40k Dark Eldar - Scourges painted, and I'm slightly deaf!

Yesterday evening I was able to go and see the Peter Gabriel/Sting collaboration concert and it was absolutely epic! Both of 'em (and both their bands) on stage at the same time, taking it in turns to do one another's music. Hands down the best show I've seen this year!

As it was a late night and I have a fair bit of vacation time racked up I went ahead and took today off, which afforded me some mid-week hobby time in the morning while it's still cool up in the loft. Took advantage and finished up the Scourges:

They ended up being somewhat challenging to photographs, there's all sorts of focal issues on so many large-ish models at once. Doh! All in all I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, though as usual in taking the pics I noted some various things that need to be cleaned up. Never fails!

40k Dark Eldar - Corsair Lord and Haemonculus built

Not as much in the way of hobby progress this past weekend, though it was filled with 40k gaming goodness! Continued on with the Rogue Trader campaign I'm running for some friends on Sunday, and Saturday I participated in the 500pt stage of the escalation league at the Warhammer shop. Unfortunately my opponent's army was unpainted and he had a... liberal interpretation of movement distance and a few of the rules so it was a little disappointing - didn't get any pics worth sharing. That said, a mediocre game is still better than no game, I suppose! I did manage to put together a couple models for the force Sunday night, so it wasn't totally a bust.

Nothing too special here, just an out-of-the-box Haemonculus for the force - he'll accompany the Wyches to provide them with a boost to their Power from Pain turn count, as they desperately need some sort of save for the first turn or two. I have to say I'm very impressed with the way the model was designed, it is really a testament to what GW has been able to do with plastics these days.

I've been intending to do a second squad of counts-as Warriors for the force, the intent of which is to do a unit of Corsair pirates utilizing a mix of bits from the standard DE sprues and the fantasy Black Ark Corsairs. To lead the unit I picked up one of the Dark Elf characters to use as a basis for the Sybarite and put together this model. I'm thinking all of the corsairs will use the full-face helms as they seem appropriate for the space pirate theme!

I'll admit to feeling a bit of army fatigue with these pointy-eared gits (and I've already got the 750pt force painted up for next league day), so I think it may be time to return to the Scions of Magnus for a while...

40k Dark Eldar - Scourges painting begins, and it's not bad living in Colorado

Some decent forward progress on the Scourges over the last few days, but first I thought I'd point out that sometimes it's pretty awesome living in Colorado. Over this past weekend some friends and I went down to Red Rocks Amphitheater for a concert, which is hands down the best place to see a show in Colorado, and is often suggested to be in the top 10 best venues in the US, if not the world. In addition to the awesome venue itself, it's surrounded by a beautiful park as well and we generally head down there 3-4 hours before the show and set up for some tailgating and revelry amongst the lovely terrain!

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening! Marinated shrimp skewers, corn on the cob and beef tenderloin over the portable grill, delicious local microbrews, and blueberry pie for afters. What's not to like?

Enough of that Real Life(tm) nonsense though, let's talk little space dudes! Got the purples and whitish-greys done and started in on the silver and gold bits before being driven from the hobby loft by the heat. So far so good though, rather liking the dichotomy between the angelic and daemonic wings, decided all the special weapons troopers would use the batwing style to help pick them out on the tabletop as well. Been rather fun painting up the unit so far, hoping to have 'em done in plenty of time for the next escalation league step!

40k Dark Eldar - Quite a bit of progress!

Hope all our stateside readers had a safe and happy 4th of July, and for everyone else, I hope that your Monday was tolerable! Had a three day weekend which meant I had some extra hobby time, and ended up being rather productive - finished off the Wyches, got darn near the finish line with the Warrior's Raider, and got some build time in as well. Woo!

The Wyches got a little further touch up, the bases were finished and flocked, and they're more or less good to go! A couple of the eyes are still a little wonky when blown up to 400% size but they don't look quite so odd in person. Can always justify it as "the combat drugs are kicking in, maaaaaan..." Hah!

 

Got stuck in on the Warrior's Raider as well, rather near the finish line. Took it up to the first sealant pass so I could lay in a couple waterslide transfers on the sail and banner, but think that it needs some tribal linework on the hull to break it up a little. The Warrior's Raider was always going to be rather unadorned compared to the Wyches' and Archon's Raiders, but this is a little TOO spartan I think. More to come on that one!

While I was about it I rewarded myself with a little build time and got the unit of Scourges built. These hadn't been released yet by the time I'd sold my previous Dark Eldar army, but I knew that they were a must-buy for this project - they're my favorite sculpts of the line and I am really looking forward to painting them up!

40k Dark Eldar - Wych Cult painting continues, and a NOCF Charity Update!

Quick hit this evening - It was reasonably temperate today and after knocking out the weekly chores around the house I managed to sneak in some brush time and continued work on the Wych cult.

The first step was laying in the gold - definitely adds some definition to the models and helped me find a couple areas of purple and yellow that I'd missed initially, so those got cleaned up as well.

Next up was the dirty white hair and the start of the eyes which really helps frame the faces, then the various gems and agonizer got the green treatment. Once that was on the initial earthtones were added to the various leather bits and the bases, which really help 'em start to pop. Lots of little things to do yet, but at this point I'm liking how they're coming along!

In other news, the NOCF charity raffle that includes the Orks I'd worked on has gone live, and here's the scoop on how you can get your hands on some sweet models for a great cause! Info courtesy of the ever-amazing Dave Taylor:

Raffle tickets are now on sale, and can be purchased HERE. And 95% of all money raised from the raffles goes directly to the various charities we support - Doctors Without Borders, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and The Fisher House Foundation.

Important things to note are:

• You can buy tickets from anywhere in the world!
• We will ship to ANYWHERE in the world with a valid mailing address!
• You DO NOT have to be present at the NOVA Open to win!
• A minimum spend of $10 is required.

Please spread the word, and this link (http://novaopenfoundation.org/?tcp_product_category=raffle) and help us raise more money than in any previous year!

40k Dark Eldar - Wych Cult painting begins

The escalation league at the local GW shop kicked off last week and I was able to get in a game with a rather nice guy and his beautiful Blood Angels. Like a knob I didn't take a singe pic of the game though. Doh! Suffice it to say that the two 5-man Kabalite Warrior squads didn't really put up much of a showing against a pair of 5-man Marine squads, both armed with flamers. On the other hand, the Archon was absolutely the star of the game, withstanding 4 rounds of close combat (two of which were him vs. the entirety of the opposing force's models). Next time the group meets will be a 500 point match, which means I have some work to do over the next week and a half - finishing off the Warrior's Raider, and the addition of a 10-man (well, mostly woman) squad of Wyches.

I neglected to take a pic of them in their built state, so we'll just dive in with the purples, shall we? The Wyches wear far less armor than their Warrior cousins, so I started off by just picking out the actual armour plates in purple and roughed in the skintones. The initial intent in my mind was "purple armour, yellow cloth" but I hesitated to do all the skinsuits in yellow as well as the various little loincloths and whatnot, fearing they'd end up a bit TOO yellow. A friend suggested going with black skinsuits to amp up the menace a bit, which sounded like a good plan!

Little bit of a sark grey highlight on the black here and there, and laid in the yellow cloth and the initial blued steel. Starting to come together now! Definitely a case where painting the bases will really help 'em pop - I generally wait until towards the end to do so, but may at least get the basic earthtones down just to see how the black skinsuits work out and make the call whether they need to be a different color...

40k Dark Eldar - Kabalite Warriors done (and a bit of red paint spatter)!

Just a quick hit this evening - Braved the heat of the hobby loft for a few hours this evening and got the Kabalite Warriors up to a good tabletop standard in preparation for the first series of games for the escalation league. As is always the case, it is in the photography stage that all the little things stand out to be fixed, so there will likely be a little more cleanup done here and there on bits I've missed. Doh!

That said, following a little touch up they'll be good enough for government work and get a quick hit of sealant in the morning before getting bundled up for the game(s) at the shop. Also looking forward to getting my mitts on the FW Tartaros Terminator model, he'll make an excellent basis for another Thousand Sons sorcerer!

Speaking of the Thousand Sons, I did manage to lay in the base reds on the pair of Contemptors this evening as well. Nothing glamorous, but it felt good to get a little forward motion on 'em!

40k Dark Eldar - Kabalite Warriors (and Sslyth) painting continues

Caught another break in the weather yesterday evening and this afternoon and managed to get a little closer to the finish line with the Dark Eldar. Finished up the yellow cloth, and got the silver done and the first couple passes for the gold before being driven from the loft by the heat.

Next up will be the rest of the gold highlights, as well as the leather and gems. Should be able to get them done in time for the event (though I will likely be frantically painting Saturday morning)!

I'd started the trio of Sslyth for the Court of the Archon a little while ago, and figured I'd go ahead and bring them up to speed with the Warriors while I was doing the colors. Really dig these guys, and really feel that GW ought to do more one-off Xenos species models like these - bring back Ambulls!

40k Dark Eldar - Kabalite Warriors painting begins

There's an escalation league starting at the newly-opened GW store in Boulder and despite my general reservations about whether my schedule will allow me to participate in the long run, I figured it would be a fun way to motivate to work on the Dark Eldar. The league isn't "painted only" which is a discouraging factor for me, but I understand the shop's desire not to exclude anyone while they establish a player base. That said, I'm going to try and do a personal challenge of not fielding anything that isn't painted - the first round is 250 points, which when following a CAD doesn't mean many models. In my case, it'll be the Archon (already painted) and two 5-man Warrior squads. The downside is the 10-man squad I've built doesn't quite break down into two legal 5-man squads (no Dark Lance unless there's 10 warriors in the squad), but I figure most folks shouldn't have a problem with me saying "Okay, so this Dark Lance is just a splinter rifle for this first set of games, cool?"

Of course, since I'm a bit of a masochist I figured I'd paint up the unit's planned Raider transport at the same time, this one is rather boring and unadorned (as I feel befits the low-caste Warriors) but I have several others in increasing levels of bling planned!

We had a brief respite from the punishing heat yesterday and I managed to lay in the purples and the very initial color for the yellow cloth on the warriors in the relative cool of the evening. I realized when editing the photo however that I apparently neglected to add the hairpiece on one of the helmets. Argh! Nevertheless, so far so good - supposed to be another relatively cool day tomorrow so hopefully I can knock out a few more colors after work...

In other news, my good friend Adeptus Michael (aka Captain Maxissimo Erasmus Domocletian Heronomius Carscallen in our ongoing Rogue Trader campaign) has started up a new blog called The Glory Days of the Underhive in order to share and document his Necromunda and other 40k goodness. As an old tabletop adversary of his before he moved to Italy, I can say I am really looking forward to seeing his fever-maddened creations come together again (albeit from the other side of the planet)! Definitely worth checking out!

40k Dark Eldar - Archon and Ur-Ghuls complete!

It has been stupendously hot of late so after work the hobby loft just isn't comfortable to work in for more than brief stretches - sadly that means my usual frenetic pace has slowed dramatically over the last couple weeks. However, I have done a wee bit of painting and finished off the Archon and the first models from the Court, a trio of Ur-Ghuls!

 

First up, Archon Zaergarn Kul of the Kabal of the Splintered Talon. Not a lot of changes from the earlier pics, finished up the face and cleaned up a few bits, flocked and sealed. Easy peasy!

Next are the trio of Ur-Ghuls that will be part of the Court of the Archon. Fairly straightforward scheme, went with a light grey followed by a violet wash (to keep the purple theme going), and a couple successive drybrush passes to bring it back up to a greyish skintone. Honestly not a huge fan of the models (as there's only one pose and it's less than dynamic) and in retrospect I probably should have gone with some plastic vampire counts Ghouls and a little greenstuff instead.

Finally, a squad of Kabalite Warriors - I always try to get the troops done early in the project so I can move on to the "fun stuff". Not much to say about 'em, basic Blaster and Dark Lance loadout. Hoping to get some paint on 'em this coming weekend when I can do some work in the cool of the morning!

40k Dark Eldar - Archon in progress

In other gaming news, I'm in the midst of running a Rogue Trader campaign for a group of friends which currently has them caught in the Dark Eldar's evil clutches. I've been vacillating between Craftworld or Dark Eldar as the counterpoint force for the Harlequins and ended up coming down on the side of the denizens of Commoragh. This is, in part, because I have a significant amount of leftover Dark Eldar bits and kits from the last go around a few years back, and I felt it was better for the pocketbook to finally utilize those models rather than buy a whole new army from scratch. For fun I thought I'd lead off with the head honcho and picked up one of the new plastic Archon models.

 

I wasn't a big fan of the default "both weapons crossed over his chest" pose, so did some rooting around for alternate arms and with a little cutting was able to come up with something a little more open and at least a little more dynamic, with the sword and head following the flow of the cape and chains.

 

Got him more or less finished off over the last few days, just a few more little details to pick out/clean up, then he'll be ready for static grass and sealant. Going with purple armor plates this go-around, with a jade green as the spot color - that will be a bit more predominant on larger armor plates and so forth on upcoming models. Had fun with the flayed cloak, tried to get a couple different skin tones in there to give it a patchwork feel. He's rather creepy!

Next up for the Dark Eldar are the Court of the Archon and his Raider, though they're sitting unassembled in a box at the moment. Next up on the painting desk however are more of my beloved Thousand Sons - set the batch painting machine for "A whole mess (likely literally) of red!"

40k Harlequins - Tricolor shenanigans!

Managed to get some more brush time in yesterday, and started blocking in the green and purple sections on the Troupe and Starweaver. Starting to come together nicely now!

Still need to brighten up the purple a bit, but I'm pretty happy with the contrast between the green and yellow. Once the base colors are laid in, the next step will be to go back in and add stripes, checks and polka dots for full clownishness!

Rather happy with how the Starweaver is coming along as well, it's a rather cool model with the riders hanging on. That all said, this paint scheme is surprisingly slow compared to my usual batch painting cadence. Probably taken as long to get this far on these models as it had to bring all the recent Orks to completion!

40k Harlequins - Choosing a color scheme

Got some decent hobby time in last night after it had cooled off a bit and started off by putting together the Starweaver transport for the troupe - First time assembling this kit and it was a bit of a fraught affair! I think I got the measure of it though, so the upcoming Voidweaver should go together a bit easier. Hoping to keep the painting simple I left the two passengers separate, but getting them posed properly was certainly a struggle!

On the last go around with the killer clowns I'd gone for the full chromatic assault on the senses, which was fun but exhausting both to paint and to look at afterwards - it was almost TOO busy. This time I thought I'd be a little more restrained and pick 3-4 colors - Garish though they may be! Decided to go with Mardi Gras-esque colors for the initial Troupe and Starweaver, and started laying in the yellow on various areas, and trying to envision where the subsequent purples and greens will go.

Falling back on the recipe that I'd used on the Imperial Fists which is a bit more of a mustard yellow than the canary brightness of the recent Orks. Depending on how it ends up contrasting with the upcoming purple and green, that gives me some room to brighten up the yellow if needed.

 

For the Starweaver, I'm intending to to half yellow, and half green-and-purple diamonds. Should look neat I hope, but to start it was just a matter of laying down some painter's tape to get a nice crisp line. The passengers are just sitting in place for the photo, really happy with how it's coming along!

40k Harlequins - Cegorach's Jest

What with all this Ork business of late, it's got me thinking that it might be fun to do an army of Xenos filth again. I wanted to do something very colorful, and when it gets right down to it there's no force more colorful than the Harlequins! Poked around in the codex and picked out a Formation to do as a little side project - Cegorach's Jest.

It's a compact little force that includes a bit of each unit type in the Harlequin book aside from the 3 characters, so should be just a little bite-sized project. I do plan to add a couple more Skyweavers to the force, as 2 jetbikes do not a viable unit make in my estimation (but the local shop only had one box in stock)...

Started off by building up the Troupe. The models are actually somewhat awkward to photograph - they have a beautiful dynamism in-hand, but somehow always seem to look silly in the pictures. I had built this kit once before so I knew what I was in for, however I have never built the Skyweavers or Starweaver kits previously, so that should be an adventure! Definitely have to be cognizant of building the models in separate pieces to facilitate subsequent painting...

Pictures from the front lines - Dark Eldar vs Imperial Guard

Had a good friend of mine at the house over New Years before he flew back to the other side of the planet. On the 31st we managed to get in a game between the recently painted Dark Eldar (Currently up for auction on eBay here), and a selection of Imperial Guard chosen of equivalent points value. As I wanted to get a game in with all the painted DE, the sides worked out to a nice round 2,336 points. Oddly enough, it turned out to be rather simple to hit that number exactly with the guard list without hardly any wargear fiddling. Crazy!

We didn't bother trying to do a full-on battle report, rather we were just playing it fast and loose and having a good time. Just snapped some pics as things happened, and thought I'd share 'em...

Here's the initial table set-up. It was late afternoon and we were already losing the light, so the pics aren't the best I've ever taken. We went with one of the missions out of the Battle Missions book, wherein the deployment zones were full table halves. Up close and personal from the get go!

 

Raiders zooming all over the table, trying to get their cargoes deployed before being hammered apart by the guard. Didn't work out that way, and they were all immobilized in the first few turns!

 

The unit of Ogryns held the middle of the table in the face of withering fire from the Venom and Trueborn. The Roughriders advanced through the trees in an attempt to slay the hellions.

 

Unable to bring it down in the shooting phase, the Ogryns leapt upon the Venom and destroyed it in Hand to Hand, smashing it to flinders with the butts of their ripper guns. The Crimson King and his retinue vainly attempted to destroy the Devil Dog, to no avail.

 

The Hellions, backed by the Golden Duke and his retinue of Incubi and Haemonculi made short work of the Roughriders, while on the far side the Wyches were forced to slog their way through a hedge of lasrifle fire.

When all was said and done, only one objective was held and that was in the hands of the Guard. The Dark Kin were down to the two Archons and a single Haemonculus, who withdrew from the field in utter defeat. Nevertheless, good times were had, and really isn't that what's important?

It was a good end to 2011, and I'm looking forward to more fun games in 2012!

The Kabal of the Crimson Woe - Complete!

After far too much procrastination, I'm happy to say the Kabal of the Crimson Woe is finally finished!

I'm fairly pleased with how they turned out - it's a nice little raiding force that exemplifies the Dark Eldar's swift and merciless way of war.

  

Here's a series of pics that are a bit more zoomed in. The entire army can start the game either in transports or lurking in reserve.

 

The last things awaiting paint were the various transports for the army. First up, the Crimson King's Raider. For the two Archons I went with dual sails to represent the Enhanced Aethersails upgrades and to help them stand out as the HQ transports.

 

The second Raider belongs to Duke Harkanet the Golden, and his Incubi bodyguard. As their armor is all heavily gold, I figured their transport should be similarly themed.

 

Next up is the custom Venom I'd built when the codex first came out. It transports the Kabalite Trueborn into battle.

 

Finally are the two Raiders for the Wyches and Warriors. These tow are significantly less blinged out to represent the lower caste of the troops they transport.

All in all I'm quite relieved to be done with the army - while I enjoyed the different play style the Dark Eldar bring to the table, I can't say that they particularly suit my disposition. I much prefer the sledgehammer of the Guard! I'll be putting them up on the auction block in due course, once I get one last game in with them. I always enjoy playing a game with a completely-painted army!

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year!