[40k] FD's Dark Eldars, Update 8th November: Parting shot (page 11) Options

[FatDamien]

Welcome, gentle reader, to the creation of the Cult of Red Grief! Prepare yourself to witness the making of the cruelest, most murderous, most kitten-hating alliance the vile Dark Eldar race has ever spawned! Muhahahahaha!
*Ahem*
Just getting into the mindset. Howdy. I've been an Eldar player for a few years, and I always wanted to see how the other half lived, but like a lot of people, was put off by the elderly codex and naff models. No longer!
So I'm making an army. This will be a bit of a combined arms force, using selection from all over the codex. As for aesthetics, the one scheme wytch really stood out for my was the Cult of Red Grief.
But enough prattle, time for pictures!
Here's how I'm doing so far, about a month in:

Archon Makiavellis


I used a crystal sword technique on his Djiin blade using billious greens, put 'ardcoat on it, then rehighlisted to get a clammy look. Props to my friend Ed for that tip.

Note on the banner is the symbol I've taken to be the symbol of this collective.

Kabalite Warriors

Weapon choices are splinter cannon and shredder, the former based on usefulness in game, the latter just on sheer looks.





Wyches
This Hekatrix was actually also my test model, and I was very pleased with the result. Agonisers are cool.

And her from behind :

And her squad:


More to come in following posts, so read on...

This post has been edited by FatDamien: Nov 8 2011, 07:45 PM

[zetaplus]

Frikkin' nice!! Where's the damn Raiders you were telling me about?!

[Magos_Kasen]

Really great painting, they look very, very nice.

[FatDamien]

OK, so with a HQ and 2 Troops done, it was time for some of the really interesting stuff. Can't speak for everyone, but I freaking love the look of Reaver Jetbikes, so I wanted to have at least a squad in my army.

Top down view, so you can see the hull 'graffitti'. I was playing with the idea of having what might look like Dark Eldar sponsors and adverts, but couldn't get it working without being tacky. Simpler is better. Was a little nervious about translating the red armor onto the hull of the vehicles, but after these guys I think it won't be a problem.

For fixing them in cool angled racing poses, I've fitted magnets in all my flying-stand stuff. A 4x1 will slot exactly into the new ballsocket ports with just enough room for the superglue, which is handy. At this point I should point out that all my bases were made from a SINGLE cities of death building, with a little bit of razor wire here and there for flavor.

Circled are the base magnets, which range from well camouflaged to bloody obvious depending on how often I got the polarities wrong.

Mandrakes are fun to do and took very little time to get right. Played around with various colors of fire, but in the end red looked nice and helped them look like they fit in the army. Not that mandrakes want to fit in. They hate the establishment, and homework, and everything that isn't linkin park.

Bloodsplatter courtesy of Citadel stippling brush, using the flicky-flicky method.


On a lighter note, I rebased my Harlequins so they would match the rest of the army. Meh.

Didn't take much clowning around, just had to be careful with the necron-slicer.

And a new case to contain all this evil, bound with a sigil of the Alliance:


That's all for today, I've got heaps more assembled so the pics will keep coming as the army gets done. Hope you like, if you have any questions, comments or criticisms don't be shy!

[EmpireGuard]

Hope you like, if you have any questions, comments or criticisms don't be shy!

I hate you.

And by that I mean they look really cool and I’m uber jealous. I look forward to killing your pro paint job models with my table top paint job models.

[skrape]

Nice one MR!

Really like the jetbikes, I think it will look great on the raiders!
Also I think your mandrake skirts look much better than the way GW did them, Im going to attempt to copy you on that front!

Id love to play your DE with mine!

[FatDamien]

Also I think your mandrake skirts look much better than the way GW did them, Im going to attempt to copy you on that front!

Id love to play your DE with mine!

Oh then I've done something wrong, I thought I was doing it the 'Eavy metal way.. just with more splatter. Also, yes, a sexy Deldar on Deldar match would be good.. then you can tell me what I'm doing wrong

[Fluffy05]

Brilliant work!

[FatDamien]

Let's talk bases. After long experience with the harlequins in my eldar, I have come to know and be frustrated by how top-heavy and wobbly those skinny, flippy, all over the place type miniatures can be. Flying stands are no better, always falling out the bottom when I pick up my skimmers/jetbikes to move them. I decided to be a bit more proactive about the issue, and that I would weight every 25mm base in my army.
My friend Kaos had some steel cut for his White Necrons to fit snugly under the bases so I asked him if he could cut some for me as well. I got ~60 for the cost of the materials ($10, not that I've paid him yet- oops!) and I was impressed about how snug they are:

And in they go:


Seeing as I was using the space underneath for weights, I couldn't very well use resins. I opted to make my own bases, which is unusual for me. As I mentioned above, I went through only a single Cities of Death building (a Basilica Administratum) to make all my 25mm's, and used the vertical sections such as windows and buttress pieces to make my 40mm "flying" bases. One box went a lot further than I thought.
Viola!


Ok, that's all fine for the mans, but what about the skimmers? I wanted the bases to be stable, to stay attached when I moved the vehicles around the table, but unable to snap off and needed to be removable for transport. Cue the magnets:

These babies are 4x1.5s, and I've also used some 3x1's where I needed a smaller size. I picked up my first batch from the friendly folks at the Northcote BattleBunker, and they are Back-2-Baseix in origin.


One goes in here. It's an easy fit, just need to check the polarities are correct. The golden rule with magnets, be absolutely positively sure.

Then we slice the top off a flying stand, superglue a magnet to the stalk, and fit a spare slotts base around it so they are level.

The magnet keeps it on, the the base keeps it stable. We have liftoff.

The connection isn't perfect due to the slightly concave shape of the underside, but it's good enough that it fulfills my criteria.

So that's it, I put a lot of effort into making them exactly how I want them, but now at least I can say I've got all my bases covered. Hurr Hurr.

One last thing:

my portals ~~

[Gyrfalcon]

I hope they are popballs and I hope you can depress them at the start of the game and set them to go off when you want things to appear from your portals and I hope they only harm your opponents models and not your own when your portals 'pop' (getit??!).

I don't know what I am talking about

On a better topic - great looking army!

[skrape]

Oh then I've done something wrong, I thought I was doing it the 'Eavy metal way.. just with more splatter. Also, yes, a sexy Deldar on Deldar match would be good.. then you can tell me what I'm doing wrong

Nah the 'Eavy metal ones look flat, yours have depth. their deep man.

Also I can already tell you what your doing wrong, you dont have grotesques or wracks or haemonculi or Urien like I do. Also you may have shaved off your mo as it is no longer movember, This would also be a wrong thing to do.

Also once you see my webway portals you will agree that you have done this wrong as well.

<3

[Senexis]

Wow man, that's a great looking army and your portals are terrific.

Any chance you're taking it to Cancon or Lords?

[FatDamien]

Definitely not going to Cancon, and I'm not sure about Lords. They will be at Arc, however.

[Griddon]

Very nice FD! Loving the work.

[kaos]

Looking sweet Fatty.

Armour is looking shmick and I love the banner on the Arch.

Smart move adding the extra support with the flying stand.

Glad the base weights are working out for you.

[FatDamien]

Kaos - yeah I'm loving that action, now my doods are just /mentally/ unstable.

[jurgon the viking]

looks nice dude.

[Cave]

Nice work Damo. We are once again forced to acknowledge your skills.

[Kosick]

Nice colour scheme dude, orange on red looks very nice in particular with the jetbikes.

[D6Mikey]

These are some very nice models.

You should totally paint shadows underneath the mandrakes