lust. Your units provide a great opportunity for an all female army. Then the other part of the army being of Ghrond the focus is on magic, magical spirits etc. Like your other great armies the theme directly makes clear what their theme is: khaine:blood, frenzy and sacrifice karond kar: sea, ships and now gronh: magic and sensuality.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 10:12 am
by cultofkhaine
Thanks Darkprincess - I will have a read.

I'm not a big fan of pink, perhaps in small doses. I do like violet and purple. I also think bright gold and shinny silver would also look good.

A few photos I found for some inspiration.

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Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 10:20 am
by Lord Drakon
Great choice of colour. I don't know if you already modeled the darkshards, otherwise its very easy to make them female by just using the female torsos and head swap. I have not seen Darkshard units with female heads on the internet so far.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 2:10 pm
by cultofkhaine
The 2 x 20 units of Darkshards I have all have female torsos. I was thinking of painting them in Gold armour and Mithril Silver chainmail similar to the Dreadspears in the first photo I posted.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 2:16 pm
by cultofkhaine
Oooo - I just found this http://www.calameo.com/read/00096391775ffd54e5da8

Cant download it :?

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 4:07 pm
by Shadowspite
I dislike pink as a Slaaneshi colour, as it's too stereotypical. And purple is too generically Dark Elfy to really stand out. Why not go back to the original Slaaneshi colour schemes of the 1980s and go for pastel shades? I think a pastel turquoise for the robes with gold armour and white fur and hair would work well, with black leather (boots, gloves, straps) as a contrast.

Another possibility would be ivory and gold, with pastel purple accents. Maybe ivory plate armour with gold edging, gilded chainmail, and pastel purple robes?

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 9:02 am
by Darkprincess
Lord Drakon wrote:Great choice of colour. I don't know if you already modeled the darkshards, otherwise its very easy to make them female by just using the female torsos and head swap. I have not seen Darkshard units with female heads on the internet so far.


Actually, elves are sufficiently androgenous-looking to be able to get away with making them look female simply by caeful painting - you don't need the female torsos (of which there are not enough in the box to make this an economical method). For my all-female Cult of Slaanesh, I just painted (warlock purple) lipstick and nail polish on them, and they certainly look like girls. Pale skin helps as female skin is usually a shade lighter than male skin, and helps to reinforce the look.

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Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 11:47 am
by Shadowspite
Or you can always use a couple of bits of greenstuff to make some of the regular male torsos female. If you look through the RXB troops and Acolytes of Khaine (and the Dreadlady on Manticore) in the DE gallery in my sig, you'll notice about half the females are not using the standard 6th edition female DE warrior torso.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 12:15 am
by cultofkhaine
Hmm - still struggling to find some decent inspiration for this army. There are not many Slaanesh Dark Elves pics out there on google image search.

My initial thoughts are (based on a Ghrond City, Slaanesh Dark Elves army)

- Snow, Ice bases
- Very Pale skin tones
- Mostly female units
- Violet, Purple, Gold, Shinny Silver, Gloss Black colours (not a fan of pink)
- A shooty and heavy magic army
- mutations for those with the mark of Slaanesh?

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 5:13 am
by Shadowspite
Cultofkhaine wrote:- mutations for those with the mark of Slaanesh?

IIRC, back in 6th edition when the Cult of Slaanesh army list was first published, it was stated in the official fluff that elves who turn to Chaos usually don't get mutated. The most they get is something subtle like oddly-coloured eyes or skin, or teeny-tiny horns that they can easily hide under a hood. Certainly no gribbly tentacles or whatever. Devotees of the Cult of Slaanesh take this as a sign of the innate superiority of elves over humans.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 5:07 am
by cultofkhaine
Here is a test pic for my Darkshards - I have two units of 20 to paint... what do you guys think, suitable for a Slaanesh army?

I'm going for mostly gold armour, very pale/white skin, fairly bright/mid colour purple.

The colours are a bit out on the photo.

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Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 11:53 am
by Shadowspite
It looks good, but doesn't really scream 'Slaanesh' to me. It's basically still a generic Dark Elf colour scheme. Maybe if you lightened the purple to more of a pastel shade? Or perhaps paint all the chainmail in gold, rather than just the edge, to really emphasise how showy/flamboyant these elves are? Or add some detailing to the gold plate armour to suggest filligree-work or etched designs? Or some gemstones added with greenstuff and painted a contrasting colour (turquoise or pale green possibly)?

I don't know. It just seems to need something else to say specifically "these are Slaanesh cultists" rather than just "these are Druchii". Once you have a whole regiment done with a suitably Slaaneshi banner and some conversions, it might be fine, though.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 12:57 pm
by cultofkhaine
The Purple I have used is a real vibrant, bright purple (Genestealers Purple) and the gold is quite bright as well (Retributor Armour). The chainmail looks quite light in the image as well, in life it is nearly black. I think when they are ranked up multiple times the unit will look very bright on the table top. The colour scheme is very different for me to how I normally do my Dark Elves, they are normally much darker and muted - not so bright and vibrant.

The other option I had in mind was all Mithrill Silver with a purple wash - but I have another unit in mind for this scheme.

I'm also not a big fan of pink/pastels I think the same theme can be achieved using slightly darker tones.

Anyway see how it comes out when I make a start on the unit. Also I don't think many Warrior units would be in full gold plate - these will be Morathi's Elite Maiden Guard 40 Darkshards.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 4:58 am
by Lion of flanders
Seems to me that the TGG2 flesh eaters are just the thing for someone who is putting together a Slaanesh themed DE army these days. I think they are a perfect mix of sexy yet creepy.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 5:53 am
by cultofkhaine
Sorry Lion I don't get you - TGG2? What's that? Perhaps I have been living under a rock and missed something lately!

Also I came across your DE Slaanesh army in my wanderings - very nice indeed! I think the best version I have seen out on the web so far.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 10:35 am
by Shadowspite
He means the latest Raging Heroes Kickstarter. 'TGG' = 'Toughest Girls in the Galaxy', their term for their female minis. The Flesh Eaters are these lovely ladies.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 11:23 am
by cultofkhaine
They look sweet - unfortunately I have to do with the current models I have.

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 2:16 pm
by cultofkhaine
This is the look I would like to achieve with my Dark Elves of Slaanesh, but less pink and more purple.

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Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 2:38 pm
by cultofkhaine
Just found this beautiful thing!

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Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2016 11:42 am
by T.D.
^^Inspired.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the inspiration ;)

Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 12:21 pm
by cultofkhaine
Well after such a long hiatus from painting - I found some inspiration over the Christmas holidays and have started back painting with a new army for the year.

Here is a quick pic and also the before photo for my pledge for the Jan painting comp. I did pledge 20 Darkshards but started painting 40 - hopefully I can do them before the end of the month.

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Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 5:36 am
by cultofkhaine
FEBRUARY 40 Darkshards

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Re: Slaanesh Dark Elves

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 8:19 am
by Lord Drakon
WOW, great to see so many and especially that they all have tits! (mine will have them too). Great colour scheme and character by those wyches faces.

http://www.druchii.net/viewtopic.php?f= ... ts+no+tits

Remember this topic? I will try to go crazy and paint the tits for mine, based on the fluff of Spartan women who are went bare-breasted. Maybe command with Spartan hoplites to finish it.

Really looking forward to painting 30 of my own.

Keep up the amazing and enjoy your big model this month