Dark Eldar Thoughts - Archon Wargear

Past few weeks I've been playing Dark Eldar pretty exclusively in 6th edition. At the moment they're the all around package for me, I love painting them, building them and using them on the table as it's always been a fun game when I've used them (even when I've had everything shot down in 2 turns and no way to kill vehicles from then on).

Playing a 650pt game on Monday made me think more about what wargear I give my Archon as I used to stick to the same combo I liked. And I also found myself in posession of another Archon model in my 2nd hand Dark Eldar stuff who I had to decide how to equip if I were to use both in the same list.

Now personally, I really like Archons as my HQ choice, the self-centred lords of Kabals are one of the highlights of the fluff of the Dark Eldar army and I always like to try and include one, rather than a Wych or Arena themed Succubus or Haemonculi coven.

So, to help me think about Wargear and choices, I thought I'd write this post to get me thinking and to discuss with anyone interested.

Venom Blade
Cheap and handy to have. Dark Eldar's low strength is offset thanks to a lovely 5pt spend on top of your normal close combat weapon. The 2+ to wound really scares people and against lots of bodies like Guard, Orks and Nids it can help maximise the damage you do in a combat. It also helps against higher toughness things and Monstrous Creatures too - although they're pretty likely to make their (usually good) saving throws.

Blast Pistol
Handy for an extra bit of shooting against vehicles, especially if the Archon is in with Incubi or another unit that lacks a bit of firepower. Even handy just to try and pick off a Terminator or such on the way into combat. However, 15pts is a bit expensive for me to take one regularly.

Power Weapon
For most people and codexes, a power weapon is pretty much par for the course. In Dark Eldar however I tend to shy away from using them and either go up to an Agoniser or keep it cheap with a Venom Blade. The strength 3 really hurts the power weapon, as does it now becoming AP3. Lots of people still use them, it's just that I'd rather save myself 10pts or spend the extra 5pts.

Blaster
I'd actually never realised an Archon could take a blaster until I re-read the codex the other night and it got me thinking why anyone would ever take one? 99% of people will tool themselves up for close combat with an Archon to take advantage of his high WS, I and A. But we're forgetting that the Archon has BS7 alongside his WS7 meaning hits on a 2+, and a chance again if it misses. I think it's something that's worth considering if you play a shooting heavy Dark Eldar army or want to put him in with Trueborn or Warriors.

Agoniser
One of my favoured close combat weapons, all the benefits of the power weapon but always wounds on a 4+. I would always spend the extra 5pts on top of the power weapon to get the fixed wounding value. I tend to give my squad leaders these, just incase they get stuck in combat with anything tough or a monstrous creature.

Electrocorrosive Whip
Really not keen on this one, especially when compared with the Agoniser. The extra 5pts over the Power Weapon allows you (if you cause an unsaved wound) to make the opponent be half strength for the rest of the combat. 3 times out of 4 an unsaved wound is going to have killed the enemy that you're fighting. I suppose it would be handy against things like power-fist weilding opponents, Monstrous creatures etc. but the downside then is you're using your basic S3. Not one for me personally, but I can see the merits of it.

Huskblade
I do like this weapon, partly because it's AP2 and the other part for it's insta-killingess. Admittedly it's more than double the cost of a power weapon and an extra 15pts on top of the Agoniser but it's just a cool bit of gear. The fact it's AP2 helps when fighting Terminator armoured foes and such, but the downside is you're striking at S3 again. I like to give my expensive Archons this bit of gear just for some fear factor.

Haywire Grenades
Got 5pts spare at the end of your list? Give your Archon some Haywires. It'll help massively incase the unit gets stuck in with a Dread or other walker, when they could be out dealing with  other units. Striking at I7 means most of the time they'll be going first. WS7 means generally hitting most stuff on a 3+ and then likely to take at least 1 hull point off it. It also helps add that extra bit of oomph if you assault a vehicle with a squad too.

Ghostplate Armour
For 10pts this is the token armour upgrade to keep things cheap. Gives your Archon an invulnerable save (albeit a rubbish one) and ensures he'll get a save against small arms fire which is always good in the world of Bolters.

Combat Drugs
I like to take this just for a little boost. There's only 1 particularly useless result (Hypex) for the Archon, since most of the time he'll be in a unit that doesn't have combat drugs itself. Pretty much everything else is cracking for an Archon. +1WS, +1S, Re-roll failed To Wound rolls, +1A or start off with a pain token all mean the Archon gets a nasty boost. It's a gamble since you could pay 10pts and get 3D6 and pick highest for Run moves, but at the same time anything else means your Archon gets even nastier.

Soul-Trap
Nifty bit of wargear but quite limited since it can only be used on Independent Characters and Monstrous Creatures, and there's not always tons of them wandering around. But it can be cool to get the boost off of this up to S6 (or S8 if you rolled well on your combat drugs!) means the Archon then becomes even more of a beast after that.

Djin Blade
I'm not entirely sure why the Djin Blade is part of the "other wargear" bit rather than the "replace pistol / CCW with..." section as it's not an upgrade to an existing weapon, rather a stand alone power weapon. Anyway... it's similar to a Daemon weapon in that it gives bonus attacks but at a risk to the user. 2 extra attacks but if you roll a double on those 2 extra dice it rebels and auto-hits the weilder. Nasty if it comes off for you, but also incredibly nasty if  not as it'll be 2 auto-hits with your own weapon. Not keen on it myself, but for those who like a gamble - go for it!

Clone Field
Reducing enemy damage by D3 is always good against particularly powerful enemies like characters, power fist weilder and monstrous creatures that have a lower number of attacks but are much more dangerous. I've never personally used the Clone Field as I prefer the Shadow Field. I can imagine with the new challenge system in 6th edition, a clone field would be particularly good if you can roll well enough.

Phantasm Grenade Launcher
Really handy this one, although pricey at 20pts. When Dark Eldar are in combat you need to get the most out of their high initiative to do the damage first. They can't normally take a pounding and then hit back quite so well, so the Phantasm comes in handy here, especially if you attach the Archon to a unit like Incubi, who can't normally get grenades.

The other nice thing about the Phantasm is that it also gives the bearer and their unit defensive grenades, but I'm not entirely sure how they work in 6th and I haven't got access to the 6th ed rules. Something to do with Stealth now I think? But still, that's pretty decent either way. Not as good as it was in 5th, but if it saves your units getting shot to death then it's cool.

Shadowfield
Another bit of my favourite wargear, 2+ invulnerable saves are mega annoying for opponents to play against. Only thing I find with my luck is either the Shadowfield never drops and I roll 2+ constantly through the game, or the very first attacks made on him make the field drop. Depends if you're willing to pay the 30pts for this and lose out on option of having a clone field. Me personally, I am more than happy to pay it.

Webway Portal
Another piece I've very rarely used in games as I don't tend to require the Webway. If it was me personally, I'd only give him this if he was very cheap and in a Venom, just to get it down on the table. However, with changes to disembarking you now can't get as far forward and get out which doesn't help this so much. I'd rather leave my Archon to do what he does best (fighting) and let the Haemonculis carry the portal, especially since the person who drops it is going to be out in the open for a turn then or the turn prior.

Example Builds:
That's it for wargear, but I thought I'd go on with some example weapon and wargear combinations for Archons depending on points and role in the list.

Cheap and Basic:

• Venom Blade
• Ghostplate
• Haywire Grenades
•  - 80pts

This guy can go in a Warrior squad, on his own, trueborn etc. He's pretty much as cheap as you can get him and still be equipped to deal with a few threats. I wouldn't go any lower than this personally because he'll most likely be your Warlord and an easy kill and therefore Slay the Warlord bonus point. He adds a bit of extra oomph rather than a Sybarite or Dracon anyway.

Mid Range Dueller:

• Agoniser
• Soultrap
• Ghostplate
•  - 100pts

Easy character hunter, don't bother sending him against the likes of Abaddon, Kharn and Draigo but he can happily slap guard commanders, ethereals, battlesuit commanders and such (anything that he can strike first at and doesn't have a power fist) - provided you can catch them of course. This is around the level I normally keep my Archon at, anymore and he's a bit too fragile to hold his points.

Trueborn Support:

• Venom Blade
• Blaster
• Haywire
•  - 85pts

One off the top of my head here, to try and get the Blaster involved somewhere. Forget about upgrading and equipping a Dracon and have this fella in instead. The Blaster gives you the extra blaster shot in a Trueborn squad and also allows him to precision shot characters and snipe Terminator captains, Wolf guard, etc.

Expensive Combat:

• Huskblade
• Soul-Trap
• Combat Drugs
• Shadowfield
• Phantasm Grenade Launcher
•  - 165pts

This guy is pretty expensive, but he's nasty. This is the level I like my Archon to be in bigger games and the Phantasm is something I've added on top to use in future games to support my Incubi. But yeah, the combat drugs hopefully give him an extra boost to his stats, the shadowfield stops attacks coming in from whatever and the huskblade / soul-trap combo means he can chance to insta-kill people and get the Soul-trap going a bit faster. This is better than he was in 5th thanks to challenges being able to call out ICs in units (or at least kill the sergeants).

Conclusion
So that's it for my Archon post. It's given me a bit to think about for the coming weeks whilst I paint my 2nd Archon and what to take for an 800pt game on Monday night.

Let me know your thoughts on the wargear - what do you use as a DE player? What do you hate to play against as a non-Dark Eldar army?

Cheers!

Spray Undercoating - 3 quick tips

Hullo folks.

On Saturday I used a few tricks that I'd been waiting to try out for next time I sprayed and figured they may be of some use to people. They're probably dead obvious to most people, but meh, worth passing on.

1. Drinking straw keeping skimmer stems clear of paint.
I used to have horrible times with Sand on the clear plastic skimmer bases, anytime I tried to paint the black it would always look semi-transparent or the sand would snap off with the brush strokes. So now, I use the spraying stage to get the bases ready.

But I found a REALLY easy way to spray them and keep the paint off the bit you want to be clear plastic. And also helps a bit giving you something to grip that doesn't smudge stuff.

The answer is a McDonalds drinking straw. Other brands are probably good, it's just one this diameter can go around the ball joint flying stems comfortably.

Put the straw over the stem. Grip the thing by pinching the straw on the stem (so you're gripping the stem with the straw as a shield) and spray away at all angles.

Then simply remove the straw and voila. Clear flying stem and no paint. Maybe a little gap of sand around the edge, but few dots of black paint fixes that.

2. Barbecue Skewer + Blu Tack = Fiddly bits holder
Simple this one. Get a barbecue skewer or other long thin sturdyish object (pens, rulers etc.). The thinner the better as it'll allow you to get more spray on the things you're spraying.

Then, blobs of blu tack on the bits you want to attach, stick them onto the skewer, spray from all angles and then remove easily. I used this for my Eldar heavy weapons this weekend and was left with a tiny bit of bare plastic, but quick dab of black fixed that.

3. Blu tack over any bits you don't want sprayed.
Dead obvious this, but if you smooth over some blu tack over areas you don't want sprayed you can then just peel it straight off when done.

For example, I had the above second hand Razorwing with the cockpit glued in place which I didn't want to get sprayed. Cover in blu tack, peel off afterwards and all is well.


Remove the blu tack and perfectly clean transparent cock pit. Job done.

I know a lot of people swear by masking tape, but in past experiences the stuff I've used tends to leave a bit of gunk behind on the model afterwards or takes a while to dry because the back of it absorbs the paint. Found that blu tack can peel off pretty quick afterwards and leaves no mess.

And also... I didn't have any masking tape in and that would have meant going to the shop...

So yeah, if any of that helps you then I'm glad to have been of help to you all!

November Painting Pledge - Update #3

Righto, a quick one here.

Had quite a productive weekend mostly due to a Saturday morning without work and having a free house.

Friday night I repaired all my second hand Dark Eldar stuff and got them ready for spraying if the weather was going to hold. Whilst checking some stuff out though, I found the Archon I had got had lost his trophy rack on the back and part of his helmet was broken. No bother though, I had plenty to repair him with...

Sorry for the absolutely terrible picture...

So I converted this alternate Archon with a power weapon / venom blade (wanting to keep him cheap) and a Phantasm Grenade Launcher. I figure I can attach him to my Incubi as a grenade dispenser for them. I tried to give him the creepiest helmet I could find but it was only once I'd glued this one on that I found the Wych helmet that's just a big visor. I might go back and swap them later on.

Saturday morning I got all that Dark Eldar stuff sprayed, and learnt a few tricks along the way which I'll post tomorrow. Some are obvious stuff most hobbyists would know, but nevertheless if it helps anyone, it'll be worth it.

In total, all this got sprayed:
- Haemonculis
- Archon
- Raider
- 3 Venoms
- 10 Wyches
- 10 Hellions
- 3 Reavers
- 15 Kabalite Warriors
- Razorwing
- Normal Eldar weapon platform weapons (I forgot to paint these when I did Guardians!)

Then, Saturday night I tried to chip away at the mass of black undercoated figures and thought the Venoms would be a good start.

Finished them off last night, along with bases ready to be used from now on - although I'm not sure what I would put in them anymore... These ones have cockpit glass painted because 1. they were glued on and 2. I couldn't be bothered painting the pilots inside.

HURRAH. More Splinter Cannons.

That's my progress for the weekend and thought I did well in November to hit my goals. Only thing I can think that didn't get done was the Eldar stuff sprayed - BUT - I tried to spray the War Walkers and lots of bits fell apart, so they're repaired now and ready to go next weekend.

Ta,
SB

November Painting Pledge - Update #2

Very quick one from me as it's busy, busy, busy here at work.

Over the last week or two I've managed to get my Ulthwe Eldar jetbikes and Autarch / Farseer on jetbike done (still not sure what to use him as yet).

You have no idea how awkward these were to hold whilst painting with black wash...

So yeah, these took a while longer than I thought, considering it's 80% black areas. There was a lot of fiddly areas to paint Dheneb Stone on which I probably would have been quicker to leave the Riders unglued, take them off and then put back on once done. Oh well, live and learn...

I found that after painting I couldn't get the flying stem into some of the bikes, because of the paint thickness so I need to go at them with a knife ASAP.

As it stands, I've dented my painting pledge now it's however much I can get done of the other bits I've set myself. The hardest one being to spray stuff as by time I get home from work every night it's dark and don't have anywhere to spray indoors anymore.

Paint:
- 1 Farseer
- 1 Autarch on Jetbike
- 5 Jetbikes

Fix:
- Archon trophy racks
- Wyches weapon arms
- Raiders dark lance

Spray:
- 6 Eldar War Walkers
- 3 Wave Serpents
- 1 Falcon
- As much Dark Eldar as I can get out of the rest of the spray can!

That's all for now folks, probably get all my stuff fixed up this week and hope that I can squeeze in a quick spray paint at some time, although it doesn't look likely.

SB

Thing: The Battle for Kramirp

So, I have a rough drawing (in paint) of the game board I plan to build, so without further ado, here it is:

The, grey patches are buildings/ruins, the brown being general rubble/craters, and the yellow will be statues. I plan to have four ruins (with tumble down walls giving a ramp up the levels), the last two buildings will either be bunkers, or home built multi-storey buildings which will come apart. The big building will be the palace, with its own canopy, pillars, and defence points, the windows will have some boarded up, and some open, with either, fire points or emplaced weapons, these will be purely aesthetic, and it will use the rules for a ruin, the back wont be covered up for easy access to models inside. The statues, will either be fully untouched (using the statues GW sell), demolished in places, fallen over (like the first bottom statues), or just a plinth remaining. I think I will also add in some Tyranid corruption the closer to the palace, maybe even having tentacles/vines wrapped around one statue. There will be general rubble and smaller craters to provide some cover in alleys, and the main street, but leaving plenty of open spaces for vehicles and a few tacticle fire lanes. The board, will be built on six 2'x2' boards, making it easier to transport and store, it also means I can focus on one section at a time rather than trying to build the odd bit here and there.

Comments and critisisms welcome. See you all next week, with hopefully, a started model.

Thing: The Myrmidons

So I promised an update today, and I know it's getting late, but I felt I had to stay focused. I haven't finished the map yet, so this will just be a short post throwing some of the ideas I have for models out there for you all to digest and throw back.

Firstly, I plan to use the Space Wolf codex as it means I can take Wolf Guard as my veteran marines, and can mix terminator armour in and out of squads, and equip each model individually. This is by no means going to be a competitive army, though I do hope for it to be more than a walk over.

I have always had the idea of Space Marines being able to just run through mortal men with ease, so I wanted my models to be almost swamped with enemies. By this I mean one or two on each base making each model into a mini-diorama, I'm hoping to try and pin these models so that they can be removed, but I'm not sure how that will go, it may leave some models in odd poses or may just be impossible with some of my ideas.

The first Myrmidon I plan to build will be based loosely off a scene from 300, it will feature the Terminator dropped onto one his lead knee (or maybe just leaning heavily forwards) turned slightly to the left lifting his shield (left hand) up over his head with either a guardsman or Genestealer on top being thrown over, while his right hand is thrust forwards with his spear impaling a guardsman. I'm hoping this will give the impression that he has been charged from the left, rolled with the weight to unbalance and throw the charger while giving himself momentum to thrust forwards from the turn. At least one model will have a Tyranid carapace as a shield, and I will probably have a few of them using improvised weapons as their bolters run out of ammo, and other weapons get stuck in dead bodies, I am thinking to have one terminator using a lasgun as a spear or mace.

For my Chapter Master Akileis (Logan counts as) I will have him wielding an axe (power fist) and a dagger (frost blade) and his storm bolter locked to his thigh (unless it looks too big). He will be locked in combat with a Tyranid Warrior wielding lash whip and Bonesword. The whip will be coiled around his axe handle which he will be pulling with drawing inside the warriors sword and his dagger will be poised to thrust into its throat. (This means if I can pin the axe head I can remove the warrior without the model looking too silly)

I also plan to have at least one rune priest, but have yet decided how to fit him into the army, I'm not sure how priestly to make him look. I may have him modelled as a point of calm in the middle of the army.

At least one Dreadnought will be stood on a Tyranid Warrior body, grabbing a leaping Genestealer out of the air. This will be one of the hardest models to make as I will be using the Black Reach Dreadnoughts, I may invest in a Venerable Dreadnought for this model just to make it really stand out.

Remembrance Day

I would just like to offer our thanks and condolences to all the soldiers that have fought and died in the world wars for their country, no matter the side they are all still human losses. Also remembering every lost soldier in every other war that has been fought or is being fought.

Here's to hoping that in the future there isn't only war.

Thing: The Myrmidons, and the battle for Kramirp

Lately I have been really out of the Hobby, I have a new job meaning our regular Monday night games have to be small and late, and soon I will be working so late I won't be able to play at all, moving into a new house and having a kid to look after means that I get little time to do anything at home.

However I came into possession of a large number of Terminators a while ago and have yet to do anything with them, and have played around with a few ideas. I have also planned to build an entire scenic table for my new house, now that the house is almost ready, I thought I would throw my ideas out here for people to prod me to get them done (I get a lot of ideas that just fade away).

The table has been playing around in my head for a while, and I am now starting to get some solid ideas going, I also thought, why don't I tie the Terminators and game board together leading me onto the Battle for Kramirp and The Myrmidons. This is going to be a very long term project, I am hoping to do one model a week and the table wont be started until after Christmas probably.

So, onto The Myrmidons and where they came from:

The general idea is that I wanted a chapter that was close combat oriented, but were just as happy with long range fire support, I also wanted them to be a veteran chapter, either going along the lines of the first company, or just thats how they work. I orginally played with the idea of the Minotaurs, but wasn't that captivated by their background, so I have decided to do a successor chapter, from the Minotaurs. The Myrmidons enjoy the same ties to the High Lords of Terra that the Minotaurs have, and as such have a ready supply of Terminator armour, and aspirants. The Myrmidons don't recruit from one home world, prefering to take the greatest heroes from any technologically stunted planets they pass. The chapter only has two fully equipped companies of Space Marines, but maintain five full companies of scouts, this is because an aspirant, once starting on the road to becoming a genehanced brute must rise from the 7th Company scouts, up to the 6th, then the 5th and so on. Once a scout has reached his full potential in the 3rd Company, then he will be given his first suit of Power Armour, these are some of the best suits that the Imperium can provide along with their choice of weaponry. Generally, because of the cultures that they Myrmidons recruit from the favoured weapons are axes, spears and swords, usually acompanied by a shield, though some have found a kinship with their ranged weapons. These soliders are usually heroes of their homeplanet famous for their marksmanship with a bow, or other similar weapons. The Myrmidons as such have a reliance on infantry and rarely use vehicles, this has made them excellent urban fighters, to make up for the lack of heavy tanks they often deploy Terminator squads, or intersperse Terminator armour between squads to soak up the heavier firepower and provide mobile heavy support.

The Battle for Kramirp:

The latest engagement (and the proposed game table) of the Myrmidons has taken place on the planet of Manutia, in the city Kramirp, the Myrmidons have pushed deep into the city fighting against a renegade Planetary Defence Force. The fighting has been street by street, room by room but the Myrmidons are at last making the final push on the Palace of Mosley, this is when the full level of corruption is displayed, but it isn't one to be expected. The PDF and city governor have been tainted by a Genestealer cult and the Palace is infested with smaller Tyranid creatures as well as some larger ones which have been kept hidden in they myriad passages and tunnels. The Myrmidons now face a desperate fight to destroy the Tyranids and their cult guardsmen before they are overrun.

I plan tomorrow to have a rough sketch of the table layout from a birds eye point of view constructed in paint (so it will be very basic) along with a few ideas I have planned for the Myrmidons, which won't be pictures yet (I plan to start building one tomorrow), but general written ideas I have bouncing around, and any tips or problems you think I will encounter (and ideas of how to get past them) will be very welcome.

So there is my return to blogging essay, return tomorrow for an update, and I then plan to do weekly updates every Wednesday until the project is complete. Hopefully with a lot more pictures!!!

November Painting Pledge - Update #1

Last night I had a bit of a free night so managed to get my Farseer painted up during the second half of Football on tele.

I'm really, really pleased with how this guy turned out as it's one of my favourite GW models and I was saving him for a treat once I'd finished off the mass of infantry.

RAWK this way my Guardian chums!

I tried to sort the lighting out using photo-editing. Not good.

I used more colours on him than the normal troops and also took a lot more time on him, cleaned some areas up more and generally wasn't as sloppy as I have been over the last couple of years when it comes to painting.

Sorry about the poor lighting, I've seen a tutorial for a really cheap light box, I just need to get myself some daylight bulbs and hopefully some better pictures will be on the way.

He's got bronze decals on the Wraithbone armour as I thought they'd stand out better that way, and I also tried to do a blue-ish hue on his spear blade although after the wash, you probably can't even tell now.


So, progress already. Need to coat him in Purity Seal while it's daylight and I'm not working tomorrow, then hopefully roll onto the Jetbikes later!

Once he's varnished, he's ready to send MIND BULLETS at people. Pew, pew, pew!

Painting Pledge - November More Eldar

Ello folks,

Following on from my post yesterday about finishing off October's Eldar (bar a Farseer...) I thought I'd lay out my dream for November's pledge.

November is going to be a busy month at work, so I'm going to scale this one back a bit, although I could REALLY do with getting some Dark Eldar stuff done...

Last Friday night I went to Bury and Bolton Gaming Club to have a wander around, see what the club is like and also meet a lad who I'd spoken to on Facebook who was selling some Dark Eldar.

So, my wallet now much lighter, I've inherited this lot:

- 1 Archon
- 1 Haemonculis
- 1 Raider
- 1 Razorwing
- 3 Reaver Jetbikes
- 10 Hellions
- 15 Warriors
- 10 Wyches.

This has rounded my army off a lot now, given me the extra Raider and Warrior squad I was after and also replaced my Skaven-Haemonculis with the actual model.

There's a few broken bits in there that need replacing, but I was surprised at the painting since it was very similar to mine apart from Boltgun Metalish colour as the basis for vehicle chassis' and armour. Still, I really liked the look of the colour scheme I was originally debating leaving them as is and have them as looking like a 2nd rag tag group of Raiders, but thought it might look a little too disjointed.

So I'm hoping I can get away with fixing up the broken bits, sorting the bases out (some have rivers and grass on) so I can base them in the same way as all my armies and then maybe just get away with going over the armour with black and Ice Blue drybrush... Here's hoping anyway!

Onto the painting pledge!

Paint:
- 1 Farseer
- 1 Autarch on Jetbike
- 5 Jetbikes

Fix:
- Archon trophy racks
- Wyches weapon arms
- Raiders dark lance

Spray:
- 6 Eldar War Walkers
- 3 Wave Serpents
- 1 Falcon
- As much Dark Eldar as I can get out of the rest of the spray can!

So yeah, like I say, bit lighter this month but I'll set myself the goal of the Craftworld Eldar stuff and hopefully make a start on as much of the Dark Eldar as I can.

I'm hoping to play in an inter-club Tournament the first weekend of December, so want to take my Dark Eldar to that, however, work is looking a fair bit iffy for that. So at least if everything is painted up, I can see how things are nearer the time.

Cheers,
SB

Painting Pledge - October Eldar FINISHED!

So, now that it's November the 7th I've finally ,managed to finish off the Eldar horde sitting on my painting desk... just as work is about to ramp up into a busy period again.

- 8 Guardians w/ Weapons Platform
- 30 Dire Avengers.

All done, washed, based and ready to go. One last thing I'm meaning to do is try out a transfer on the banners of the 2 Dire Avenger Exarchs I have with Direswords and Shimmershields. I don't normally do transfers, but I fancy giving it a go on these guys and start building more skills rather than my current base coat, drybrush, wash routine.

Anyway, enough words... Here's some pictures!

The horde on the painting table. Notice the still black undercoated Farseer in the top corner. I didn't want to rush painting him this month since he's such an ace model, I wanted to spend some time on him properly. You'll also notice the Weapons platform has no weapon... I forgot to undercoat them all - DOH!

Dual Shuriken Catapult Exarch who goes in the 9 man squad (lost a model somewhere and dunno where..) to provide a bit of extra fire. Likelihood is the Farseer will also join up with this squad, making it 10 man.

A Diresword and Shimmershield exarch. I didn't want to do the traditional blue coloured Dire Avengers as I felt they wouldn't tie in visually with the rest of the army. I don't mind with other Aspects, but I like the Chaos Black Legion approach, where they're majority Black Legion, but parts are still the old colour to signify them.

Lastly, because of my post about "things I always forget" and had a reply about Squad markings, I decided I'd incorporate them into the Dire Avengers squads now rather than later. So as you can see, there's 3 mohican patterns - Red and Cream (Where's Wally Squad), plain Red in the middle (Spartan Squad) and then Red and Black at the end (Dennis the Menace style).

So yeah, that's the first chunk of my Eldar. I absolutely love the Eldar model range, I'd love to get some more but I'm going to hold back until I see new plastics with a Codex and just play with what I have currently. It might get pasted, but meh, it's fun.

Also, if the pics look a bit drained of colour, I used an auto-correcter because they were a bit dark and the lighting in my house is a horrible yellow anyway.

Expect a post soon with my plan for November's pledge!

Cheers,
SB

Painting Pledge - October Eldar Update #4

Yep. I'm aware we're in November.

So, seems like my painting pledge has over-ran and also missed out some from the initial list (Farseer and Jetbikes). However, with being moved onto a new, very busy, project at work combined with a baby daughter that's gone back to getting up 4, 5, 6+ times in the night and going to bed later - I think I've done quite well to get as far as I have done.

I've not started on anything else in the mean time to distract me, and I've painted when I've had the time...

So where am I up to?

I've got all the bone, metal and red areas done which is 90% of the work. Models that have exposed flesh and hair have also been done. So I've now got to do a quick dabble of Snot Green for helmet lenses, reset the Black armour areas where I've messed up and then give everything a black wash.

Hopefully, I can get the Snot Green bits done tonight and make headway on the armour, but I'm expecting the black reset will be the slowest part of the entire project.

Who knows? Maybe they'll get finished off this weekend and I can start a fresh November pledge on Monday morning.

Over and out!
SB