Archon Macknight's Kabal

Hi ladies and lords:
I am an experienced miniature painter, doing it for about 15 yrs. My background as a art professor has also helped me in this hobby. I started way back with the fantasy Bret. vs Lizardmen boxset, over the years I have gather armies of Bretonnians, Dark Elves(will update them after dark eldar), Dogs of War(in process of selling off), Vampire Counts(mostly sold off), Wood Elves(completely sold).

I got into 40k about 4 years ago, over that time I have collected Tau, IG, Orks, and now Dark Eldar. Mixed in there is also German Luftwaffe and Panzer Lehr for Flames of War.

IG army link:
http://commissar.proboards.com/thread/16616/macknights-imperial-forces?page=1
Tau army link:
http://commissar.proboards.com/thread/11924/macknights-tau-empire
Ork army link:
http://commissar.proboards.com/thread/16625/da-roks-waaagh?page=1&scrollTo=374186

I hope to add my experience and skill to enrich this forum.

This seems like a a good amount of Dark Eldar to start with!

I wish you good luck with it and hope to see more of it in this post!
I just started with Dark Eldar, so I hope I can get some ideas and stuff

- xdiehard1x

I was for a long time reluctant to start Dark Eldar because I have Dark Elves and didn't want the same army in space. Their new miniature range is so cool and I eventually caved in. I started it off buying the Mega Force last Christmas and collected the rest throughout summer until now.

In total I have:
Tantalus x1
Raider x4(1 converted as a Ravager)
Ravager x1
Razorwing x1
Voidraven x1
Venom x4
Reavers x9
Scourges x7
Wyches x21 (9 modeled as Bloodbrides)
Warriors x15
Trueborn x7
Wracks x10
Grotesque x1
Beastmaster x1
Nightfiend x1
Incubi x5
Court of Archon x1 of each
Archon x2 (1 be riding in the Tantalus)
Succubus x1
Haemonculus x1
Urien Rakarth x1
Beastmaster x1
Warp Fiend x3
Solitaire x1


In red I have finished.

All the models as you can seen have been cleaned of mold lines, fixed of finecrap's mistakes, magnetized with weapon options and ready to be born. I will be starting off with a boom as the Tantalus will be 1st on the painting rack.

Based on your other armies I would say this is very promising! Welcome to the project logs, look forward to seeing that huge heap of pointiness getting painted  

That is one awesome list you have there!
I wish you good luck with it!

1 question, are you more the painter, the gamer or the 50/50? (painting and gaming)

- xdiehard1x

xdiehard1x wrote:

That is one awesome list you have there!
I wish you good luck with it!

1 question, are you more the painter, the gamer or the 50/50? (painting and gaming)

- xdiehard1x

I'm quite adaptable really, when I first started in fantasy, I was mostly a gamer, played in tournies, but still get my army to the table at my best ability at the time; as I got better at painting, I played less. Now I hardly play as my local gamers are into Warmachine(I think their models are hideous) so I'm just keeping myself busy at other things. I hope to have my Tantalus finished in a month or 2, I'm going with the black and green scheme, maybe a change on the value of those colors.

As promised, the Tantalus! next up is the razorwing.

looking good so far. I totally envy you for owning metal inccubi, it's so hard to get your hands on these guys now. Your other armies look very neat as well, so I'm looking forward to seeing more.

One thing though, could a mod please move this to the Project Log section, since this is not really a painting or modelling problem thread

Dogmar wrote:

One thing though, could a mod please move this to the Project Log section, since this is not really a painting or modelling problem thread

Done.

The Tantalus is looking very wicked indeed.   

This was done quite quickly within a few days.. next up are 2 ravagers.

macknight wrote:

Hi ladies and lords:
I am an experienced miniature painter, doing it for about 15 yrs. My background as a art professor has also helped me in this hobby.

Not the point to try to pick a fight or anything, but modesty is not a bad thing to have. I met a guy online who became a gold deamon winner after only 3 years in the hobby, you'll probably wonder how??? Well he spend every saturday at his NYC GW, got good advice obviously. It's probably the fact that you're an art professor, I meet a couple when I was at highschool, usually they were the arrogant type.

As far as myself, I know I'm pretty good too, but I don't scream it out to people either, though I tend to act arrogantly even outside of this hobby, however in this hobby I always got into the top 3 of each painting competition I entered, my attitude is justified, but my models and reaction of people to them justify a lot too. I've also been into this hobby for about 15 years, but I only started truly exploring how to improve my painting about 7-8 years ago and the better results only started coming around 6 years ago.

I was expecting quite a lot more when I read the words "experienced painter", a little disappointed with your work because of that simple phrase, I checked your other armies as well btw. Not that it's bad or anything, the word simple comes to mind, I'm sorry to say, but words like impressive don't come to mind.
If these pictures had little to no text underneath them, I would have just left a comment like this: nice job, not bad at all !

I don't like this dark black, I would have added some more tone (whatever dark tone, blue, grey, brown, whatever color as long as it didn't feel this dark) Extreme highlights also look fantastic on these model & dark colors. As for those who've got no idea what I'm talking about, for advanced painters black is never just abaddon black, usually there is a background color, mostly used is dark grey, but can be whatever dark color, you have all sorts of black, this works as some kind of shading. If you still don't know what I mean, look at any black object around you, you'll see various taints of grey or whatever color that's no black, this is the same with miniature painting, except that it's exagerated a little bit.

A full army painted like this should look pretty fantastic, the tantalus is an impressive model, aside the paintjob, your handled the assembly very well, it's quite a troubelsome model, seen a couple of guides online, I'll know what assembling this model feels like later this year in any case. You do get your armies fully painted, that's something most people in this hobby don't bother doing simply out of lazyness, big thumps up man!

I'll be keeping an eye on this log, quite a nice bunch of miniatures, good luck with the rest of the army.

what is this? playing your alter Dark Eldar inner ego? a pretty pathetic attempt to goad me really.     
I'm a professor in ceramics, that's clay for those of you not familiar, the field have little to do with painting directly. However, attention to detail and match colors well is what I've got from it.

Just so you know, the Abbadon Black I have on isn't just that, it started with light coat of black primer, then Abbadon Black to cover the area and chip off the clogged areas of paint with xacto knife, wash of Incubi Darkness, lightly drybrush of Eshin Grey before I starting to highlight the edges..

My style is not to over highlight everything like a anime toy, I try to keep it simple. I have compared my painted models on DakkaDakka, and it isn't simple as you say, on a scale of 10, I would say around 8.4-9.5. Simple does not = well put together models, drilled gun barrels, magnetized weapon and other options, excellent painted eyes, face and body paint, tattoos, decals, camo patterns, etc; I could and will eventually do better in weathering, basing, power weapons etc.

Hey there,

I've found out that miniatures with clear highlight will make details pop a lot and makes the mini simply look better. I believe it is because we're looking on these small piece of plastic/metal and details don't stand out as good without the highlighting. Thus, miniatures with discrete highlights can look simple and boring. Painting black just makes this harder really.

Upon closer inspection of your models and images, I must say it's impressive work. The small but subtle details like the various chipping and worn out edges on your vehicles look real and convincing. The blue helms are fantastic and the gems as well. I also dig the highlights on the kabalites armor. Your models must look better in real life and from close up. I think the voidraven have a really cool black and texture.

I have also tried keeping it "simple" by controlling highlights and doing minimal shading etc when painting black. I wanted a realistic feel and tried to stay away from too bright colors and highlights, in the end I feel it's just too much work and complexity for achieving that. Simply mixing chaos black with a hint of something else like dark blue, then do some sharp bright highlights is easier and more effective. It's a cheap and easy way to get a "Wow!" effect by this. Put on some extra shading and it can improve drastically.

Your style is unique and special, if you're comfortable with it keep it up!
But I believe that if you wanted to, you could paint up a good miniature with anime style for us

Here are the ravagers, next up are 3 raiders.. also updated the archon's whip on the tantalus, it was a bit dull powered down, so powered up a tiny bit.

Very nice. I must say I've never been a massive fan of the strapped on cages on the sides of the Ravager, but I quite like how you did the second one here with your gunners just hanging off the side. Definitely a fan of that.

Here are the 3 raiders and 2 venoms, next up are 9 reavers after some IG death riders.

Very nice work Macknight, very clean painting. So jealous of the Tantalus   

Gobsmakked wrote:

Very nice work Macknight, very clean painting.  So jealous of the Tantalus   

The tantalus is what got me finally commited to the dark eldar, before that I was really against starting them as I have dark elves for fantasy, I didn't want to get the same army for space.

Here are the reavers, next up is a break from DE as I'll be painting up a terrain for a comp, after that I'll be starting on the infantry.

Loving that kind of pearlescent helmet colouring. How did you achieve that?

Great looking reavers all round, really nice edging. Very jealous my friend....

Dragontree wrote:

Loving that kind of pearlescent helmet colouring. How did you achieve that?

Thin coats of midnight blue, regal blue, enchanted blue, ice blue; each coat a little bit smaller from the edge, once its dry use a small soft brush to drybrush a cross hatching pattern with fenrisian grey, blue wash, satin or gloss varnish.

Update: finished 2 more Venoms(image above), trueborns, kabalites, and scourges; up next are the incubus and court.

Good looking army! I really dig the subdued, dark colour scheme with just a tiny splash of muted colour here and there. I'll keep an eye on this log, that's for sure

What Siticus said.
In addition i'd like to say i really like the checker plate and grate bases as they remind me of the space hulk game of my childhood. The rust is also very well done.

Marrath Schlagschatten wrote:

What Siticus said.
In addition i'd like to say i really like the checker plate and grate bases as they remind me of the space hulk game of my childhood. The rust is also very well done.

Thanks, I really wanted the industrial moon base look, I acquired the bases off ebay 80 for $20, which saves me quite a lot of time trying to model the look.

Update: next up are some wyches after I finish another Valkyrie, taurox, knight titan.