Coop's Crimson Dark Elves

[Coop]

Hello everyone!

I am new to Dark Elves and just finished painting my first unit of Black Arc Corsairs. I have been playing Daemons of Chaos now for a while and decided to expand to another army. Unfortunately for DoC, many of the Khorne units took a beating this book and aren't as useful as before (excluding the skull cannon of course!). This means I rarely get to use all of my red paints, so I decided to go with some red Dark Elves.

I only have the camera on my phone to take pictures with and unfortunately, it seems to make the reds look a little more pink and exaggerated. Regardless, I think I could do a better job on the armor of the corsairs and hopefully the next 10 will be sharper. Maybe I will take all of the reds a shade darker and highlight with a not too bright orange.

I plan to get some executioners started soon as well.

[Aurelius]

I love the color for the sea dragon cloaks because it reminds me of my original cold ones. The armor looks good, though I may suggest adding a wash to add some depth.

[Amboadine]

Those are some striking colours!
Nice banner.

I agree on the wash, for some depth, it might just be the picture quality though.

Good work, looking forward to seeing the next unit.

[Coop]

I took some more pictures in natural light and I think it did a better job of reflecting the actual red. You can also see the cloak better in this one.

[Amboadine]

It might be worth sharpening the red up with another coat of a lighter shade to tidy the armour a little.

[Coop]

I tried to clean up the armor a bit and go with a lighter highlight. I didn't have any other reds so I went with orange and I think it looks pretty uniform now.

[Amboadine]

That is actually a remarkable difference. Some times it is very small things that make a big difference.

[xFallenx]

The evolution of the red armour from the first photo to this last is amazing. Huge(very positive) difference.

[anthalont]

I really like Corsairs and seems they look great in red armor as well, good job

[Coop]

Just finished my supreme sorceress on foot below. I kept with the red color theme for the cloth and the gray/purple stripes in the hair.

I also decided to mold a heart for her open hand out of green stuff to be her sacrificial flesh for the dagger. However, I realized later that the heart is gigantic and bigger than a dark elf head! So now i'm just gonna say she used some dark magic to kill a high elf eagle, ripped its heart out, and then painted her face with its blood.

[Coop]

It only took a short eternity, but I finally finished my unit of witches I was working on. They have so many random pieces of armor that whenever I think I'm done, I find another piece i need to paint!

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I like the color scheme a lot and think they are pretty well painted (for me).

[Amboadine]

Certainly a striking colour scheme, matches the rest of the army well.
Nice to see it growing. Good work.

[Coop]

Just finished some xbows. I'm pretty happy with how their red cloth turned out. These are the first mostly metallic armored models I've painted, so I still need to work on the silvers and golds a bit. I know the lighting is not the best. Once I get a camera that's not my phone, I'll try to get some better pictures.

I'm gonna try to finish up some more witches and then some executioners next.

[Amboadine]

Interesting choice of colour on the bows. Nice contrast. A little chestnut wash may help bring the recesses out a little more.
But the army is coming along nicely

[direweasel]

What I find amazing about this, and minis painting in general, is that 20 people can look at the same miniature, and envision 20 (at least!) completely different ways to paint them. And they all look great if done right.

I would NEVER have imagined this color scheme working well. Red armor just sounds completely wrong. But it totally works. Kudos to you for trying something different and making it work.

Edit: Forgot to mention. I might do a blending wash on the sorceresses fleshtones. I understand that these are zoomed to more than 100% so they probably look more blended in person. Cameras have a way of bringing out imperfections that the naked eye often doesn't, so if it looks good enough to you then so be it. But based on what I can see, I'd blend her a bit more.

[Coop]

Thanks for the replies guys. Amboadline, that's a good suggestion on the wash. I used a little bit on the bows, but I think I can go over more liberally and get better contrast.

Direweasel, I think you are totally correct. It's been a while since I checked out the sorceress and she could definitely use some retouching. Glad you like the color scheme.

[kunimitsu]

Good job! I think each unit you add it seems to be a higher level then the last. Love seeing the improvements!

[Saintofm]

Nice. I like the paint job. It was a bit of a shock to see alot of pink on the early ones but hay, it works great with what I am seeing.

[Fr0]

They look cool, I really like the rxbs/Darkshards. The Corsairs make me think of the old VC Blood Dragons.
I'm not a fan of drow skin, this is not to say that I think they look bad but wonder if a wash would improve it. I like your overall theme though!

[Coop]

I finished up another 10 witches and took some more pictures below:







I also wanted to ask everyone's opinion on color schemes. So my theme color is obviously red, but I don't want to be over doing it on my models. I am going to start working on executioners soon and wanted to know if people think doing their cloth and cloaks in red, similar to the x-bows, would be overdoing the color.

Executioners are supposed to be elite units, so I'm not sure if they should be wearing the same general color scheme as the core units. The GW paint scheme has them in red, which balances well with the purple core units.

One option would be to go with the red cloaks, but do their armor all black like black guard. That way they look different enough, but keep the theme color (and black armor is badass).

Any thoughts?

[Amboadine]

Nice update. As for the executioners, cloaks would be a good choice for the primary colour. Or maybe just the inside of the cloak.

[DarkJim]

Nice looking minis there buddy! Good job .

May i ask what colours you used for corsair cloaks? Looks very good

[Coop]

Nice looking minis there buddy! Good job .

May i ask what colours you used for corsair cloaks? Looks very good

Thanks! The corsair cloaks are actually really easy to do. I based them with Naggaroth Night and then washed with Druchii Violet.

Finally, I dry brushed Lucius Lilac onto the scaled part of the cloak and then dry bushed longbeard gray onto the sides of the cloak.

[DarkJim]

Thanks a bunch!

[Coop]

Mostly finished up some executioners. Still need to do the banner and some of the finer details. It's not the most complex/original paint scheme around, but I think they look pretty cool and definitely look more elite than the dark shards.