Marauder Dark elves

kwondae

Serf
Hi All,

Currently enjoying vacations with not too hot a weather, which is perfect for some painting.

I'll start with dark elves, specifically marauder dark elves. Although I generally enjoy the 'drow' aesthetic, I'm a sucker for this classic art:IMG20250801002957.jpg

Those elves are colorful and boast those funky '80s hairstyles which, as we all remember, were the bane of the ozone layer.

That should look nice on a small force of 3rd and 4th edition models.

Here's a few WIP shots:
IMG20250801024218.jpg

IMG20250801024322.jpg

IMG20250801024348.jpg

IMG20250801024402.jpg

It'll take a few models to set the colour scheme and practice NMM, which I haven't used yet on any mini.
 
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Lovely. Those shields look great and the elf WIP is looking amazing. Looking forward to seeing this lot finished up, should be pretty special.
 
They are looking really great. Those old Marauder dark elves certainly had great character. Much prefer their aesthetic to the later grimdark aesthetic that was retro foisted onto them (though will always make an exception for not-Elric-crossed-with-Peter-Steele-of-Type-O-Negative, err, I mean Mallus Darkblade).
 
Ti Pouchon said:
very nice indeed!
Might I ask, what's the name of that green color on the captain's sleeve and pant lT
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👍
Those areas are Incubi Darkness, edged with Sons of Horus Green. Both colours are from the Citadel current range, which is the single range I'll use for the dark elves.

I also love the Warcolours' Nostalgia ranges, which I'll use on the big hats.
 
After seeing this thread 5 weeks ago and thinking a lot about it, I just put my marauder Dark Elves into the stripping gel. I have still have one test model (see below) but isn't what I wanted: My goal, as yours, is to get that WD cover feeling. My problem is that I fancied bone coloured shoulderpads, some purples and not much gold, and that doesn't match the illustration (the classic example of "I remember this painted X, but the real thing was Y").

Don't mind the Slaanesh Chaos Warrior next to him, my elves are supposed to be an allied contingent to the Slaaneshy part of my Chaos Army, hence the colour match. Some of you may think I ended up painting a 4th edition scheme on an older model.

IMG_1634.jpegIMG_1636.jpeg
 
Wilbur the Red said:
After seeing this thread 5 weeks ago and thinking a lot about it, I just put my marauder Dark Elves into the stripping gel. I have still have one test model (see below) but isn't what I wanted: My goal, as yours, is to get that WD cover feeling. My problem is that I fancied bone coloured shoulderpads, some purples and not much gold, and that doesn't match the illustration (the classic example of "I remember this painted X, but the real thing was Y").

Don't mind the Slaanesh Chaos Warrior next to him, my elves are supposed to be an allied contingent to the Slaaneshy part of my Chaos Army, hence the colour match. Some of you may think I ended up painting a 4th edition scheme on an older model.

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Your warrior looks good and this scheme is a solid one to apply on a full contingent.
But yes, the cover vibe is tricky to replicate. I think of two routes to the desired result :
- The way of the 1991 metallic paint set, anything non metallic but the skin painted as dark as possible.
- going all out with nmm and osl for contrasts, but that's another level of pain to apply to a full army.
I lean toward the second route though, that's why I'm happier with my shields than with the warriors.

Yet I have to pause that project for a few months, in order to paint a big hat army to replay a classic battle report with a youtuber.
Those chaos dwarves should make their way to another thread.
 
The skin on that cover art is not really dark at all?

There is some significant OSL going on from the wizard’s lightening, but they are otherwise fairly pale.
 
Ah, I was meaning that besides metallic areas, everything could be dark except the skin 🙂. On the cover, the sorcerer and the warriors surrounding him def have a pale skin. All the others, because of the low light from the reddish sky, look a bit darker (like mediterranean skin). That tone should look good on a mini.
 
kwondae said:
Ah, I was meaning that besides metallic areas, everything could be dark except the skin 🙂. On the cover, the sorcerer and the warriors surrounding him def have a pale skin. All the others, because of the low light from the reddish sky, look a bit darker (like mediterranean skin). That tone should look good on a mini.
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Got it, thanks!
 
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