It Came From The Forums: Mechanicum Jon's Dark Eldar!

Old School here with another edition of the original It Came From the Forums! Yes this series has been imitated but never duplicated and I am glad to bring you a great looking Xenos army: Mechanicum Jon's Dark Eldar! This army has an amazing color pallet and really presents an army with both dark and gritty elements and bright, flashy paint schemes. This is really Dark Eldar at its finest and I am very excited to see what I think is the best GW plastic line of miniatures painted to such an incredible standard by a very talented artist. Let's take a look at the units!

The first thing that really strikes you when you look at this army is the vehicles. Each hull is a canvas that has been used expertly to show off the brilliant turquoise colors scheme, great looking DE runes and a simple, but highly effective weathering effect. The red sails and brass elements all come together with the bright blue to bring a sense of balance to the whole model that many people try but few pull off. Mechanicum Jon has figured out that balance.

The Dark Eldar line really shines when it is painted this well and it is one of the reasons I have said that they aren't just a veteran's army on the table, but also on the hobby bench as well.

The sails really do blow my mind!

The application of the rune is smooth and looks natural, which is hard to do, even with an airbrush, which tells me this man has some experience with that particular tool.

Here is another great example of the weathering and those damn brilliant sails, which must have been time consuming, but they just look perfect.

The flier is another great addition and has been used as another great canvass to express the army theme.

These Helions are the first example we see of how the artist has also brought earth tones into the scheme to help balance the loud turquoise. The cloth and the skin look incredible when paired with the much louder blue.

Reaver jetbikes are always a welcome addition to any DE army and I cannot say enough about how much that kit begs for good paint like this!

Another example of the earth tones and natural colors being drawn into the army can be seen on this Scourge. For more of the whole Scourge Unit, check out this artist's Project log link at the bottom of this post.

Even the basic warriors look great and the moss on the base is a cool addition that plays well with the overall color pattern.

Poor Incubi rarely have seen the tables much in this last codex, but with a unit that looks this good, there is no reason not to whip them out. This unit looks incredible and really let's the artist play with more colors, bringing in greens and white as well.

The wyches, like the Hellions, are another example of great skin tones and earth tone suits.

This artist even managed to make the classic models look cool!

A great conversion and one of my favorite female models in the GW product line.

This arena Champ on the classic jet bike is cool both for its throwback status (especially as a former DE player from the OLD codex) and also for the fact that it looks great and will certainly stand out in any reaver squad it joins.

Now we start to get into the freak section of the army! I love the beastmaster pack for the opportunities it offers DE players to get nuts with model swaps and conversions. The Chimerae were made using Dire Wolves, Talos parts and Genestealer bits. The flayed look is awesome and fits the cruel DE style.

The razor wings here are a great way to get cool models that otherwise never see the table onto the board. The paint scheme is awesome because it borrows from the raiders and makes me think of DE painting their vehicles to match this predatory creature!

No beast master pack is complete without a packmaster!

Having recently converted a bunch of Grotesques for Wolfson, I appreciate the Rat Ogre kit for the scale and details it offers the DE converter and here are two really great grots!

The tentacles are creepy and very well done. What I really like is the sore looking areas around the stitches. What a great paintjob!
Overall, this is one of, if not the, most impressive DE armies I have ever seen.

For more of this great Army, check out Mechanicum Jon's Project log on Dakka Dakka. The project appears to be moving full steam ahead, so drop some encouraging words on him, subscribe to the thread or just take a look at some of the tutorials and conversions you see there. You will not be disappointed!

As always, feel free to comment here and if you know of an army worthy of It Came From the Forums, then please, shoot us a link and we will check it out!