My Dark Eldar Ravager is finished. I was using a similar painting technique to my Voidraven Bomber. The only new technique is that I made a set of decals for the aethersails. I wanted them to look like they were made form some kind of advanced mesh, so a decal seemed the best option. I designed them in illustrator, then printed the decal on a laser printer and applied.
I was having a really difficult time photographing it, I need a better lighting set up, so please forgive any photos that might seem odd. I will probably reshoot later under better lighting conditions.
Looks fantastic, great work
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely gorgeous! The sails turned out really cool, and the whole model just exudes menace. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteExcellent idea for the sails, and very well executed. I've considered laser printed decals before and am curious, do they behave like a regular decal?
ReplyDeleteThats a beauty mate! Im struggling with a Raider at the mo, and cont decide how to paint it! Although this model has given me a few ideas.....;)
ReplyDeleteGreat job!
Looking excellent, the sails turned out well worth the extra effort.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliments everyone!
ReplyDelete@SAJ, Home printed decals are way way weaker than regular model decals. They need to be handled with extreme care.
There are 2 different kinds of decal paper for home printing, opaque white and transparent. For something like this I used Opague white, otherwise all the ink would be transparent and you wouldn't see any detail on the sails when placed over the black primer base. I needed that white backing to make the colors rich.
Professional decals are printed on transparent paper with white ink first, then color overtop the white, then a layer of matte varnish over that.
Hope this helps a bit.
Nice model, and I really *really* like the sails! Did you create them in the exact shape, or make them larger then trim to fit? They really blow me away and now I'm going to be looking for places to use decals like that.
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
ReplyDeleteI made them to the exact shape. I made a stencil of every Dark Eldar sail type and made the decals to fit. Of course there was still some minor trim issues after placement, but nothing major.
I have 3 raiders in the works now that will be online soon. Each has the same sail treatment.
BTW what Blue did you use on the hull of the Ravenger?
ReplyDeleteThat helps a lot, very good info. Being more fragile, are you able to use/do you have to use Micro Sol&Set? Thanks a lot, and keep it up!
ReplyDeleteVery Inspiring. Awesome stuff.
ReplyDelete@GunGrave,
ReplyDeleteThe main hull was a 3 shade airbrushed gradient. Dark to light. Vallejo Air Black, Vallejo Air Dark Sea Blue, Vallejo Air French Blue.
The brush painted armor highlights were, Vallejo Model Royal Blue followed by a thinner highlight of Vallejo Pale Grey Blue.
@SAJ, you can use Micro sol, Micro set sparingly. And it does certainly help with contoured surfaces. But those are both thinners so you don't need nearly as much as you would with thicker mass produced decals.
In the case of these sails, I didn't use any at all cause the surfaces were flat. It left the edge of the decal kinda thick and slightly raised... but it's hardly noticeable in the end.
Great job mate. Love the Blue and how it has been highlighted, and the deep red on the sail's is really cool to. Are your decals hand done? Also I really like the base and how you have use the terrain to support your stem so that it does come away easy.
ReplyDeleteThanks Commissar Dave!
ReplyDeleteI made the decals completely from scratch using adobe illustrator and adobe Photoshop.
wow, great job man.
ReplyDeletealways a pleasure to see your work Lucky! Great job!
ReplyDeleteFantastic job as normal good sir, the decals that you made for the sail really adds to the model. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the free hand designs too
Stunning work! I love the richness of the colours. I've just started to paint my DE force with an airbrush too. Going for the same colours as the front pic on the codex. I found it tricky to get the flow right, even using the Vallejo Air paint. Having to clean the airbrush a lot. Any tips on cleaning your brush?
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to see more :)
Thanks again for the compliments everyone!
ReplyDelete@Ding-dang-dhu, I always clean my airbrush with isopropyl alcohol. It usually manages to clear out most of the internal paint.
I've noticed that while using Vallejo paints..they do tend to start caking up around the nozzle if you are doing long airbrush sessions. So my recommendation for that is just to wash the brush out a few times in-between when doing a long airbrush session.
As far as getting proper air flow, it might be the compressor you are using. if it's an air hose straight to the compressor the PSI might fluctuate. If you have a compressor that is hooked up to an air tank, then the air hose to the tank, you can regulate the PSI and get a steady flow of air rather than a start-stop sputter kind of flow.
Hope this helps :)
Also, I've noticed that Valleo air works a lot better with just a few drops of water added. It's pretty thin to begin with, but just that extra thinning really helps and the paint is rather opaque so it really doesn't disrupt the coverage.
ReplyDeleteThats some great tips right there, thanks. Yeah its a line from the tank. And it is a bit stop start. I painted 3 ravagers, 4 Raiders, 4 Venoms, 6 Reavers and 3 Hellion/Beastmasters in one afternoon. I was pushing it :) Wanted to keep the same colour for it all. I'll send you my pics when I get a chance to upload them, if you like. I may start a blog too, Yet another DE one lol
ReplyDeleteSo will your whole army look like the above Ravager?
Hey Ding-dang-dhu, you should certainly start a blog, it's fun :) But there is a blog called yet another Dark Edlar Blog already :P It's in my sidebar.
ReplyDeleteYeah I can see how you would have some flow issues with that many being painted at once. The paint was probably drying a bit inside the brush.
Everything in my army that is Kabal based will be in the Ravager scheme. This includes Archons & Warriors, Trueborn & Warrior raiders. My Incubi earlier in my blog are pure black, blue and purple, so their raider will be too. I'm almost done painting that one. My Wyches & Reavers will be more purple based and so will their transports.
I kinda figured that since the DE are all Mercs that they wouldn't need to all be the same scheme. Just the same scheme within their own guilds and covens. But there is a universal color through all my army binding the separate schemes; and that is Warlock Purple.
This is absolutely amazing!
ReplyDeleteI love your color choices
I really like the way this model came out. Clean lines, bright colors. Excellent work!
ReplyDelete