Lion Khymarae conversions finally done for the Dark Eldar!

I really, really like these lion sculpts from the GW elf lion chariot. Originally these were "painted" as part of my great idea of doing everything in white with light army painter..... And frankly it all looked a bit rushed and rubbish.

So, I've finally re-based them and painted them in line with the rest of my DE army and went for red and black..... Because they're evil!

Eight nasty beasties who are currently marauding over an imperial guard encampment if the bases are anything to go by

They're now on the proper bases for Khymerae and I'm looking forward to getting them on the table actually looking ok.

Razor wing painting complete

Here she is, the painted Razorwing to add a little more flight to my Dark Eldar force. Same paint job as the rest of the crew, with the eye based decals as I liked the look of them on the flyer.

I used the Eddie Artillery patented "black plus gloss varnish" on the canopy to make it loo space age.... And save me having to paint a pilot :)

Bizarrely I only had this kit for a month or so before building it, which is extremely quick for me! Smashing little kit, fun and easy to put together.

In other news, I've joined a painting challenge on the internet! Looks like cracking fun and I'm hoping it encourages me to get a load of stuff done. You can follow the progress of the large number of participants here:

http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.ca

The kabal's back in town

Just before Nick's tournament quite a while ago I chronicled my attempt to get my dark eldar done. I was pleased to get lots done, but sadly lots more was only basecoated.... And after the tournament they went away I'm their box and didn't come out again.

Now, dark eldar are one of my favourite armies, so it was a crying shame that I was just too embarrassed of the unfinished painting to ever actually use them. So I finally decided to fix it!

Here are some warriors, darkened the green and then added hard edge highlights. Little bit wobbly in places, but it is all about pushing yourself to improve I guess! The skin they are wearing as loincloths also got some treatment, as did the brass metal parts and I'm pleased with the overall effect.

I've since finished the five standing in the background, but they give you an idea if the "unfinished" scheme and how it has changed.

Next up was the two venoms. These really were half finished and had the same treatment as the warriors to bring them up to scratch. Still a little wobbly in places, but again I'm pleased with them and am no longer too embarrassed to actually put them on the table!

The Dark Eldar challenge continues......

So, I thought an update was in order as to the feasibility of getting the DE done by the weekend.

First up, the unit of wyches and bloodbrides - not much left to do on these, the ones on the left have all had the jade highlight added to the green armour, so probably just the final 5 or so to finish, some touch ups on the Guard equipment that they're leaping over and that'll be the first figures finished.... With 4 evenings to go. Gulp.


This is the next unit of wyches. All washes done and just the red, brass and armour to highlight. I really want to get the wyches all finished because I'm sure I won't get the green armour highlighted on the rest of the army and I think it might just be a tad disheartening if I have to go back and add more paint to everything after the weekend.

Talking of not getting things finished, these are the 20 warriors + Archon. Still need to finish the armour washes on about half of them (on the right) and then highlights to do.

And finally a quick shot of some of the vehicles (there are another 4 in addition to these). My current approach to getting them painting is to stick my fingers in my ears, close my eyes and hum loudly and hope that when I take them out of their cases, they'll magically be finished. Always works that way, right?

I'm still really enjoying painting them and it always seems to be that I have to drag myself to the painting table when I just feel like slumping in front of the TV, but really enjoy the painting once I start. The tournament is definitely having a positive effect as there have now been hours of painting that I just wouldn't have done without the motivation of this weekend. I just need to make sure i don't need a new army every month :)

My Dark Eldar tournament challenge

Right, in the picture below you'll see the scale of the challenge that I have set myself. Do you remember those 19 basecoated wyches who were cast asside in favour of painting some malifaux and Pulp City figures a couple of months ago? Well, they're back.


I've entered Nick's tournament and with it looming large on the horizon, I was trying to work out which army to use from the many I have available. Imperial Guard? Too cheesy and disappointing for opponents. Sisters of Battle? new WD codex is totally uninspiring. Dark Eldar? Not painted....


But then it occured to me that they should be painted. They've been sitting around for ages and I've been using a combination of unpainted, old and undercoated figures when playing recently, which frankly is a disgrace to the hobby (unless you're actually painting as you go so each time you play something else has advanced.... Which wasn't the case for me(.


I also came to the conclusion that I never painted an army unless there was a tournament looming to make me do it, so if I didn't do them now it could be years until they were done. So, with a week off in hand (although most of it would be spent with the family) I went for it! The picture you see below is the state of the army a couple of weeks ago near the end of my holiday. There are 19 wyches basecoated with 9 undercoated, 2 venoms with the glue still drying, 20 warriors (3 undercoated) and 1 Archon (I couldn't resist building one after I liked the pose of one of the warriors so much that I had to do a quick weapon swap and promote him!). There are also 2 ravagers and 4 raiders to spruce up to match the new figures.


I'll post more updates as I go along as there's only about 10 days left now...... Yikes!

It's all gone evil. With spikes on...

My weekly post is either early as it is normally Sunday or late as I didn't post last Sunday. I'm going with early as it sounds like I have a degree of skill at clock watching...

Anyway... last weekend was all a bit Napoleonic so no real painting time and this weekend is Vanquish so again a lack of time to daub paint on models. Having said that I have completed 5 figures and who'd have guessed that Dark Eldar who have been missing for 12 years presumed squatted would suddenly be involved in the last 2 posts. More on the Kabal in a minute...

I'm baaaaaaaack!

Well, it's been a long time coming, but I've not been idle... Well, not totally. Anyhow, since my last post I've completed a Flames of War 8th army (to be posted sometime) and started work on the dark eldar.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I bought a load of dark eldar when they first came out (November '10?) and then, like all good wargamers, let them sit in their shrink wrap in boxes for ages. I find that if I don't open something as soon as I buy it and put it together and paint it, it stays on the shelf for an age, behind all the other things in my painting queue.

So, first order of business was the 30 or so wyches. Now, I like the new wyches, which are streets ahead of those crappy old ones GW put out, but with them all in a running pose, I didn't want the tabletop to turn into an 80's nightclub dancefloor with everyone doing "the running man" dance move..... You remember the running man, right? Anyone? Errr, ok, moving on....

So, I decided that as these were supposed to be uber-athletic crazy space elfs I'd chop some of them up and give them other dynamic poses. So, mixing the legs with those from the hellion and raider passenger sprue I made a whole load of crazy poses! And yes, it did involve chopping some eldar arms into three and pinning them back together. I'm a little nuts like that you see.....

I needed something for them to be athletic over, so I reasoned that they were attacking an Imperial Guard outpost and hence the fact they're leaping over things from the imperial guard tank sprue :)

Also attached is a photo of the hellions, which are "straight off the sprue", which was a nice change of pace after the wych conversions.

The Dark Eldar Return

Christmas is early this year.

My favourite 40K Army is back and this time they've done themselves up real well like. Go visit the Games Workshop website to see all of this lot up in lights on the Advance Orders section. I'll wait :-)
Oh you're back eh? Pretty good? I've played Dark Eldar since I first bought 3rd edition back in the summer of 1999 (I'll add the 19 bit there in case any of these youngsters on here start with their smart comments). I've always liked an army that is seen as an underdog and boy the DE sure are.
However, when you nail how to use the army they are currently very lethal and my proudest achievement is probably finishing 2nd and gaining most sporting at a tournie in Cardiff a good few years back: I remember taking a White Scars army apart in 3 turns and at that moment realised how much I'd learnt since losing all my games at the beginning. Learning curve? More like a learning cliff!
And then they went into hibernation. I have used them once in about 4/5 years. Why? Well cos they became samey; some units were unusable in any list (friendly or competative) and I lost interest in an army that I wasn't going to expand.
The units that ended up collecting dust included Grotesques, Mandrakes, Hellions and Scourges. Even Reaver Jetbikes and Warp Beasts weren't seen very often. I do like the Talos though no matter what everyone else says!
So now they're back. My 3000 points are confused by the daylight creeping in to their boxes. It's time to see if I can remember what all the units are. Time to draw back the curtains and see if the DE are as deadly as they used to be.

I've pre-ordered the Codex and a box of Warriors (hey it could have been everything so I did really well!). Now I'm ready for the 6th November. Step aside Guy Fawkes, the real burn in hell merchants are here...

They're coming to take you away.....

The March army continues apace! The latest additions are 4 raiders. I've spruced them up from the old versions by removing the slimline vane at the back, adding a couple of spiky fins near the back instead, adding the symbols from dark elf shields to the front and just generally spiking them up a bit.

A quick head swap for some of the dark Eldar Corsair heads instead of the high elf heads that the drivers/gunners used to have and a paintjob to match the rest of the force and here they are.

Combining the lightning strike of a rather miffed scorpion with the protective ability of slightly damp cardboard in a hurricane, the raider is the finest in slave taking vehicles that a dark Eldar Archon can get.

So, that's 520 points of my 1,800 point army done and a little over a month to go. You getting as nervous as I am?