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!