Warmaster: First steps with Dark Elves

The kin of Malekith arise!

I found myself burnt out trying to polish off some High Elves, so decided the most logical course of action was to START A NEW ARMY.

I've gone with some unusual paint scheme ideas for my Dark Elves.  For the basing it's pale grey with snow rather than blue grey with grass that my High Elves have.  For the main troops it's pale gold and a range of blue-greens.

The first finished units are a Hydra and a Bolt Thrower, but I won't add the snow until I have several ready to be varnished and polished off all at once.

The hydra was a real pig of a model to put together and needed artistic license with mold lines and green stuff.  Finally though, I think it looks good enough to put on a battlefield.

I finished the base of the Manticore before anything else.  It is meant to come on a single moulded 40mm by 20mm base with the rock and some detritus as standard.  I like my Generals to be on a 40mm round and a bit more dramatic, however, so I trimmed it to fit, then used High Elf spares to make it look like he was triumphant over his goody two shoes brethren!

The part on the right is a High Elf hero on a horse I had spare, the one on the left is a High Elf Chariot archer I had spare.

This bolt thrower was the test bed for my colour scheme.  Whilst the old GW paint pots have awful lids that drive me crazy and waste a lot of paint inside the rim - I have still been buying a few of the more unique ones to try out and fill gaps in my collection.

The new Retributor Armour and Liberator Gold are expensive at £3.50 each, bust boast a very high pigment level which means that a single layer seems to work even over a black undercoat.  Compared with more watery metallic offerings from the earlier ranges these really do shine even in small quantities.

For the greens I've got Incubus Darkness as a basecoat and I am really pleased with it.  It is very matt, not glossy or too vivid like the Orkhide base colours.  Then I've had Kabalite Green and Sybarite Green to play with.  The latter is too bright so I've used Vallejo's Jade Green as the brightest highlight so far.