Some Dark Eldar: Recently Completed

Hey there Chaos lunatics. Old Man Chaos here and boy, has it been a crazy time to be Chaos in Warhammer 40K! You've got Codex Khorne Daemonkin, a brand-spakin' new Bloodthirster, and now the Adeptus Mechanicus is in the offing- a Dark Mechanicus perhaps can't be too far behind, am I right? Hahahahaha!

At any rate, I have yet to put my bad boy Bloodthirster together because I have a backlog of stuff I am trying to finish. I am currently working on a small-ish Harlequin force as allies to my Dark Eldar. But to get to them, I had to finish some of the aforementioned Dark Eldar. I also had some Khorne Bloodletters I have been working on for a couple of months (in between doing the gaming boards, etc). Yikes! So many models, so little time...

As it turns out, I made myself a promise- I would finish my DE and Harlequins BEFORE I get to the Bloodthirster. Though the Chaos side of me is crying out, I know if I do the Bloodthirster, I will forget the other stuff, thus making my backlog grow more! No, I resolved to finish some other stuff first, so I can take my time on the Greater Daemon of Khorne.

So, first up is some pics of the new Haemonculus (a Christmas gift from my friend Pete, along with a Succubus that I haven't gotten to yet). I really like this model- much better pose than the finecast ones (though I managed to do some minor conversion work to them). I did nothing to this one, though. IF I get another of the new plastic, I'll be sure to do some "extra" work to it.

I painted the Haemonculus to fit in more closely with my Wracks. Since each Haemonculus would look radically different from any other Haemonculus- why not, right? So I painted him with purple washes, to be a LITTLE closer to my Wracks- but not to close, since he is WAY above the lowly servants.

Speaking of, here are some of the new plastic Wracks. I must say, they are so damn close to the finecast sculpts that they are virtually indistinguishable (some of the details are different, and the slotterbase gives it away). They look great, and really have a mean, sick look to them. The hooks, blades, and vials make them look like demented torturers right out of Hellraiser. I love these models, and enjoyed painting them.

I made 9 of them (one was made into a gunner for the Covenite Venom). So, combined with my 10 Finecast, I have 19 total. Not quite enough for some of the Formations from the Haemonculus Covens book, but its a start- I can pull off a couple now...

I also finished a second Talos. I love the model except for one thing... I hate how the model just stops at its base. I know it is hovering, but it just looks foolish. I much prefer the tentacles as the base of the engine. It could be floating, but the tentacles are near the ground, ready to grab the victims. I also dislike the "spirit catcher" thingie for the Chronos, hence the Talos tail.

In friendly games, I can use him as either a Talos or Chronos, and it won't matter. This new one looks very similar to my other one, just with more tentacles. So if I say the two are in a squad they will be either or, so it'll be easy to keep track of. Again, I have a formation here- 1, 1, and 1 Haemonculus, if I choose to. I do need ONE more to have a full squad though (and two more if I try for the Corpsetheif Claw formation- yikes).

So, here is the whole thing- 1 Haemonculus, 9 Wracks, the Talos, and the Venom I finished a few months ago. Not too shabby, huh? I could have brought out my other Haemonculus stuff, but that stuff is older- maybe at some point I will show off all my Covenite forces in one pic...

Well, that's all for now. I will be completing some of my Harlequin stuff very soon. Then, its on to the Bloothirster. I'll let you know my progress as it goes. Hope you are all doing some cool modelling stuff!

Until next time...

Some Newly Completed Dark Eldar Stuff

Welcome back to yet another kinda exciting edition of Chaos Corner. Old Man Chaos hopes that you had a good holiday and New Years. I have been steadily working on several projects at once- certainly enough to keep me busy! I finished some Dark Eldar stuff, so I figured I'd show a few pics...

With the publication of the new Dark Eldar codex, I got the bug to do more DE. Unfortunately, I have not had good luck with my DE yet- the games I have played with them so far have not gone too well. However, I refuse to give up on them, and I'm continuing to work on them.

Raider:

First up is my newly completed Raider. It is basically the same as my other two, nothing fancy here. I did the same Khorne Red edge work for the armor (both the vehicle and the DE on board). It fits in with my other DE well enough. Like I said, no crazy conversion work. The DE on board are Kabalite, though, so it'll probably be a transport for the Kabals or Trueborn.

Reaver Jetbikes:

Here are three more Reaver Jetbikes that I have completed, so that means I now have 6 of these bad boys- at least, they were bad boys till 7th- now they aren't AS good, but they are still a solid choice. The one thing I have been doing to the Reavers is to have them all helmeted- no bare heads at all for them (as we all know, DE are nothing if not safety conscious ;-) .

I put the brass rod holding them up (the clear plastic ALWAYS break so easily on me). The rod was placed at odd angles, to make them look as if they are banking or swooping or something. Just being a little bit dynamic.

Hellions:

And now, some Hellions. Once again, they are much weaker in 7th. So I have like 15 of them or so by now. I have some that I can use as beastmasters if I want though, so if I take those out I have 10 or 11.

Again, same as my previous DE stuff. Khorne Red edge work, pale flesh colors, blue hair (the blue hair is weird, but it adds a bit of color to otherwise dark models. Again, I used brass rod to hold them up again. 

Venoms:

Last up, I have completed not one, but two Venoms. Now, I was never one for Venom spam at all. Until recently, I only had one Venom (I made it for my Kabalite Archon to ride in).  I received two more Venoms as gifts in the past, but I never quite got around to putting them together. Once the new book came out, it got me into a Dark Eldar kick, so I decided to work on them.

I created a Venom for my Succubus to ride into battle with some Bloodbrides. So, all the riders were made to be Wyches. I made it look very much like the other Venom, so there's not too much to brag about or explain regarding this one. Its a fully functional Venom that goes with my other DE vehicles.

The second Venom is a little different though. I decided to do a dedicated Haemonculus Venom with the bits from the new Wrack box. I really like the idea of being able to customize your Raiders/Venoms with the new Wracks. I was really inspired after looking at the Haemonculus Covens supplement. Now, I will never play an all Wrack/Haemonculus army, but the book has some great fluff and it was visually inspiring.

I painted the vehicle the same way as I did my other vehicles: I didn't want it to look too starkly different. So, its the same Khorne Red  edge highlight that the others are. The only thing I did to set it apart was the flag and symbols- I ditched the usual red flag and decided to go white instead (I loved the look in the supplement, as I said).When I was thinking of the symbol, I had no idea- as you can tell, I'm not great at drawing symbols, writing, etc. So, I stole the Triforce. Yes, I know... but it could be a weird pentagram or something... Look, it works, OK? Don't give me a hard time (in case you can't tell, I'm not thrilled with it, but it's done now- I am pretty good at knowing when to call a paint job a day, otherwise I'd still be painting my first Plague Marine in my search for perfection).

The absolute DUMB thing about the new codex is that Wracks come in squads of 5. That means that a Haemonculus can't take a bodyguard of 4 plus him in the Venom- ugh. Why did they do that? It is so damn annoying. So either I put the Haemonculus with 4 Trueborn/Bloodbrides- oh wait. THey come in 5s as well, so I guess that's out too... Ugh. GW- what were you thinking?!

Well, at any rate, that's all for now. I'm putting the finishing touches on a few more things, and I'm starting a whole bunch of other projects too- indeed, my wife got me something VERY big for Christmas, and I can't wait to finish it and show it off here! It's going to take a while to do, but when it's done... whew!!

Until next time...

Just Completed: Dark Eldar Wracks

Hey there Chaos fiends, er, friends. We're back with another posting- this time I've decided to show off my latest painting project: a squad of Wracks and a Haemonculus to back them up.

Since the Dark Eldar codex has come out, GW has been putting out new models for the entire range at regular intervals. I think this is a great approach, as it keeps people (like me) excited for the latest release, and it keeps the army fresh. Others have complained that it all should have been out at once- but I like this strategy of releasing every few months. Most of the models (excepting the boring Grotesques) have been well worth the wait (the Talos and Scourges are incredible models).

A few months ago, GW put out the Wracks and Haemonculus. Now, I've been interested in the Wracks since day one- the artwork reminded me (in a good way) of something from Silent Hill or such horror movies/games. As for the rules, they may be a bit slower, but they have 2 poisoned cc weapons, toughness 4, and they start with a Pain Token. I couldn't wait to get my hands on them. As for the Haemonculus, I'd been using my Urien model to stand in- but I really wanted to expand my Haemonculi choices a bit.




So, I bought them, along with a 5 pack of Mandrakes (my big summer purchase). First things first- my analysis of Finecast. This was my first modelling work with Finecast.Now, there's been a ton of controversy here- people saying its the best GW product ever to comments like "Fine-Crap" and even some outlandish stories of Finecast melting in the sunlight (Well, that didn't happen to mine, and my desk gets plenty of sunlight). The truth, like most things, lies somewhere in between the extremes.




The Haemonculus himself went together 1...2...3. It went so fast, with so little effort. The metal Urien drive me up the wall. The FC Haemonculus was a breeze to put together. Now, the Wracks. These models are gorgeous, no doubt about it. There was some flash and bits to be trimmed, though not a big deal- the worst part was the mold/flash on the base portion, meaning you had to trim very closely to fit it into the slotter base. The FC is quite delicate- a whip broke and one of the blades on their hands did. But, these were VERY easily repaired (the whip should NOT have been broken, and the blade was my mistake). All 10 Wracks went together quick, much easier than the metal, and better looking, I might add. The Mandrakes were a different matter. I'll go into them in a different article- lets just say if the quality of the FC was say 8/10 on the others, they were 4/10. Very poor quality indeed- pieces broken, warped SO badly, etc. I hope that GW can fix this- as it is FC has great promise, but the Mandrakes will make me cautious about buying FC for the moment.

So, now that the Wracks were completed, I began paint them with vigor. I decided to tie the Wracks and the Talos together by using the same flesh color scheme- Hormagaunt Purple, with Bleached Bone overlay, then a purple wash into the recesses. I also used black and gold for their helms, just like the Talos. I tied the Wracks into my whole DE army by having their cloaks black with Red Gore highlighting. I added suitable blood onto the weapons, and viola, the Wracks were done. I must say I'm quite happy with the results.

With the Haemonculus, I had the same Black/Red Gore for his cloak and armor. His flesh was similar, but with both Dwarf and Elf flesh instead of Bleached Bone. His "medical apron" I painted white (a stark contrast) but put on a ton of blood-stains. I think the Wracks came out a bit better paint-wise, but he still looks good, though my paint-job of Urien is still excellent.






Hope you've enjoyed the article and the pics. Until next time... smoke 'em if you've got 'em...