Purple and Spiky - A Dark Eldar project log

[Hadriel Caine]

GRR. I decided to prime these today and my bloody spray can BOTH ran out. I am very annoyed as I can't afford a new can as I just entered my overdraft and don't get any more money until I sell my Baneblade.

As a result they are now a kind of mottled grey and covered in splashes. SHOULD be ok to paint.

ARGH.

I really wanted to paint them as well.

Guess I'll get on with my important project for uni then instead

Adam

[Hadriel Caine]

Finished my Wych lord on hellboard. he will probably be used as a Succubus from now on but its a nice model anyway...



obviously he needs some work - not happy with the right arm and I need to do some greenstuffing... but my arm is broken atm so not happening atm.

Adam

[Hadriel Caine]

got some mobility back in my left arm so i can grip bases again... progress is slow but i have base coated 5 wyches and 3 warriors.




thoughts?

Adam

[FraustyTheSnowman]

If I hadn't seen your ability to paint I would be a little hesitent about the hellion lord, as he just doesn't strike me as very sinister...though you're a damn fine hand with a brush, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with him. Speaking of which, the skin on the wyches looks very nice so far. I can't stand the sculpts personally, but you definately make up for them.

[Hadriel Caine]

Its been a very long time since I managed to sit down and work on my Dark Eldar. This has been a shame as I think I have gamed more consistently and frequently with this army over the last year than I ever have with any other force in over 13 years in the hobby.

I was sure I'd done an update since the Wyches WIPs, but apparently not.

I have found in my games that Mandrakes, whilst cool, are bloody useless. I've returned to some advice I was given ages ago about taking more Warriors. this works for two reasons 1) they are troops, scoring unit, good stats etc 2) I have loads and are cheaper points wise than mandrakes allowing me to upgrade the Archon to a Dracon (which REALLY makes a difference where it counts).

I have also realised that I love Dark Lances and whilst they aren't appropriate for my units in Raiders my warriors on foot are going to be maxxed out with DLs.

Here is the (preGS) result of my tinkering with a plastic Dark Lance design that I could repeat and that looked cool:


I also did a few trials, not as good but gave me some ideas, need reworking now...

I have also gone back to my old idea of always giving Sybarites Agonisers, they are expensive but look cool and since I always play nids nowadays I need something in each unit that can deal with big gribblies. (My Sybarite took down a Fex single handed yesterday, one warrior died in two turns! ideal)

Here are some new Sybarites for me warriors on foot squads:



Here's a better pic of the Talos as well:


image limit... continued in next post

[Hadriel Caine]

I forgot to point out that the Warrior with the Dark Lance is holding a range finder, not necessarily obvious from this angle.

I have also scrapped the huge Green Goblin-esque Hellboard for the Hellion Skyboard in favour of a more useable/ less breakable model more in keeping with the rest of the unit. There is now a Hellion with a blaster too!




I'm going to get some GS work done tonight and maybe a lick of paint or two on some of these guys. I'll try to dig out my current army list as well.

Feedback and comments would be gratefully received in the meantime!

cheers

Adam

[salarath]

awesome, just awesome-keep going mate, i know you can finish another army! Btw, the simple action of swapping the riders for wyches is brilliant, they look so much better. Keep it up! I'm now going to curl up in a ball and which i didnt have flu

[Hadriel Caine]

Thanks George! I got some greenstuffing done this evening. maybe some undercoating later if it cures before i have to go to bed.

here are some progress pics from tonight:

I think the guy on the right looks awesome. May use him as a Dracon in larger games.

I am really proud of this:


Its one of the more extensive single mini 28mm conversions I have ever done and I think it came out well. I found some proper binoculars in my bitz box and beefed up the base a bit to straighten him out. I smoothed the transition between the bitz of the gun too which was fun...

I was re-reading the thread and I was talking about mercenaries. I had a go at making a Tarrelian Dog Soldier. I really like how he came out:

rear

thoughts?

Adam

[hobodog]

those sybarites look great!
As well as the dark lance
It's good to see some people doing lesser xenos- he looks good- good work with the face- not sure about the arms, there a bit bulky. But looks awesome

[Cuchulain84]

Wow. I love your Hellions, very cool. The syrabites are looking great as well.

[Hadriel Caine]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I know what you mean about the bulkiness of the arms. I was hoping they'd look ok... I have convinced myself that as a merc he'd have a lithe body but a larger torso and shoulders etc. I'm happy with the conversion on this guy but may consider using ghoul arms if I do any more.

I realised that the reason I never get around to finishing armies is that I always paint the most interesting models first. To avoid this I have painted 5 warriors today rather than a Sybarite or the Tarellian. I have promised myself I'd do two more (in order to finish my raider units) before doing anything else. Here are some pics:



all currently painted warriors (13)



I quite enjoyed painting them actually, apart from the discovery that most of my paints need replacing asap...

thoughts?

Adam

[Hadriel Caine]

Ok, second update tonight. I got the next two Warriors done (thats 7 in a night... worryingly productive) so that means that my two 7 man Raider squads (with Sybarites and Splinter Cannons) are done. Plus a Dark Lancer for the next two units.

warriors:


Raider Squads:


I think I'm going to do a Sybarite and the Tarellian next for a bit of a break and order some parts from Bitz box to make the final 19 warriors a bit less vanilla...

I ought to finish the first few Wyches too since five are at about 70%.

thoughts?

Adam

[MrTheFish]

Adam

Those eyes are just wonderful, might be just from the camera flash, but they really look like they glow. Makes the models come alive man, real nice job.

[Hadriel Caine]

Thanks very much! I did a tutorial earlier in the thread. They look pretty much like that IRL.

I'm really enjoying painting these guys at the moment. I'm off home to Sheffield tomorrow night at which point I have nothing to do, except 8000 words of essays... so I'll be painting more up very soon.

Undercoated the Tarellian just a minute ago. not reli sure how to approach painting him... any suggestions?

Adam

[Hadriel Caine]

Not exactly an update but a question.

Has anybody been around long enough to remember the Dark Eldar Heavy Grav vehicle that was in the WD that had the Vehicle Design rules in it? It had three engines at the back and was made from two Raiders IIRC.

If so could you point me in the right direction? And maybe give em some links to examples on Warseer etc. that would be awesome.

I think it was called the Raven or something (that may be the FW flyer- thats NOT what I mean).

Adam

[Bloodknight]

It's called Rampage. It's been in WD around December 2000 (number 60 of the German WD, no idea how that translates into UK or US numbers).

It's basically just 2 Raiders bashed together with quad Dark Lances 2 Splinter cannons in the front where normally the ramming spike goes, and a 3rd exhaust from a Falcon.
I doubt many people built one, it doesn't look that good and isn't that good ruleswise.

[Hadriel Caine]

Hmm. I seem to remember it looked quite cool. I guess each to his own. I'll have a look for it and see how much the falcon exhaust is on bitz box.

thanks Bloodknight. any thoughts on my models?

[Bloodknight]

Back then I thought it was cool, too; I took a look at it today and it really is just 2 Raider fuselages glued together at a roughly 30° angle, with the bat-like spoilers cut in half and fitted in a cross-shape on the rear part . It's not worth paying the 250 VDR points for it, though - you'd be better off with Vect.

As to your models: I like most of your conversions - particularly the Hellions, the paintjobs are nice (I am not too keen on purple DE, but they work well), and I love your Incubi, especially the glowing eyes and the glowing Disemboweller Blades.

Have you seen mine already? Link's in my sig.

[Hadriel Caine]

Proof, if needed, that there is still life in the Dark Eldar plastics:

I am really proud of the conversion work and paint job on this guy (he certainly took long enough).

I might do another badab black wash on the hair in the morning to tone it down further and the base needs inking and static grass. Other than that he's done.

I picked up 5 Reaver Jetbikes from Wargames Emporium the other day for <£15 so will have a go at convertin and painting these soon (as a potential alternative to Hellions or as an addition for 2000pt games since Martin is getting new 'Nids next week *terror*)
@ Bloodknight- I'm trying to use the glowing light blue energy effect to tie bits of the army together and am v happy with it. Especially on Drazhar tbh.

I still like the Rampage as a concept- heavy raider etc, might have a think about updating it... sure I have that WD here somewhere.

Does anybody know the rules about scanning in WD pages if I do find it?

thoughts on the miniature?

Adam

[Magos Errant]

You sir, have some brilliant Dark Eldar.