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A DARKER SHADE
OF PURPLE
How to paint a Dark Elf army by Agis Neugebauer
Another great army for the ever growing undercoat the whole model was drybrushed
Warmaster range. Those guys at Fanatic in Boltgun Metal. The cloth areas are
never cease to amaze me. And the new army, painted in Worm Purple then highlighted
of course, are the Dark Elves. with Tentacle Pink. The shields were then
painted black. The edges of the shields
The Dark Elf race has always had a special
being accentuated with a very tiny white
place in my heart. I enjoyed the Dark Elf
line. Finally, to add a little detail, I painted a
trilogy of novels from R.A. Salvatore a lot
small Dark Elf rune on the shield. To give the
and the background in the Warhammer army
unit a more cohesive appearance, I used the
books is just great too – especially the half-
same rune for the whole unit. The latest
naked, blood-crazed Witches!
Warhammer Army book has some very nice
When I’m about to embark on painting a runic designs in it. Do not choose too
new army I always start by re-reading the complicated a symbol, it’ll be a pain to paint
relevant Warhammer Army book. It really and nobody is going to notice such a level of
puts me in the mood for the job and makes detail anyway. The banner was then painted
it more fun painting the miniatures, if I have black with some grey highlights and a bigger,
a better understanding of the army and the more complex rune similar to the shield
background. First off, I had to consider the rune. To give the unit a rich ‘Dark-Elfy’ look
overall colour scheme. The current I added some gold to the helmets and some
Warhammer range is painted in very dark of the weapons.
hues. A bit too dark for my taste especially
The Crossbowmen were painted in the same
for tiny Warmaster models. I decided to take
way. The usual arrangement of four two-man
a step back in time to the earlier edition of
strips to a base looked a bit sparse for my
Warhammer and put in some purple again.
taste. So I decided to glue three two-man
Black, dark metal and purple would be the
strips to the base and a single Crossbowman
basic colour scheme for the army.
inbetween. Still the same number of models
but the base looks a little more densely
PAINTING INFANTRY packed.
The infantry range is a little bit awkward
because only the Spearmen come as normal Unfortunately, this technique was not
strips. All the other units are based like possible for the Witch Elves without ruining
Warmaster missile troops. This makes some of the models as you separate them.
painting for me slightly more difficult. Let So for these I based them in the normal way.
me explain why. When painting normal They were then painted using the standard
strips of infantry I glue one strip to the base colour scheme described earlier with the
and even add some sand. After that the only difference being the larger areas of
undercoat is applied. Now I have perfect skin, which was painted in Elf Flesh and
access to every angle of the model and half highlighted in a mixture of Elf Flesh and
of the base is already flocked. With missile Skull White.
troops I paint them on the strip, separate
them later and glue them fully painted to the PAINTING ARTILLERY
base. The problem comes when I do the The bolt thrower itself was done in black,
base afterwards; as there is a chance that I Boltgun Metal and Burnished Gold, while
will accidentally get paint on the finished the crew was painted exactly as the
models and have to touch them up. Spearmen and Crossbowmen.
Well, that’s the general technique. Into the
specifics... To begin with something simple I
PAINTING CAVALRY
Dark Riders are the fast, skirmishing cavalry
started with the Spearmen. After a black
of the Dark Elves renowned for their dark
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Paint the Army Purple
cloaks and dark horses. Naturally, I painted PAINTING CHARACTERS
them really, really dark! Black horses and The Sorceress is a very nice model. She is
mostly black clothing with some highlights sculpted in exactly the same pose as the
in grey and white. Not too much though model for Warhammer by Chris Fitzpatrick.
they need to be very dark – a bit like the A real character. Again, I stuck mainly to the
Ringwraiths from The Lord of the Rings. I army colour scheme but paid special
only added a tiny bit of purple to keep some attention when blending the colours. I also
army cohesion. highlighted her a bit brighter to make the
model stand out a bit more.
The Cold One Knights are a completely
different story. Being the line breaking, For the General with his Cold One mount
heavy hitting cavalry choice of the army I and the chariot I was doing basically the
wanted these to stand out more. After the same. Using the same colours, but painting
Witch Elves the Cold One Knights are my them with extra care and adding a lot more
favourite troops in the Dark Elf range, so detail in gold.
some special attention was necessary. The
For the Hero on the horse carrying the army
Cold Ones in the Lizardmen army come
standard I put a lot of effort in painting the
from the hot jungles of Lustria but the Cold
Standard. The standard was painted in black
Ones in the Dark Elf army are more used to
with a bit of dark blue. Just to make the
the chilling cold of Naggaroth, so I wanted
banner look more animated a slightly more
them to appear really cold. After the usual
complex rune was painted on both sides.
black undercoat I painted the Cold Ones in
Salamander Green. After that, I mixed Overall, the Dark Elf army is a very nice army
increasing amounts of Hawk Turquoise and to paint and one of the easier ones too. I am
white together and highlighted them pretty sure that you will have as much fun
carefully. The teeth and talons were done in painting your Dark Elves as me.
white. The Knights themselves were painted
in the standard army colour scheme. I only
added a bit more gold here and there to
make them look more like elite troopers.
Dark Elf Icons & Symbols
48
