Dark Eldar Colour Scheme

So this will be my first more technical post, detailing the colour scheme I chose for my Dark Eldar army and describing the techniques used for painting the figures, specifically the Kabalite Warriors in this post.  The image below shows my latest complete miniature, which turned out much better than I expected. 

Kabalite Warrior with Shredder

Not only did the armour highlights improve greatly over the previous models but I also learnt a couple of new things for this one: firstly, it was the first time I've painted the skin on Dark Eldar (which will be detailed in later posts) and, secondly, its the first time I was really happy with how the blending came out on the gun.

Right so back to the basic colour scheme for these guys.  I've been painting with the official Citadel paints from Games Workshop.  I've found them easy and enjoyable to use, and the price is pretty good too.  Below is an image showing the first stages of my next warrior dude.  

• The main armour is basecoated with Naggaroth Night.
• All metalic bits (both silver & gold) are first basecoated with Leadbelcher.
• The gold parts are then coated with Gehenna's Gold.
• The cloth parts (e.g. the loincloth thing) is first basecoated in Ushabti Bone and, once dry, shaded with at least two coats of Druchii Violet.
• Satchels and cylinders on the side and back are painted with Mournfang Brown.

For reference, you can see from the picture which parts are painted which colours.  As you can see, on this model I've already started picking out some of the smaller details, such as the eyes, which are coloured Lothern Blue.

First Stages of a Kabalite Warrior (front)

First Stages of a Kabalite Warrior (back)

I don't glue the arms on the model until after I've finished painting the details on the chest just to make it easier to paint.  There are some slight variations between the models, namely the gold on the shoulder and knee pad armour plating.  I don't really have a set method for deciding this. I basically just choose what I think looks best on the specific model; for example, on the model pictured at the start of this post, I chose to do the shoulder pad gold with a silver spike as a continuation of the gun colouring to create a balanced line of colour across the center of the model that draws attention upward toward the face and that chilling deathly stare, which I think worked really nicely :-)

Well, writing this has given me the urge to get painting again so I'll get back to painting the finer details of this guy and will post photos of the next stages soon.

 - MHB