06 July 2017

40k: Return Of The Dark Templar


Some of you may remember my original Dark Templar marines from seven years ago. They were a test to see if the theory of creating a Mk6 space marine army was viable. They were quite a success, but the project as a whole has not progressed much since. I have collected a lot of Mk6 bitz and have even prepped some for mold making – it would be prohibitively expensive to try such a project by buying everything, so some resin duplication will be necessary.


With the release of 8th Edition 40k my enthusiasm has been buoyed but a project of such magnitude  is daunting and not what I want to take on right now. My Plague Marines are on hold until we see some new kits and a codex, but what to do in the mean time? I decided that the best course of action was to revisit my old Mk7 Dark Templar marines and simply paint them up in the new purple and black colour scheme. That should be simple right? Er, no.


The purple paint I used for my original DT marines was Lich Purple, which has since been removed from the Citadel range. In the years since I have been collecting pots of Xereus Purple, which was it's natural successor. Only when I started to paint and ink my old marines this week did I realise that the results were not the same. The purple colour on the models had lost its life and vibrancy.

Upon closer inspection, nothing in the Citadel line would get close to what I wanted. Indeed I was struggling to find a match throughout other manufacturers' paint products too. It was made more difficult by the fact that colour accuracy online is not great – this would involve some purchases.


I bought a handful of purple paint, spanning multiple ranges, to try and find a match. It came down to a choice of three. Sunset Purple by Scale 75, plus Royal Purple and Violet by Vallejo Model Color. Upon closer inspection, the Violet was too blue and the Sunset Purple too red. The Royal Purple on the other hand was a virtual match. I had found my replacement colour purple!!


So, eventually, I got to put some paint on miniatures. I also discovered that I can recreate my old space marine tournament army from 2000 with the new Imperial index, so that seems like a good starting point – no more purchases necessary, just re-using old models!


6 comments:

  1. Good stuff man! I feel your pain though, purple seems a really odd one here as I used to have a purple marine army, but the two pots of liche purple I'd used to paint them came out differently. They're sold now, but it's definitely an issue, so glad you found an alternative you're happy with!

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    1. It took me a long time to decide upon the colour scheme, so was gutted when I couldn't then match it. All ends well :D

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  2. I agree, I find purple to be a really difficult colour to master. It feels like you are going full circle here. A 17 year journey to arrive at where you started. Thats our hobby alright ;-)

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    1. It feels fitting to repaint the original tournament army ;)

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  3. Ha yes, I've been through this ordeal as well. Trying to find a replacement for the colours I used until GW decided to once again change their range.
    I'm happy you did though, the scheme shown above looks totally awesome.

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    1. Thanks Wouter! Yes, I never thought it would be so problematic to find the same coloured paint, but we got there in the end :D

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